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A balmy location, close to the seafront in Poole's well-heeled suburb of Canford Cliffs, makes The Cliff an obvious magnet for a leisurely dinner or leisurely Sunday afternoon lunch. Located on Ravine Road, this excellent pub offers modern British food with a Mediterranean touch. A carefully compiled wine list as well as a selection of cask ales, draught and bottled beers complement the food perfectly.

Close to Poole city centre and only a short drive from the resort town of Bournemouth, The Cliff's pleasant spacious interiors are dotted with comfortable banquettes and chairs where guests can relax and unwind at leisure. A large wall to wall picture brings a whiff of the sea indoors. Outside seating on the patio allows you to catch the sun's rays, when it's shining, and the smart bar, with beautiful light wood panelling and chic metal lights, invites you to linger into the evening.
 
The attention to detail extends to the high quality seasonally changing menu which offers customers a wide range of dishes from delicious British classics to pizzas and pastas, all made with the finest fresh ingredients including locally sourced fish and seafood. Try starters of smoked salmon with citrus ponzo dressing, Moroccan lamb koftas with fattoush salad and potato hash with poached egg and hollandaise sauce whet the appetite. Sharing plates of antipasti with dolcelatte, Italian meats, marinated vegetables and warm stone-baked flatbreads are perfect if you are with family and friends.
 
Each day is different at The Cliff. Steak and Wine Supper Wednesdays offer superb steaks with a bottle of red wine at half the price. Seafood lovers can look forward to battered haddock with chips, tartare sauce and minted mushy peas; sea bass fillets with sweet potato, spinach curry and tzatziki and much more, especially on Fish Fridays when the chef dishes out his specials and a bottle of white wine comes at a generous 50% discount.
 
On Sundays enjoy a traditional meal with a variety of roast with all the trimmings. For a quick lunch, the prix fixe menu offers quiet satisfaction while the Supper Club menu is more celebratory with a two-course meal accompanied by a bottle of the renowned Rothschild champagne, starting at £40.
 
The dessert selection matches the rest of the à la carte with its delectable temptations. Round off with apple and blackcurrant crumble with vanilla custard, sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream, a choux bun with fresh cream, espresso and chocolate sauce or white chocolate crème brûlée. If you prefer a cheese plate, it comes with flavourful Colliers Cheddar, camembert and gorgonzola.
 
An extensive selection of aperitifs, digestifs, beers, wines, soft drinks and hot drinks quenches the thirst. This includes Lillet Rouge, a splendid mix of summer berries and white wine; Tommy's Margarita, a delicious treat of Don Alvaro Organic Tequila with agave syrup and fresh lime and Frisky Bison, made with organic Zubrowka Bison Grass vodka and Appletiser.

Looking to repeat the enjoyable experience in Southampton? You could try The Chilworth Arms, a sister pub to The Cliff.

More information can be found on their Website.

This is a hotel with one of the best outlooks in its particular area, at the mouth of the River Dart and handy for the ferry across to Dartmouth. The restaurant, named after a local worthy, John Hauley, Mayor for fourteen years and four times MP for the area. There is a wide choice of menus and local ingredients are to be found on all of them, notably of course from the sea.

Starters include rosettes of Dartmouth smoked salmon, Dartmouth chowder, sautéed king prawns with rum, lime and coriander, or warm red onion tart with a slice of the local Ticklemore goat's cheese.

Main courses are equally forthright and look out for fresh lobster, done Newburg, thermidor or coral, whole lemon sole grilled with butter, char grilled prime fillet of Devon beef, or the redoubtable crab and fish platter, with crab, smoked salmon, smoked mackerel and prawns.

The desserts take no prisoners at all, try the Belgian chocolate and mandarin mousse in a chocolate cup served with raspberry coulis or, should you have the good fortune to be a cheese buff cast an eye over the West Country cheeses, amongst them Cornish Yarg, Sharpham brie, Kingston cheddar and Harbourne blue.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

In the very centre of Hindon sits the Lamb, a good example of a traditional country inn with food and drink to match, serving an appreciative local population for whom there are just enough of the little extras to make this a home away from home where one can eat without having to do a calculation first. In late 2004, it was purchased by Boisdale, whose two restaurants in London have a reputation for quality and eclectic style.

The Lamb Inn dates back to the 17th century and was originally a coaching inn. Just one mile off the A303, the hotel stands in the heart of Hindon, an attractive unspoilt Wiltshire village. Its excellent location makes it a great place to stay if you are en route to the South West. Alternatively if you want to explore the local area, Salisbury, Shaftesbury and many other places of historical interest are only a short distance away by car.

Ranald Macdonald, Managing Director of the Boisdale Group commented at the time: 'We are delighted to have acquired such a beautiful historic coaching inn. This is our first venture outside London and we are looking forward to spending much time in this stunningly beautiful part of the country. We are very aware of the responsibilities attached to running such a longstanding and much loved institution and will be careful to maintain its tradition.' As he is a man of his word, that philosophy has been stuck to ever since.

The Lamb is home to a striking restaurant with food that is sourced from local suppliers. Seldom does a menu make you want to try everything that is listed on it, but try resisting the tempting starters that could include the award-winning Dunkeld oak smoked Scottish salmon with lemon, shallots and baby capers, and Somerset pork pie with piccalilli.

While mains carry on in the same vein, with choices like local pork and herb sausages, mashed potato beer and onion gravy, and 16oz braised shank of lamb, mashed celeriac, young carrots and lamb gravy, while fish eaters and vegetarians are not forgotten.

The Lamb at Hindon has a positive warren of different bars, a private dining room and nineteen bedrooms. The oldest part of the present inn dates from the 14th century, but there was certainly an earlier building on the site since it is known that the Assizes were held there as far back as the middle of the 13th century.

The wine list has been given the Boisdale treatment, and is sufficiently travelled to excite the imagination. To learn more about The Lamb at Hindon, do visit their Website.

The Rising Sun Hotel in Lynmouth is the harbour side inn of your dreams with a thatched roof, ancient beams and haphazard wooden floors, and dates from the 14th century. It is steeped in history with oak panelling, crooked ceilings, thick beachstone walls and creaking uneven floorboards. Their modern approach to food in their 1 AA Rosette restaurant is confident and it is clearly presented, with a lot of the raw ingredients produced in the area, like Lynmouth Bay lobster, local game and salmon fished from River Lyn itself.

It was in one of its rooms that R.D. Blackmore wrote several chapters of his West Country classic Lorna Doone. It sits overlooking a tiny picturesque harbour and Lynmouth Bay with its stunning backdrop of the highest hogback cliffs in England, and situated on the edge of the Exmoor National Park, where herds of deer, wild ponies and birds of prey roam free.

As it has grown it has absorbed neighbouring cottages including the one (featured here) in which Shelley and his 16-year old bride Harriet are said to have spent their honeymoon. Shelleys Cottage has lost none of its romance and now consists of a double bedroom with half-tester bed, sitting room, private garden with quite spectacular views and is ideal for those wanting something extra special.

Many of the bedrooms have half-tester beds and were refurbished by international designer Suzanne Lansdell of 'Pour La Maison' in London, combining the latest design fabrics with traditional elegance within a 14th century ambience, assuring their guests of an unforgettable romantic experience.

For starters the choice could consist of: Cornish crab with sweet pepper and mascarpone tortellini; chicken liver and foie gras parfait with homemade piccalilli; Italian tomato bread soup or Parma ham with black figs, rocket leaves, toasted pine nuts and vintage balsamic.

There is a wide range of fish and seafood dishes, such as whole grilled sea bass with tarator, fennel and new potatoes, but you might care to go for the braised pheasant with pancetta and quince and Braunton greens; slow cooked belly pork with pommery mash potato and spinach, or rib eye steak served with a béarnaise sauce and hand cut chips.

The times given are for the service of food in the restaurant, an excellent choice of bar food is available from 12:00 to 15:00 and 19:00 to 21:00; this generally focuses on fresh local fish and game as available, and, according to season may include Lynmouth Bay Lobster salad, Exmoor game casserole, fresh sea bass and other generally 'upmarket' bar food in the region of £7 - £12 per dish.

They offer an extremely enterprising and well put together wine list, of varied international parentage, with many of the choices below £20, and the vast majority under £30; also three dessert wines and a very decent selection of half bottles, over ten in all. More information on residential packages, menus and much more can be viewed on their Website.

Located opposite the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in the heart of this vibrant city, The Botanist on Berkeley Square is a striking pub on the banks of the River Avon. Boasting stylish contemporary interiors and a delicious modern British menu with a Mediterranean twist, the restaurant also has a large courtyard that's perfect for al fresco dining.

Close to the city centre and its numerous attractions, which range from landmarks such as the Georgian House to more modern diversions such as the bustling Broadmead shopping centre and the Cube Cinema. The Botanist is also a stone's throw from the idyllic Brandon Hill Nature Park and cultural delights such as the Royal West of England Academy of Art, Colston Hall Theatre and Bristol Hippodrome.
 
After a busy morning of shopping or sightseeing why not recharge your batteries in style. The classically proportioned space holds a number of cosy niches perfect for private dining and is flooded with daylight from the glass ceiling. Beautifully decorated in a palette of pastels, dove grey predominating, with herringbone parquet flooring, the bar area also offers sofas and banquettes to sink into.

This attention to detail is also reflected in the seasonally changing menu which uses market fresh ingredients. Starters of Romana white onion soup, crispy fried pumpkin ravioli with parmesan and tomato salsa or a sharing platter of baby back ribs, chicken and chorizo spiedini, lamb koftas with flatbreads and chilli jam bring a whiff of the Mediterranean to the meal.

With freshly caught fish available for the asking in Bristol, The Botanist's seafood offerings are peerless and could include a mouth-watering pesto crusted cod with herb and spring onion mash and sauce Choron; pan fried sea bass fillets with aubergine and sweet potato tagine and, of course, the all time favourite of freshly battered fish and chips with minted mushy peas. Fish Fridays also offers a superb spread for fish and seafood lovers with the added attraction of a 50% discount on a bottle of white wine thrown in.

Committed carnivores needn't despair for the à la carte lists their favourites too including braised short rib of beef with bubble and squeak, lamb rump with sauce soubise and pork fillet with pancetta. They can further rejoice in Steak and Wine Supper Wednesdays with a bottle of red wine at half the price.

This pub pulls out all the stops on Sundays with an extensive menu which includes sumptuous British roasts with all the trimmings. Alternatively, you may wish to do brunch with dishes such as smoked haddock kedgeree with poached egg and curried hollandaise; eggs Benedict with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon or English lamb kidneys with wholegrain mustard sauce and rustic bread.

For a quick lunch or an early evening dinner, a two-course prix fixe menu is available while a more celebratory Supper Club menu offering two courses along with a bottle of Rothschild champagne starts at £40.

The finale at The Botanist is no less indulgent with puddings of warm brownie with vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate sauce; apple and blackcurrant crumble with vanilla custard and orange blossom and almond cake with mascarpone.

The globally representative, and expertly chosen, wine list includes a fine selection of Mediterranean whites and reds. A variety of bottled beers and cask ales as well as a number of cocktails and martinis also quench the thirst.

Loved The Botanist? You could also check out sister pubs The Bathampton Mill in Bath or The Langton in Cheltenham for a similar experience.

More information can be found on their Website.

Located in the heart of the beautiful city of Bath, the Tramshed offers a wide range of modern British dishes and contemporary Mediterranean fare in stunning surroundings. Housed, as the name would suggest, in a beautifully renovated tram shed, the decor includes a witty nod to the building's heritage with brightly painted tram wheels on the wall and large sofas in the shape of tram cars.

Close to the city centre and the stunning Royal Crescent, the Tramshed is also just a short walk from the Assembly Rooms and Pulteney Bridge. A seasonal menu delivers on the promise of fresh local produce, attracting locals and weary tourists alike.

Delicious starter of chermoula and fennel crusted squid with rocket, pineapple and spring onion salsa or smoked salmon with citrus ponzo dressing and fennel and herb salad whets the appetite. If you are with family and friends you could, alternatively, try the tasty sharing plates of Mediterranean mezze, baby back ribs or rustic breads.

Guests with hearty appetites will be delighted at The Tramshed's mains selection which includes spit roast maple gammon, Brussel sprout and parmesan gratin; spit roast chicken with lemon, garlic and thyme or pork fillet with pancetta, potato and apple croquette. Steak lovers will be pleased to note the presence of such favourites as rib eye steak with horseradish and parsley butter and chips and fillet steak garni with watercress, confit tomato, grilled mushroom and hand-cut jenga chips.

The burger selection offers a classic burger with gherkin, mustard mayo, cheese, relish and chips with bacon or chorizo and a black and blue burger with dolcette and mushrooms. Choice of pasta or a stone-baked pizza offers smoked haddock macaroni and a fruit de mer pizza with tuna, prawns, anchovies and pineapple salsa.

To kick start the day, the breakfast menu offers a traditional English breakfast, eggs Benedict, bacon sandwich or smoked salmon and scrambled egg accompanied by sourdough or wholegrain toast, English muffins or Danish pastries. For a healthy start there's choice of granola with cranberry and apricot, Greek yoghurt and honey, porridge with banana, cinnamon and almond and grapefruit with ginger sugar and mint. Tea, coffee or juice completes the selection.

Delectable desserts of apple and blackcurrant crumble with vanilla custard, choux bun with espresso and chocolate sauce and white chocolate crème brûlée satisfy the sweetest tooth.

The Tram Shed takes its wine seriously and the fine selection on offer reflects this. Take your pick from a range of Mediterranean whites and reds as well as a sprinkling of examples from the rest of the world. This includes an Airen from Spain, a Sangiovese from Italy, a Rothschild Bordeaux, a South African Chenin Blanc, a Chilean Chardonnay and a Merlot from California. There's also a variety of aperitifs, disgestifs and non-alcoholic drinks to suit all tastes. They also offer a fabulous wine club, with regular tastings throughout the year to friends of the restaurant.

In a city full of fine restaurants such as Bath what helps set the Tramshed apart is the unwavering commitment to its customers. There's no tacky happy hour here, instead Sparkling Thursday offers a complementary glass of Pimms Royale and discounted bubbly all day.

More information can be found on their Website.

The first Browns opened at Brighton in 1973 with one simple guiding belief, that classic food, well delivered in a stylish environment would be a recipe for success. The only thing that has changed since then is the number of Browns, now running at fourteen, of which six are in London, all prospering with the same theme.

Some of their buildings are particularly legendary in style, sometimes listed and always interesting. The premises at Bristol formerly served as the City's museum, art gallery and the University Dining Rooms, and are modelled on the Doge's Palace in Venice.

The main menu, available throughout the day, starts with appetisers, designed for sharing, with antipasti of Italian meat, vegetarian or seafood. Try the flatbreads with a range of interesting toppings.

In amongst the thirteen starters expect to come across smoked duck, crisp noodle and cashew nut salad with red peppers, tumeric cauliflower, spring onions and a sherry vinaigrette. The fish and salad choices include fish and chips tempura battered cod with minted mushy peas and tartar sauce and pan-fried butterflied tiger prawns tossed with linguine in a tomato, coriander and chorizo sauce.

The same theme of comfortable food, well-cooked and presented, continues throughout the mains course with roast chicken breast in sour dough bread with baby spinach, tomato and mayonnaise, served with seasoned chips, and steak frites 6oz prime sirloin, served with a lemon, parsley and peppercorn butter.

The chalkboard carries a list of the day's specials, but every day except Sunday is Browns's afternoon tea day, served from 2 to 5.30 pm, and on Sundays it offers a choice of three roasts. It would be harder to find a dessert much more English than lemon tartlet with crème fraîche.

By the way their breakfast and brunch menu is just one of the best, and they do a very nifty prix fixe menu from 4:00 - 6.30 pm.

The wine list is masterful and not over long, sometimes a great relief to those who find it tiresome to navigate their way through even an interesting list such as this. Many bottles are available by the glass and each group of wines is helpfully classified under headings such as white, red and rose with a reserve selection, house recommendations, New and Old World under them.

Browns at Bristol are well able to deal with groups, and have special menus to look after their particular interests. Click on their excellent Website for further details and menu changes.

We hear a great deal about recycling these days - du Vin recycles attractive but sometimes un-loved buildings to restore real gems in the best tradition of British understated style.

Compliment that with all that is best in the French bistro ethos, bars that reach out to please, and you have a setting that provides an inspirational background for people to meet, do business, get married, provide a base for golf or fishing, somewhere you can call your own for a private celebration, a spa or - most engagingly - a wine school that breaks the mould.

In Bristol, du Vin has taken on a collection of Grade II listed warehouses, formerly known as the Sugar House, dating from the 1770s. These are conveniently near the Bristol waterfront and lend themselves well for conversion into a luxury boutique hotel with 40 bedrooms, including several stunning double-height loft suites. The du Vin magic has worked again, and it's not all smoke and mirrors either.

The stylish bedrooms all have handsprung mattresses, fine Egyptian linen, deep baths and power showers, and high speed wireless internet is available in all rooms. There are plenty of reading opportunities as well in their extensive library.

du Vin hotels are renowned for their bistros and here at Bristol the menu is rooted in classic European cuisine with a contemporary edge. Head chef, Marcus Lang sets a policy of local, finest and freshest, cooked simply, priced sensibly. Starters, chosen from about ten dishes could include braised pigs' cheeks with swede purée and black pudding; squid, chorizo and crayfish salad, or French ham with rocket, Parmesan and figs.

There is no sparing of the fish here and you could choose from fillets of red mullet, pan-fried fillet of halibut, pan-fried sea bass or poached smoke haddock. The rump of lamb with pommes dauphinoise and pea purée makes a pleasing cut. For a real treat however, look amongst the simple classics and order the eponymous fish pie, a luscious moist production with plenty of body, well finished with a cheese topping. In season give yourself a reward with roast partridge served with pommes pailles and bread pudding.

Whilst one might argue that the whole point of being in a du Vin is to snuggle up to the wine list, this list is designed to march with the food and can only be described as superb. With a team of sommeliers, headed here by Stefan Gorda, there is no room for anything but the best. Service is telepathic in the best possible sense.

Click on their Website for full information and rates. Hotel du Vin, with fourteen options throughout Britain, awaits your call.

Looking for interesting, seasonal and light, well-prepared food in a galleried setting with stunning views. The Bay, at Penzance, helped establish the now well-tried tradition of combining culture, in the form of a serious art gallery, with cuisine and rooms - and succeeds. The setting is chic, unstuffy, with superb views above the rooftops of Penzance to Mount's Bay. An excellent place to kick back, relax and enjoy their mix of a Modern European approach to serving seafood and other English dishes.

Throughout the whole year look forward to eating the best of the local produce, in an imaginative and attractive form and calling on an impressive list of local suppliers from Cornwall, where the environment is naturally fresh.

During the day an all day dining menu offers such dishes as prosciutto ham with herbed olive hummus and balsamic vinegar, steamed Fowey mussels in a shallot, garlic and Cornish cider cream sauce, or pan-fried rump steak with baby spinach leaf, straw potatoes and herb hollandaise. At The Bay it's always worth asking what the boats have brought in; fish does not come any fresher than this.

Try a roast Pollock fillet on braised saffron leeks and lemon cream sauce, or a local handpicked white crabmeat open sandwich on homemade granary bread with lemon mayonnaise. For vegetarian tastes there could be a baked aubergine and tomato gateaux.

In the evenings the menu expands and starters could include home smoked breast of guinea fowl, ox tongue and hazelnut salad and date purée, or pan-fried South Coast scallops, potato and vanilla cream with steamed spring onions.

Main courses follow the same pattern with a pan-fried West Country duck breast with smoked fennel, polenta cake and a preserved orange jus; roast fillet of Newlyn landed pollack, baby brown shrimps, cucumber and watercress, and roast Cornish double beef - for two to share - with pan fried foie gras and oxtail ravioli, black truffle and port wine jus.

As you watch the sun subside into the light mists of a velvet Cornish sea evening, you will find the desserts even more beguiling than usual, headed by the white chocolate mousse, sultana fancler and rice wine vinegar reduction, closely followed by the coconut crème brûlée with passion fruit madeleines and dark chocolate sorbet or assortment of miniature desserts.

Local wines, beers and an elite list offer further variety and choice, and, with at least eight available by the glass or 1/2 bottle, you can change wines with each course. Dessert wines are encouraged and include Pedro Ximenez- Jerez from Spain, and Nederburg from South Africa.

The Bay is quality eating amidst beautiful surroundings both in and out, at prices that will leave room for you to contemplate further indulgence amongst the many pictures tastefully displayed in the Gallery.

The past years have firmly established the Bay, in the diners Awards of the Region, they were named West Country Restaurant of the Year in 2002, and Restaurant of the Year 2006-8 in the Cornwall Tourism Awards. Consistently awarded 2 AA rosettes annually, and listed in the Michelin Guide, The Good Hotel Guide and The Good Food Guide.

For those of you wanting further information about The Bay, a visit to their Website would be a sensible idea.

This is certainly the grandest, and probably the best, Indian restaurant in Bath. In a massively gracious room that would do credit to a Livery Company, Eastern Eye serves Indian delicacies from Bengal and Northern India. Although they do not always tell the whole tale such is the range of Awards given to Eastern Eye that there can be no doubt about its credibility and expertise. Eastern Eye has been awarded 'Restaurant of the Year 2011' by Les Routiers and English Curry Awards 'Restaurant of the Year South West 2011'.

For a start the range of dishes is truly amazing, so much so that for the confused there is a standard set meal on offer at £19.95, plus service. Whilst it may, in certain circumstances be safer to remain with the familiar many will prefer to plumb the infinite shades of the new, the feared and the imponderable. All dishes hail from Bengal and include an impressive list of the much loved balti, starting with vegetable balti and topping out with a fine king prawn massalla balti.

There are those who believe that starters are an unnecessary part of an Indian meal, but for those who don't share this philosophy a generous array of stimulative treats are there to please. To take but one the chicken hariyali is marinated with traditional Nepali herbs and spices before being cooked over the tandoori oven.

Tandoori dishes are dry, come with salad and are made to order - truly boutique eating. The tandoori mixed thali carrries a selection of tandoori chicken, chicken chandan, lamb sula and sheek kebab. Amongst the seven or so specials move very carefully, but do not lightly ignore the chicken or lamb nowabdar from Northern India, a mild dish with a delicately spiced sauce made from roasted cashew nuts and fennel seeds before being combined with a spiced butter sauce, cream and peeled tomatoes.

All the well regarded curry dishes are there, lamb rogan josh, chicken or lamb dhansak, a sweet and sour curry cooked with lentils and spices, and plain basic lamb or chicken curry the strength of which can be tuned to any notch on the scale for a modest 40p extra leaving you to wonder what an extra £1.20s worth might achieve. If the favourite dish of the Brits is indeed chicken tikka massala from Kashmir it is perhaps closely pursued by a meat or chicken jalfrezi, a hot spicy dish powered by fresh chilli, tomato and green peppers

For £85.00 four people can dine nobly off king prawn butterfly, chicken chandan, specially prepared lamb and chicken dishes, noor mahal special biriany with nuts and dried fruit, mixed vegetables, nans, popadoms, chutney, dessert and coffee.

If anyone is in any doubt about the rapport between cooking from the sub-continent and wines from pretty well anywhere let them come to The Eastern Eye for a short course in rapprochement, with wines that would comfortably grace the list of the above average British restaurant and are singularly well annotated.

There is a well laid out Website which will give the wider picture with just one click.