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Sitting on the harbour wall, this 16th-century former prison and excise house is the oldest and most historic building in the Aberdeenshire town of Stonehaven. Located on the first floor, Tolbooth Restaurant benefits from its interesting architectural interior such as the uneven one metre thick stone wall and a loading bay door converted into a picture window overlooking the bay. The décor is unpretentious and nicely offset by the display of original paintings by local artists.

The restaurant's style of cuisine is most definitely based on 'letting the fish do the talking'. Being situated at the harbour enables Tolbooth to get daily landings from local boats and this is quickly transferred to a specials board, which is extremely popular amongst diners. Fish does not come much fresher than this. Interesting seafood with well matched accompaniments and light aromatic sauces and dressings which compliment and not mask the rich flavours, are to hand. Strawberry cheesecake cocktail and vanilla and spiced rum crème brûlée are classic 'afters' that never fail.

The Creel Inn is the very epitome of the clifftop hideaway with food. Yet it is a mere 25 minutes from the centre of Aberdeen and 4 miles from Stonehaven.

Whilst understandably hot on seafood it is not restrictive and Scottish beef, for instance, features strongly. You could do little better than start with their renowned crab soup, the staple ingredient for which comes from the bay below the inn. Deliciously creamy and with a good balance of flavours, guaranteed to get you off to a good start. However there is always the home-made Arbroath smokie pate that comes with oatcakes and a juniper chutney. Rumour has it that those who think they know better than we ourselves do about what we want to eat are seeking to do away with the famed smokies from Arbroath. Words fail me, but one day and in another context they won't.

Move on to the duck, pigeon and haggis platter. This is such a blindingly obvious happy blend of flavours and it never fails. The duck and pigeon breasts are pan-seared, then served round some of Charles McHardy butchers award winning haggis, drizzled with red and black currant coulis. For years I treated the notion of surf and turf with disdain until one day after a soaking out sailing I threw discretion to the winds (and tides), and have stayed converted. At Creel it's a 10 oz sirloin steak with garlic crab claws. For their other steaks there's a range of sauces, with way out ahead the haggis and drambuie cream version.

Desserts follow the same invigorating pattern, with a great favourite the sticky apple and carrot pudding, unique to the Creel, and served with an indulgent butterscotch sauce. The wine list has been carefully selected, with some wines chosen for the signature dishes, and straddles the world. House wine is provided by Rioja from the Cosecheros y Craidores.