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Located in the heart of the market town of Kelso in the Scottish borders, The Cobbles is a small and friendly pub-restaurant serving authentic Scottish fare. The beautiful and quaint white-washed inn is housed in a renovated 19th century coaching house leading into a dining space that is warm and welcoming. The fresh and locally sourced food and welcoming bar attracts people from near and far and caters to small as well as large groups of friends and families.

The bar menu is varied and combines classic British seafood dishes of beer battered haddock or retro prawn cocktail with more adventurous Pacific Rim fare such as Thai panang curry. The lunch menu includes peppered sirloin minute steak with chunky-cut chips; three cheese macaroni with smoked bacon and braised leeks, a range of sandwiches on toasted ciabatta as well as the chef's daily changing blackboard specials such as braised shin of border beef, locally-reared pork and leek meatballs and the daily fish special. The set price carte is available in the evenings and features fresh fish, local game and Border meats.

The Cobbles Inn also offers a decent selection of vegetarian options and a good variety of wines, champagnes and excellent craft beer, brewed by the owner, to accompany your meal.

Originally built in the 1800s as a shooting lodge, the Jedforest Hotel's handy location close to the border between Newcastle and Edinburgh makes it the first hotel as you enter Scotland. The comprehensive fruits of refurbishment are quite manifest and the restaurant's setting is spot-on with polished chinaware and crisp ivory table linen.

The menu could open with starters of game parfait with olive dressed baby leaves, red currant and port reduction and mini oatcakes, and seared scallops with lemon and parsley risotto and chive fish cream. A main course dish of grilled borders rib eye of beef is accompanied by celeriac potato rösti, Savoy and red cabbage and mushroom and tarragon jus. Desserts run all the way from sugar glazed lemon posset tart to a warm sticky toffee pudding.

With the Jedwater flowing gently beside the hotel, those with an adventurous streak can try their hand at fishing, shooting and hiking.

It is often said that the Borders is one of the least-known, yet most beautiful regions in Britain. This may have been more than partially due to the fact that decent watering holes were pretty thin on the ground, a state of affairs which happily is now largely a thing of the past. Edenwater House has made its contribution to this welcome renaissance and under the culinary influence of Jacqui Kelly has pulled in a raft of awards, well supported by personal recommendations. This is essentially a hotel but non-residents are welcome at dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, when a four course set dinner is the form. Typically this might consist of seared scallops and foie gras with mange tout, balsamic and chilli vinaigrette and coriander sauce, a subtle blend of flavours if ever there was one. There follows roast breast of guinea fowl stuffed with tarragon mosseline and wrapped in parma ham. This comes with braised leeks, stuffed mushrooms, Anna potatoes and the natural jus. A highpoint, in more ways than one could be the twice-baked Roquefort soufflé with mixed leaves, Muscat grapes and pecan nuts. To round off there could be a terrine of mango and tropical fruits with coconut cream and pineapple sauce.

Little wonder the awards have come tumbling in, but a popularity such as theirs is earned by more than the food alone, and the calm, unhurried service, a very muscular wine list and total country house/home atmosphere make Edenwater House a place to tell only your closest friends about.

Menu-wise the Auld Alliance is alive and well at Cringletie, with award-winning chef Paul Hart, who has a well-known affinity for the local produce, in charge. If it's fresh and local produce it is unlikely to avoid Paul's attention.

Eating is divided between three rooms, the Sutherland, the Wolfe Murray Room, and the Maguire Room. The Sutherland Room takes most of the heat, partly because of its size, but also due to its famed hand-painted trompe l'oeuil ceiling which, combined with a handsome log fire ensures a warm and elegant aura.

Lunch is served from a 3-course changing menu, number of courses variable to suit the capacity of the individual. It is at dinner that the full joie de vivre of the kitchen comes into play, with a seven-course gourmet tasting menu, at £55 or £85 with selected wines, drawn from the dishes on offer that day as a serious option. The a la carte menu carries a number of traditional Scottish dishes, some with a strong French twist, together with the strong possibility that at the very least some of the vegetables will have been grown in the richly verdant kitchen garden of the hotel.

The wine list is designed to blend with the flavours featured in Paul Hart's menus, and includes a selection from most of the main wine producing areas in the world.