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In Driftwood, all is calm and ordered under the watchful eye of the owners, Paul and Fiona. Tresanton, Olga Polizzi’s flagship country house hotel in St Mawes, provides more of a contrast.

On the surface, things are similar between the two hotels - both share a holiday-defining view over the stunning south Cornish coast. Tresanton is set on the top of the cliffs in St Mawes, overlooking the St Anthony lighthouse on the headland opposite.

The building is on several levels, and we entered the empty lower-level bar to be briefly greeted by the bartender who then hurried back to her computerised till to complete the task she was working on when we came in. When she had finished, she turned round and asked the question that would reappear regularly until we were sat at our table: “inside or outside?”. Tresanton has an outside terrace, heated by no fewer than five patio heaters. I’m sure it is gorgeous on a balmy summer’s evening, but on a slightly chilly September evening…

But to the main event, the food. The menu was a simple list of ingredients:

Foie gras and chicken liver with chutney and toasted brioche.

Sea bass, saffron, crab and tomato risotto.

Chocolate and hazlenut torte, clotted cream, blackberries.

As we both fancied the same menu, we were easily able to compare.

The foie gras/chicken liver pate was good, but both it and the chutney appeared to be bought in rather than made in-house. We were chatting over the starter, but sensed that the waiting staff kept checking to see if we had finished. At one point we overheard them asking the kitchen to hold the main course, this was less than 20 minutes after we had sat down.

Consequently, the main course was slightly burnt round the edges. The sea bass, although overdone, was a good piece of fish, but the saffron, crab and tomato risotto was watery and tasteless. Had the timing continued, we would have been back on the street by 8.30pm. We asked for a break before the dessert.

Dessert was good, a nice balance of hazelnut and chocolate, although ice cream would have matched better than clotted cream.

We followed with coffee and petit fours in the lounge (we were beginning to get cold in the dining room as all the doors were open to the terrace), but the lounge was like a mausoleum.

Overall, Tresanton was not a good experience, although we both enjoyed the analysis! The atmosphere was cold and the waiting staff seemed to be driven by the computerised ordering system. The meal cost £1/head more than Driftwood, certainly Driftwood is streets ahead in food quality and service.

The last time we visited Roger, Ruth, Caitlin and Riona we were unable to get a table at Jack in the Green, a gastropub only a short taxi ride from where they live. As Ruth mentions, I’m happy to blog on the food!

The restaurant is warm and welcoming, with large leather sofas and chairs in the bar area, and well-spaced tables in smaller rooms dotted around the building. The service was friendly, competent and unobtrusive, and the kitchen specialises in local Devon ingredients.

Amuse bouche: Asparagus soup with truffle oil.

Ruby red beef with horseradish cream.
Confit of duck leg salad.
Smoked mackerel terrine, aubergine caviar, bombay potatoes.
Baked Vulscombe goats cheese with tomato dressing.

Fernleigh estate lamb.
Duck breast with baked cherries.
Asparagus with hollandaise sauce and poached egg.
Curried seabass with spicy seafood risotto.

Chocolate mousse with homemade lavender ice cream.
Greek yoghurt parfait with honey and local strawberries.
Panna cotta with local berries.

The food highlights were the lavender ice cream that Roger had with his chocolate mousse (the poor guy had to put up with three additional spoons descending onto his plate) and the lamb (pink and tender). The seabass was slightly over-spiced. The bread was really good, with four varieties to choose from, and they passed the water test. They could have provided more than five petit fours for four people, but that’s only a minor complaint as we were all stuffed by then!

We buy almost all of our fish from Murray at the Fencebay fish stall at the Partick and Queen’s Park Farmers’ Markets. So, when we took Rene and Bert down the Clyde Coast, we jumped at the opportunity to go the restaurant at Fencebay, Fins.

The restaurant is located just off the busy A78, in an old farm steading not far from the village of Fairlie. Also on site are the smokery, the farm shop and a cookery shop. Fins restaurant occupies the old byre and a more recent conservatory, and is warm and welcoming.

The food lives up to the farmers’ market reputation. It had that taste that you only get when the fish is really fresh and has been cooked with a light touch.

Mussels in a white wine sauce - the mussels were small and sweet, and the sauce really garlicky. (For some reason, I was the only person who had a starter!)

Pan-fried mackerel coated in oatmeal, onion marmalade.

Langoustines in garlic butter. Simple, classic, and around 200g of garlic butter for the whole table to dip our bread in!

Seared scallops, white wine, cream and salmon sauce. Sweet scallops, good caramelised flavour.

Cold seafood platter - hot smoked salmon, langoustines, crab claw, gravadlax, pickled herring, mussels, smoked salmon pate and oatcakes. A really well-packed, very Scottish platter.

This is the sort of seafood that Scotland exports every day to Spain and France, and is only just becoming common here.

The service was friendly, passing both stage 1 and 2 of the water test! The staff even offered more bread with the main course saying “you’ll need something to mop up the garlic butter”!

But don’t take my word for it. Support these guys in the UKTV Food Local Hero 2007 awards.

Rene and Bert have been here this week, so we had an excuse to go to Rococo in West George Street. We did want to go to Etain but they are closed for refurbishment at present.

Rococo is in the basement of one of the Blythswood Hill tenement blocks, but is light and welcoming, with large leather banquettes and comfortable leather armchairs. Service was attentive and friendly, although they failed the water test at Stage 2*. Surprisingly, the restaurant was only half empty at 8pm, and there were only two tables occupied by 9.30pm, and this was the start of the payday weekend!

The food was well executed and tasty, and presented well on large plates. Most of the ingredients were locally sourced, and the chef was accommodating enough to convert one of the starter dishes into a main course.

Amuse bouche: deep fried ball of duck confit (the oil was a little too hot, so the breadcrumb shell was a touch hard).

Green bean salad, red onions, chicory.
Ballotine of French rabbit, girolles.
Tian of crab, guacamole and tomato relish.

Loin of wild venison, cabbage, bacon & mushrooms
Oven Roasted Fillet of Scotch Beef with Glazed Green Beans, Roasted Gnocchi and Root Vegetables, Truffle Jus
Roast pigeon, pea risotto.

Caramelised apple mille feuille with salted caramel
Pepper cannelini with lemon ice cream and strawberries
Trio of panna cotta.

Coffee and (home-made) petit fours.

We all agreed that the star of the meal was my caramelised apple mille feuille.

* The water test
Points are awarded for:

• Stage 1: Providing a jug of iced tap water when requested (a bonus point if it appears unrequested);
• Stage 2: Leaving the jug on the table. If the restaurant is one of those pretentious ones that seem to think that diners can’t be trusted in pouring their own drinks, then the maximum time a water glass should be empty is 5 minutes.

Portadown suffers, not entirely unjustifiably, from a negative public image. It is therefore not the first place you would look for high quality grub.

I had lunch in the Yellow Door Deli with my Mum today. The front of the shop is the bakery and deli counter, and the front window is full of freshly baked loaves. There is a surprisingly large eating area at the rear of the deli, which was busy but still warm and welcoming.

As soon as we ordered, the waitress brought us a small selection of breads - wheaten, sourdough, cheese-topped white, tomato, herbed. I was a bit more full than I intended when the rest of the food arrived. I’ll be more prepared for that the next time.

There was a wide choice - various sandwiches using the in-house bread, soups and main courses. Mum chose the fusilli pasta with chicken in a cream sauce, accompanied by sourdough garlic bread. She pronounced it “lovely” with a big smile on her face! I chose a sandwich - confit of duck, hoisin sauce and sesame seeds on a sourdough roll. It came with nicely dressed leaves and small portions of greek and potato salad. Nicely packed and just the right amount.

We declined the offer of cake or patisserie for dessert, simply beacause we were both full.

Looking around at the other tables, the other dishes looked equally good. In particular, the brown stew came in a large bowl with potatoes and caramelised root veg. Had we been there for breakfast, there were some further tempting things on the menu (French toast with bacon and maple syrup for example).

Overall, this was a real find. OK, it’s made it into the Guardian directory and UKTV food heroes, but it was so different from the more typical Northern Irish lunch offerings that it is worth a visit. There’s not many places in Co. Armagh I could say that about.

My only negative comment is about their website. Not only does it use Flash rather than proper XHTML, but it has white text on a light yellow background on some pages, with no way of changing font size or colour, or even selecting the text to highlight it. Some screens are unreadable. Sack your design team and find someone who knows what they are doing!