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With quality food, friendly staff, quick service and excellent value for money, Nando's is a great place to eat. Don't expect identikit, pre-fab restaurant interiors which are usually a staple of the larger chains; each restaurant is tailored to its local surroundings and customers, offering up a unique restaurant experience to go with the equally unique taste of legendary, Portuguese, Peri-Peri chicken.

Your peri-peri chicken, when the chips are down so to speak, is a fresh A grade chicken that has never seen the inside of a freezer, but having made the supreme sacrifice is butterfly-cut, marinated for 24 hours in a secret brew called - you've guessed - peri-peri, and is then cooked to your choice over an open flame.

There are, of course, many variations on this broad theme, numerous plays on words such as Nando's experi-perience, peri-peri good reasons why you should eat at a Nando's' and all one hopes is that for their sake chicken never goes out of fashion. New Nando's are opening all the time, peri-peri quickly in fact, the spicy bastes become hotter and more daring, and the full platter offers a whole chicken, large chips or spicy rice and Nando's salad or coleslaw.

Since chickens are vegetarian it seems logical you can order veggie or bean burgers and patties, and still feel the heat from the peppers. All in all, Nando's is hotly recommended for those occasions when you have a large followingof permanently hungry children, or adults even, to keep happy - the only thing taken really seriously is the quality of those peri-peri good chickens.

Nando's is a place for bright people who love to laugh and love to eat, and is guaranteed to spice up your taste buds. Their fun approach to life means that when you visit Nando's you can fully relax without the airs and graces associated with more starchy dining out.

For the location of your nearest Nando's restaurant and a host of details about menus, parties and drinks, a click on their Website will reveal a Pandora's box of information.

Should you feel an American moment coming on, get straight into the mood at a TGI Friday's. First thought of in New York in 1965, introduced to Birmingham, UK in 1986, they now, like so many other American concepts, are to be found on a global basis and have 48 outlets in the UK alone. According to Newsweek and The Saturday Evening Post, the opening of the first Friday's restaurant heralded the dawn of the singles age.

In many ways, TGIs are more representative of the American approach to eating out than some of their imitators. Their food is fresh, the portions generous and the cocktail list exhaustive. They also tend to represent the all-American classlessness that can produce a meal at any time, for any social group, for any reason, under the same roof, without a problem.

So what's on offer? The quick answer is, it depends rather on where you are, as menus do vary from one restaurant to another, but the essential message stays the same - American grub, fella! Appetizers - no starters please - could include Jack Daniel's wings, chicken wings coated in Jack Daniel's sweet 'n' smoky glaze, or spinach and artichoke hearts coated in a rich and creamy cheese sauce, served with crisp corn tortillas.

For a group assault try the Times Square big share, more of Jack Daniel's wings, cheese and bacon skins to the very brim, with crispy breaded mozzarella dippers and served with a battery of accoutrements.

The steaks are awesome, topping out with a 12oz rib eye. A range of burgers, ribs, chicken, fish, sandwiches, fajitas, salads and pasta embraces virtually every known twist in the repertoire of American cuisine. Chocolate fudge fixation perhaps sums up best, but by no means exclusively, the TGI approach to desserts.

From a list of over 500 cocktails, all mixed with exuberant charm, let's take just one. You thought Long Island Iced Tea was something polite Americans sipped after some gentle sailing? Think again. Vodka, gin, rum and orange liqueur, topped up with Coke, spin and pour. The popular drink was in fact, invented by TGIF. As with all cocktails you can choose between regular or ultimate, no questions asked. Beer, wine and soft drinks cover enormous range and they also offer good coffee.

It is not important which outlet of TGIF you visit, for if you enjoy the American style of eating, just look out for red and white stripes and you are likely to be happy.

To locate a Friday's nearest to you and get the world famous Friday feeling on any day of the week click on their Website.

Why Tiger Tiger is known by that name puzzles most people no end, it could perhaps be a passing reference to William Blake's wonderful lyric poem 'The Tyger', but when customers enter any of the group's nine outlets the mystery soon gives way to amazement. Designed in a stylish manner, the pace is more relaxed in the daytime whilst in the evening it's buzzing with happy party-goers, who are drawn in by the lively ambience at the club and bar.

The Tiger Tiger experience varies little across their venues, so you could head to the Moroccan styled Kazbar at Leeds, the Groovy Wonderland at Cardiff, or The Club at Manchester, for example.

The well balanced menu is a fusion of British and Mediterranean cuisine, all created from the freshest of ingredients. You could find dishes such as duck spring rolls, Southern fried chicken fillets, and Tiger Tiger mixed grill of sirloin steak, gammon, Cumberland sausage, char-grilled chicken breast and lamb cutlet. Indulge yourself in a Canadian shell on lobster or a juicy sirloin steak drizzled with garlic butter, while a favourite is the Cajun crusted tuna steak on sweet potato wedges served with guacamole.

The repertoire also includes some appealing char-grilled gourmet burgers, fajitas, pasta and salads. To end, an Eton mess of crushed meringues, strawberries and strawberry liquor, bound in whipped cream make for a perfect finish.

The oldest Italian restaurant in Aberdeen, La Lombarda is a family-run business established in 1922. With ample white, red and green in the colour scheme and terracotta accessories, there's something intrinsically Italian about the décor. Known for its warm ambience, La Lombarda is usually the favourite of families looking to spend quality time with each other. Italian opera music plays softly, setting the mood for laughter and exchange of stories.

Aberdeen's close proximity to the North Sea is evident in the extensive menu that has a host of delicacies from the bottom of the ocean. Seafood lovers shouldn't miss sampling the seafood salad that has everything from mussels and cockles to squid and tuna. The scampi in tomato cream sauce served with potatoes, broccoli, cabbage and rice timbale is close competition and there are plenty of other equally lip-smacking main courses to choose from. The dessert menu is just as exciting for those who manage to get past the main course. Known for its generous portions, La Lombarda isn't considered a family-friendly restaurant for nothing.

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.

The Inn at Heath Hill comes as a pleasant surprise for business travellers, young singles and families looking for a quality economical getaway in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Whether it's a hasty lunch as part of a road-trip or a relaxed dinner with friends and family, The Inn's informal ambience and friendly, attentive staff are sure to set the mood for ample conversation and an enjoyable dining experience. There's little fuss about the interiors and guests at once feel comfortable and welcome in the restaurant's non-imposing atmosphere.

The meals are true to the simplistic nature of the restaurant and well presented, making it a rare combination of fine taste and unpretentious style. The menus are extensive and the specials menu with seasonal dishes might vary on a daily basis. Try one of The Inn's malt whiskies or pick a drink from the well-stocked bar to go with the order and savour every sip while watching the sun go down - one of the key features that captures the essence of The Inn at Heath Hill.

Aberdeen is the the home of Aberdeen Angus, hence at Prime Cuts you get the very best that they can find, dry aged for a minimum of 28 days; consequently, they state that they don't have steak knives as the meat is so tender and rich that they're not required! Plus they are by the North Sea, where arguably you find the best lobster in the world, put the two together and that's what they do best at Prime Cuts.

Naturally their menu is not exclusively steak and lobster, as Head Chef, Brian Mutch, a local boy, is a wiz at concocting exquisite examples of Scottish cuisine at its best, using venison, pheasant, corn fed local chicken stuffed with haggis, and all this changes regularly to reflect the season.

Put this together in a warm, comfortable environment dominated by terracotta, leather and wood, where they provide unpretentious, yet well appointed, service - you could also have their Wine Steward assist you in choosing wines that will best complement your meal - and then you realise that their simple aim is to give you an unforgettable evening.