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hand picked restaurants

The uber cool Second Floor Restaurant and Bar, situated on the top floor of the Harvey Nichols boutique store on Philadelphia Street is open all day and serves a delicious modern British menu for brunch, lunch, afternoon tea or dinner. Sweeping city views from the floor-to-ceiling windows as well as the interior's clean lines with gold and silver touches make it the perfect rendezvous for the city's trendy set.
 
Located in the Quakers Friars section of the bustling Cabot Circus shopping centre, the two AA Rosettes awarded Second Floor Restaurant is a stone's throw from the Odeon and Showcase cinemas and is the perfect place for a meal before or after a movie.

Head Chef Louise McCrimmon's menus use classic techniques and ingredients sourced from around the world, but with an emphasis on using the finest produce from the South West. A typical dinner could open with starters of potato and wild mushroom soup; West Country venison kofta with carrot and mint salad, pomegranate yoghurt and flat bread or crisp polenta with grilled artichoke, goat's cheese, herb salad with sundried tomato dressing.

This could be followed by a main course of braised leg of Guinea fowl with roast fennel, wholegrain mustard and orange sauce; South Coast gurnard with parsley risotto with lemon velouté or seared lamb's liver with celeriac and apple mash, pickled apple and red onion jus.

For a leisurely Sunday brunch the restaurant offers dishes such as Inverawe smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and toasted homemade toasted brioche, buttermilk pancakes with smoked black bacon and maple syrup and Stornoway black pudding with fried egg, roast apple and rosti potato along with your choice of Bloody Mary. Mains include roast rack and slow cooked leg of lamb with sweet potato and Muscat purée, sweet potato fondant and tomato jus as well as seared fillet of Pollock with pomme purée, buttered spinach, oxtail and Bristol beer reduction.

For the finale, consider an unusual sweetcorn mousse paired with bourbon ice cream and salted caramel popcorn or other delicious creations such as blood orange and passion fruit Pavlova, sticky toffee pudding with vanilla Anglaise or lime and ginger pannacotta with roast pineapple. Alternatively, consider a cheese plate with Gorwydd Caerphilly, Bath Soft and Harbourne cheeses served with grapes, homemade oatcakes and Harvey Nichols chutney.
 
The afternoon tea menu offers an array of savouries and cakes including dry cure smoked back bacon sandwich with slow roast tomatoes, scrambled egg and smoked back bacon with toasted brioche, banana and walnut cake with vanilla mascarpone and Valrhona chocolate and pecan brownie with clotted cream.

A sumptuous cocktail bar, with skilled mixologists in attendance, offers luxurious signature libations of Double B'bellini and Grapefruit Caipirinha as well as a variety of champagnes and wines by the glass.

The Second Floor also boasts an exclusive private dining room, perfect for that special celebration or corporate event. The entire restaurant including the bar is also available for hire individually or as a whole.

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

Brazz - Taunton brings you brasserie eating at its best; their aim is to provide good food and drink at popular prices to a wide audience. The feel is bright and modern yet elegant, buzzy and stylish - with its trademark fish tank, walls adorned with hand-painted Italian ceramics and specially commissioned art by local artists.

Brazz is a bar, café and restaurant all rolled into one. Open from morning till late it is the ideal location for morning cappuccino, a quick lunch, an after work glass of wine or that celebratory dinner. An entirely flexible approach.

The bar is a comfortable affair offering a range of draught and bottled beers, many wines by the glass, cocktails and pudding wines from all over the world.
 
The restaurant, refreshingly, is happy serving up straightforward, unpretentious food without ceremony and with smiling service. A typical meal there could begin with chicken liver parfait with granary toast, or an interesting smoked haddock and shellfish chowder with Irish soda bread. They also have Dorset crab and prawn salad with cocktail sauce to entice you while their olives and feta cheese, and Autumn vegetable soup will delight vegetarians.

The main courses could pose quite a dilemma with choices ranging from Loch Duart salmon fishcakes with marinated vegetable salad and citrus aioli, to free range Devonshire chicken breast with crispy bacon roast new potatoes, curly kale, carrots and gravy, or smoked haddock and poached hen egg with horseradish savoy cabbage and new potatoes. There are also steamed Cornish mussels with garlic, lemon, parsley and French fries.

Desserts are of the comfort variety featuring buttermilk panacotta with summer berries and toasted oats, Nynehead strawberry and raspberry mess, although they also have homemade chocolates and thankfully, a good selection of ice-creams and five sets of Somerset artisan cheeses. They also have some excellent bin end wines which offer good value; however they are available only by the bottle.

Whether you are alone, impressing over business, celebrating with a large party, with the children, dropping in before or after the theatre or looking for that romantic setting, Brazz is where you'll want to be.

Situated next door to The Castle Hotel at Taunton, Brazz offers a total contrast to the traditional surroundings and style of the hotel. Brazz is now very much an established part of the city's eating out scene, and like the hotel, is included in all the major food guides.

For more about Brazz, visit their extremely informative Website.

The Cathedral city of Truro has much to commend it - tucked away on the south western peninsula of England it has always maintained a sturdy independence that in some ways has tended to look as much to the continent as to London. Perhaps this demonstrates itself best in the survival of fine architecture and buildings, in one of which in Lemon Street, the AA Rosette Bustophers holds court within a contemporary interior.

Their aim would appear to be to gather in not only a loyal local clientele, but also to recognise the large numbers of visitors who flock to the area every summer and increasingly now at other times as well. The atmosphere is relaxed but well able to rise to the more formal in matters of private dining or special occasions.

They open daily at 11am when the first regulars arrive with the Telegraph tucked under their arm to enjoy their wake-up call of cappuccino, before contemplating lunch perhaps. Soon tables all around are taken up by people enjoying a bowl of steamed River Fowey mussels in garlic and white wine cream with fries, or Bustophers chowder served with Baker Tom?s bread.

A pudding of dark chocolate and Amaretto cheesecake with cherry compote, or the local cheeseboard with biscuits and homemade chutney, and it's back to work for some, whilst others settle down to the crossword.

In the evenings a subtle change occurs, still the same lively place, but a touch of 'don't know what' creeps gently in and the evening stretches limitless before those who come to enjoy good company and, shall we say, a Guinea fowl, pork and leek terrine with pear and cider chutney, or pan seared wood pigeon breast with crispy black pudding salad. The Celtic farm chicken breast stuffed with cream cheese and chive in company with caramelised onion and walnut risotto competes with wild mushroom and goats? cheese fricassee on toasted polenta, or Higher Tresawle farm beef lasagne with wild mushrooms, rosemary and garlic ciabatta.

A three course prix fixe menu is available with four main courses, including fish of the day with fettuccini, classic lasagne with steak frites, wonderful value. The private dining facilities, of a high order, could hardly be better placed in Truro.

The wine list is not for the faint hearted, and some thirty are available by the glass. Clearly there is a good team at work in the cellars, not least Walter Hicks of St Austell, H & H Bancroft Wines of London and Berry Bros and Rudd.

Bustophers is essentially a jolly place with high standards achieved and a restless energy that produces great results, giving a new meaning to that feeling of having a second home to hand. It is one operation, not a series of little empires, and it is not difficult to see where the drive comes from.

For more details, including details of field trips to suppliers, and menu changes, click on their Website.

Set in an historic lakeside country house in South Devon, within easy distance of what their brochure aptly describes as the Maritime City of Plymouth, Kitley House Restaurant has a good deal going for it. The view for instance - with overtones that suggest a sylvan setting miles from anywhere, whilst you dine in the former library with its rich décor of burgundy and gold, with marble columns in each corner of the room. In her introduction Viv Marshal, Kitley House chef says, 'Let me take the pressure off you with my creative cooking, using only local produce...People still eat with their eyes...'

And how right she is. The dinner menu at Kitley ranges over an appealing list of options that includes grilled scallops garnished with peas and broad beans with a smoked saffron and white wine velouté, and goats' cheese and Bramley apple tart with dressed green leaves.

Seared and sliced pigeon breast is served over a beetroot and raspberry relish with parsnip crisps and balsamic syrup, or there's a delicious leek and potato soup drizzled with double cream and curry oil.

For the main event baked duck breast carved over a pineapple and butternut squash chutney is accompanied by rösti potato and French beans. In the opinion of some, sea bass has become almost too familiar but a good deal depends on the company it keeps. At Kitley this means spring onion and citrus mash, sweet pepper, tomato and chilli jam and asparagus spears, giving good lift to this inherently appealing fish. The skill of the kitchen is well shown in the char-grilled sirloin steak with confit potato and a cassoulet of wild mushroom and cherry tomatoes.

A new twist to an old classic is given with the rhubarb and champagne crumble with chunky ginger ice cream.

It is always good to see the dishes of one's youth presented in a way that not only makes them totally edible, which was not always the case, but also has you coming back for more. Take sticky date pudding, or more improbably, creamy rice pudding with a dollop - their words - of strawberry jam.

Sunday lunch is a weekly festival at Kitley House, well worthy of your attendance. With a choice of four main courses, roast sirloin of beef, roast pork, délice of grilled salmon and a vegetarian option, the bread and butter pudding is joined by sherry trifle and sticky toffee pudding.

A concise wine list spans the globe with a good selection available by the glass.

Be sure to visit their attractive and informative Website, showing only too clearly what an appealing place Kitley House is.

The mere act of turning up at the Riverside at West Bay with its stunning views of the river and the sea, sends you into fishy mode. Nor will you be disappointed. Emphasis is on simplicity in almost every sense, food, cooking, décor, the lot. Those who, for whatever reason, cannot rise to the fish are not only tolerated but provided for with the same expertise and care that goes into the restaurant's forte.

The Riverside has its genesis in a tent that regularly used to sprout up on the site in early summer early last century, in which some aspiring local entrepreneur was wont to refresh visitors and locals with tea and cakes. Inevitably wooden huts took over, then a Post Office and finally increasing occasions when the whole area flooded during the 60s and 70s. This was no good to anybody so the present owners rebuilt the whole area in such a way that you didn't have to pack a lifejacket when you set out to dine.

Food from the sea has always been paramount and starters could offer smoked mussel and crab chowder, or the West Bay crab linguine topped with fresh parmesan shavings.

A good mix of locals and 'foreigners' is always a healthy sign and there's no lack of both as they work their way through pan seared scallops with pinenut and herb butter. While the roasted wild sea bass fillets served with tenderstem broccoli and dill Hollandaise takes some beating, but then you are up against whole or dressed crab with mixed salad. Never mind the sea food platter – it contains fresh seasonal sea food available such as lobster, crab, langoustines, prawns, mussels, oysters and clams, prepared as they should be with minimum mucking about.
 
Lover sole is good almost anywhere, but here at Lyme Bay it has a freshness about it that seems unique, grilled simply on the bone with sea salt and lemon. The fillet of brill is served with crispy spinach and sorrel sauce, but the money is on grilled Portland oysters with accompaniments.

Riverside is fortunate indeed to have in the puddings department pastry Chef Amy Moss, who daily engages in a contest with the other chefs to see who can raise the most applause from the diners, some of whom are rumoured to travel serious distances to sample the compelling results of her talents. Think Griottine cherries and white chocolate, or set rice pudding with Armagnac macerated prunes and Breton biscuits.

A wine list of over 100 bins gallops round the world and favours the fish, needless to say, but not exclusively. This is without doubt one the finest fish restaurants in the South West, a sentiment echoed by a local well known celebrity chef who also enjoys a rivered location.

Check on their Website for changes - they are a restless lot as befits those who strive for the best, so menus change, and their list of Awards might redouble your efforts to make an early booking. Watch out for the fact that they generally close from early December to the middle of February every year.

Brewer's Fayre restaurants offer a warm welcome to those who want a reliably tasty meal in pleasant surroundings, with plenty of choice, minimal fuss and friendly service. With a reputation going back 25 years they should have a fair chance of doing that, but don't take our word for it. Give them a try and see if you agree that this is how good quality pub food should be served.

Whether it's snacks, grills, pub classics, fish, Sunday roasts or side dishes they think their way through the options, talk to their guests, and then come up with the goods. Not everybody wants a full meal so they've considered the needs of those who want to keep the gap filled and the children contented, perhaps on a journey or a day out.

Hot filled baguettes are always popular be it sausage and red onion or a classic chicken club sandwich. Jacket potatoes are good on their own but filled with mature cheddar cheese and beans they take on a new dimension.

More paced occasions demand a wide menu, perhaps with starters of breaded butterfly prawns, chicken goujons or breaded camembert bites. Grills are there for the hungry and whole rack of meaty BBQ pork ribs served with extra sauce, chips and coleslaw can be very welcome. The days of the mixed grill are back - or did they ever go away - a 4oz rump steak, two pork sausages, and a gammon steak topped with a fried egg served with all the trimmings will remind you if they did.

Salmon and prawn fishcakes are served with buttered new potatoes, tartare sauce and a lightly dressed salad. A combination of sea and land comes with a rump steak, whole grilled chicken breast and breaded breaded butterfly prawns, served with chips and a side salad or garden peas.

The rise of eating out in pubs has brought into our daily lives a whole legion of what might be termed 'pub classics'. Many of them have their roots in what used to be called 'good home cooking' and include such dishes as sausage, egg and chips, beef and ale pie, chicken and mushroom pie and for the very daring a beef lasagne. Well, all of them and many more are on the menu at Brewer's Fayre, supplemented by such new regulars as vegetable Goan chicken curry, pork chop, chilli con carne and grilled chicken and bacon salad.

It has often been said that chicken tikka masala is now the most popular dish in Britain. Some may not really want to believe that, much as they love curry, but travel, population movement and other factors have widened our scope and they are probably pretty keen on fish and chips in Timbuktu.

What is certain is that the great British Sunday roast is exclusive to these islands, though copied maybe elsewhere or in ex-pat outposts. No surprise therefore that it's on the Brewer's Fayre menu. A trade of three roasts with an opportunity to trade up to a mega roast for a modest sum. With it come two Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, fresh seasonal vegetables and that important element - gravy.

A fine list of immensely tempting desserts may well bring the most ardent weight-watcher to their knees. A short but well thought out wine list offers all choices, except champagne, by the glass. Staying the night - check to see if there's a Premier Inn next door - chances are you'll be lucky.

A quick click on their Website is always worth while. The only thing that stays still permanently is the quality which is helped by a changing menu, and some very special offers.

The Beefeater Grill range of restaurants, owned by the well established firm of Whitbread has transformed over time into what is now predominantly a cooking platform for chargrill. The restaurants are warm, modern and stylish, with low lighting and contemporary artwork. A comfortable, cosy, mainly booth layout offers guests their own space with no feeling of being hurried at any point. Staff are friendly and helpful if need be - what a difference that can make to a good evening out.

Be it the wide open spaces of Argentina, the intimate setting of a French restaurant, or a busy grill in London's West End, there's no denying the popularity of chargrill. As the production of quality beef, chicken, fish and lamb has grown, prices have come down by comparison, and the simple and traditional art of minimally cooking dishes by chargrill, sealing in the flavours and tastes by intense heat has caught the public imagination.

All the steaks at Beefeater Grill are matured for a minimum of 28 days before being seasoned. Whether it be juicy rib eye, the classic sirloin, that emblem of the Sunday lunch, a tender fillet, or a delicious 7oz rump, all grilled to your own specification, you're never far away from perfection. Even beefburgers have shaken off their dubious image and the highly popular Beefeater burgers are made from 100% beef.

The popular sirloin with giant prawns offers a treat to those for whom an alliance between sea and pasture is a natural attraction, whilst a 16oz steak platter links rump, fillet, sirloin and rib eye into one mouth-watering dish served with chips, battered onion rings, grilled tomato, a flat mushroom and peppercorn and brandy sauce.

Many of us love rib meat, and the rack of ribs at a Beefeater Grill has a meaty rack smoky flavour; maple ribs of pork with a choice of three sauces, mojito, smoked caramel and apple glaze, or Bourbon and black BBQ. And if all else fails and you are totally baffled by the wealth of choices, ask to have a word with the Steakmaster who will help find what is right for you, together with the best cooking method. These guys leave nothing to chance.

On a menu that is a delight to read, let alone choose a meal from, expect to find smaller dishes such as traditional prawn cocktail, whitebait, chicken liver pâté and baked Camembert, or juicy lamb koftas served with yoghurt and mint dip. There's something about a good steak meal that always leaves a gap for a little temptation to sweeten up the scene and from amongst twelve options look for Belgian chocolate cheesecake, treacle sponge pudding or a caramel apple crumble pie.

Throughout the day a wide range of more general dishes are yours for the ordering, sandwiches, jackets, classic favourites like fish and chips, pasta, salads, and sharing dishes of nachos, potato shells and a Beefeater Grill combo. Next door to many of the restaurants are Premier Inns, so staying the night whatever the circumstances need not be a problem.

And what about wine? Endorsed by Matthew Jukes, wine writer in the Daily Mail and bon viveur in his own right, a wine list that marches with the menu completes an impressive and compelling invitation to enjoy whatever takes your fancy at the nearest Beefeater Grill.

Click on their Website for menu updates and special offers.

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.

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.

Strada describes itself as 'a group of stylish, contemporary Italian restaurants, serving good quality, simple and freshly prepared dishes'. The statement sums up what this group of around seventy restaurants offers to people looking for good Italian food. The first outlet opened in Battersea in 1999 and their clientele has been increasing steadily ever since.

Though Strada has grown into a fair sized group, each outlet retains the feel of being a local neighbourhood Italian restaurant. The menu includes pastas, risottos, salads, and fish dishes, but they are best known for their quality pizzas.

They present authentic Italian dishes in contemporary surroundings and aim to use only the freshest and finest ingredients, such as Luganica sausages, Parma ham and buffalo mozzarella, imported from Italy to provide exactly the kind of rustic, traditional dishes one would expect to find travelling around its regions.

A meal could kick off with zuppa vongole e fregola, a traditional clam soup with Sardinian fregola pasta grains, wine, chilli and parsley, served with bread, or the delicious sautéed king prawns with garlic, white wine, chilli, and lemon butter served with your choice of bread.

Move on to their creamy risotto verdure, freshly grilled asparagus, broad beans, peas, spring onions, zucchini, green beans, white wine and mint, finished with baby spinach leaves. Or you could opt for the healthier, tagliolini nero granchio, black cuttlefish ink pasta with crab, courgette, red and yellow peppers, spring onion, and a hint of chilli and parsley. A real treat for the taste buds comes in the form of the bistecca manzo, a 10oz rosemary-marinated char-grilled, rib-eye steak with fries and fresh rocket.

A range of pizzas, all spun by hand, is an integral feature of each restaurant. They include the rossa, with spicy southern Italian salami, roasted red peppers, chilli, caramelised onion, garlic, fresh oregano, tomato and mozzarella. Nor are vegetarians are overlooked, and can be found tucking into dishes such as fiorentina, made of spinach cooked with garlic, nutmeg and black pepper with mozzarella, parmesan, tomato and an egg.

For those wanting to satisfy their sweet tooth, there is torroncino affogato, an iced nougat semi freddo with a shot of espresso to pour over, or a classic Italian tiramisu and, as you might expect coffee to round off the meal.

A wine list consisting of purely regional Italian wines, beers and liqueurs, all carefully chosen to complement the menu comes as no surprise and in addition, every table receives a complimentary bottle of purified water.

For further details including their latest news, menus and deals, and to find a Strada nearest to you, their Website certainly warrants a visit.