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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 following of 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.

Bella Italia is a restaurant that pulsates with Italian style and fashion, where the day starts with breakfast, not least the Inglese, the familiar bacon, sausage, mushroom, tomato and fried or scrambled eggs and sauté potatoes with ciabatta toast so beloved of hearty eaters seeking a good start to the day, particularly when they don't have to prepare it. A vegetarian option is available, along with the bambini of sausages, tomato and scrambled egg, or a strapazzata, scrambled eggs on ciabatta toast. A cappuccino or hot chocolate offers a more gentle awakening and croissant or pastries are welcome at almost any time.

It is always worth remembering that eating Italian is a great opportunity to work away through something rather more liberating than the conventional 3 course English meal. Little and often seems to be the motto but move on to the antipasti and it's immediately obvious this is no easy task, confronted with well over a dozen dishes, not one of which you really have the heart to turn down. The selezione classica assembles a few of the favourite starters; oven baked lemon and rosemary chicken wings, spiced meatballs, calamari, mini garlic butter-filled calzoni and lightly battered courgettes served with flamed pepper and lemon herb dips.

A speck e rucola pizza, added to a traditional margherita brings together two traditions with Italian speck ham providing the second, but it is within the pasta and risotto dishes that you can adapt almost any main ingredient, as well enjoy some of Italy's most traditional treats. Who can deny a well formed spaghetti Bolognese or penne Marco Polo? And not for nothing is a nicely prepared spaghetti carbonara the preferred dish of many.

From a selection of five choices amongst the secondi many will head unerringly for controfiletto ai ferri, a 7oz sirloin steak char-grilled to preference and served with garlic butter, roast field mushrooms, fries and rocket, or the fritto misto, lightly battered prawns, cod fillet, calamari and courgette with fries and a herb lemon and caper dip.

Could anything be more appropriate than The Godfather, for 1 or 2 naturally, with nutty chocolate fudge brownies, vanilla and toffee ice cream with chocolate sauce, fresh cream and wafer curls, and rest assured the coffee will do justice to the meal.

With a wine list that makes few concessions to other countries - and why should it - good Italian food can receive an equally national baptism by wine. For further enlightenment, news about their on-line shop and special deals, a click on their lively Website will reveal all.

Café Rouge has over one hundred branches throughout Britain all offering a wide range of dishes drawn from the French cuisine. Slightly less than half their branches are in or close to London. Almost inevitably the décor and design of each restaurant differs from the others, but there is a general curtsy towards La France.

Many restaurants do an excellent breakfast, or shall we say petit dejeuner, at which such delights as scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toasted brioche, croque Madame, croissants and pain au chocolat make welcome appearances, and to their credit the English traditional gets top billing.

An array of small dishes takes in pulled pork pâté with French bread, and spicy beef and lamb sausage with harissa mayonnaise. Salads and pasta feature largely, as do baguettes and croques. Quick dishes, ideal for lunch, include slices of saucisson and cured pork loin with French bread.

Moving on to more serious stuff we find steaks, an 8oz bavette and thin cut rib eye, with a choice of béarnaise or peppercorn sauce. No French menu would be complete without the poulet jaune grille, pan-roasted breast of corn-fed chicken served on a warm taboulé of bulgar wheat and a medley of roasted vegetables with minted crème fraîche, or a steak frites before moving on to the crème brûlée, or the tart tatin. Almost invariably the coffee tastes like coffee should, something that sadly can all too often still not be said of our English restaurants, who depend too much upon technology and too little on the acquisition of a certain flair for this important conclusion to a meal.

By now we all know that the French, despite their distinctive habits when it comes to matters of satisfying the inner man, maintain a miraculous longevity of life. This is generally attributed to a number of causes, of which a measured consumption of decent wine is foremost. Café Rouge, you may be pleased to hear, encourages this with a well-chosen selection of French wines. Their prix fixe lunch and meals for children, both at a very reasonable figure, also offer excellent value.

Their Website will keep you updated on menu changes, news and other competitions and offers from the Café Society.

Café Rouge has over one hundred branches throughout Britain all offering a wide range of dishes drawn from the French cuisine. Slightly less than half their branches are in or close to London. Almost inevitably the décor and design of each restaurant differs from the others, but there is a general curtsy towards La France.

Many restaurants do an excellent breakfast, or shall we say petit dejeuner, at which such delights as scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toasted brioche, croque Madame, croissants and pain au chocolat make welcome appearances, and to their credit the English traditional gets top billing.

An array of small dishes takes in pulled pork pâté with French bread, and spicy beef and lamb sausage with harissa mayonnaise. Salads and pasta feature largely, as do baguettes and croques. Quick dishes, ideal for lunch, include slices of saucisson and cured pork loin with French bread.

Moving on to more serious stuff we find steaks, an 8oz bavette and thin cut rib eye, with a choice of béarnaise or peppercorn sauce. No French menu would be complete without the poulet jaune grille, pan-roasted breast of corn-fed chicken served on a warm taboulé of bulgar wheat and a medley of roasted vegetables with minted crème fraîche, or a steak frites before moving on to the crème brûlée, or the tart tatin. Almost invariably the coffee tastes like coffee should, something that sadly can all too often still not be said of our English restaurants, who depend too much upon technology and too little on the acquisition of a certain flair for this important conclusion to a meal.

By now we all know that the French, despite their distinctive habits when it comes to matters of satisfying the inner man, maintain a miraculous longevity of life. This is generally attributed to a number of causes, of which a measured consumption of decent wine is foremost. Café Rouge, you may be pleased to hear, encourages this with a well-chosen selection of French wines. Their prix fixe lunch and meals for children, both at a very reasonable figure, also offer excellent value.

Their Website will keep you updated on menu changes, news and other competitions and offers from the Café Society.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen was the brainchild of three New Zealanders, who craved after the way that food tasted back home. The chain was instrumental in changing the perception of many people who saw the traditional burger purely as a fast food option; instead they are now seen as more sophisticated products, made using fresh, good quality ingredients.

Their first outlet opened in Battersea and today there are forty-one serving scrumptious burgers. Chef Peter Gordon believes in using innovative combinations, with good quality English chicken and Aberdeen Angus Scotch beef among the ingredients, to make nutritious and convenient to eat fare. They offer chorizo and sweet potato, lamb and minted relish, or the vegetarian portabella mushroom among others. GBK sauces and accompaniments add to their taste.

The menu has nearly thirty different choices and if you feel like biting into pure beef, do try their classic burger with salad and relish - available with or without cheese, this is served with sauces like smoked mayo, spicy satay, fresh chilli and Thai red curry, lending the meal varying degrees of spice.

Some, like the Kiwi, are made using unusual raw materials such as beetroot, fried egg and pineapple, while for fans of chicken, the grilled breast with streaky bacon, salad and avocado is a delicious combination. There are a surprising number of burgers suitable for vegetarians with versions made from puy lentils, potato, green curry or aubergine served with goats' cheese and sun blushed tomatoes. Fresh fruit juices, soft drinks and milkshakes are alcohol free options.

A welcome list of wines and beers complete the picture of a relaxed and modern environment as Gourmet Burger King excels in making the humble burger taste so good.

Imagine a restaurant that serves healthy, filling vegetarian lunch without wasting precious time. Now, try and find one in Brighton, and you are bound to come across Iydea, Steve Billiam's brainchild.

The concept is unique. A customer gets to choose one item from a menu listing ten hot and cold dishes and also gets to tuck into an unlimited amount of salads. The buffet style counter means all the food is on display and they also serve cakes.

The fare changes daily and may feature dishes like potato, spinach and red pepper tortilla, moist and succulent Spanish style oven baked tortilla with whole leaf spinach served with spicy chic peas and herbed bulgur wheat and Iydea chilli, full bodied Mexican vegetable and soya chilli served with rice and sesame broccoli.

Amongst the many restaurants and eating places all vying to supply the worthy citizens of Brighton and their visitors with sustenance, Bombay Aloo goes the extra mile. In terms of value for money it is hard to believe and that may depend heavily on the buffet style approach. This allows customers to indulge themselves freely, the only inhibition being their ability to expand within whatever items came to hand when they opened the wardrobe door. Only snag, if you're a dyed in the wool carnivore you could be in trouble. Go for it, and make sure you find a table in the upper room. And by the way should you decide to give the tinies (under 3) an introduction to their future, they eat free.

Food for Friends in Prince Albert Street, part of the Brighton Lanes, is one of the newer restaurants where vegetarianism is no longer a café item, but stands on its own as a sophisticated element of the restaurant world. They have much the same aims as others but go about them in a different way, reflecting a passion for Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and North African cuisines where healthy eating is known to be instrumental in promoting longevity and a better quality of life.

Starters of a Thai sharing platter, or roasted seeds, nuts and olives from Kalamata set the scene, and main courses of wild mushroom rosti, crispy arancini, or sweet potato and coconut curry bring a seasonal whiff of fresh local ingredients. Sticky toffee pudding strays well away from its birthplace at Cartmel, and molten chocolate, described as a pudding with gooey hot chocolate served with Bailey's ice cream is enough to bring any errant vegetarian back to the fold.

Food for Friends now has a takeaway operation, a real sign of the times and success, and finally a sobering thought - some 70% of Food for Friends' customers are not vegetarian. At least some of them must be refugees from the truly awful ways in which other types of restaurants not infrequently serve their vegetables. Good then to see recipes on their Website for turning healthy ingredients into well appreciated dishes.