The menu created by Pascal Barbot at L'Astrance 4 rue Beethoven, Paris (00 33 1 40 50 84 40), will take you to a new culinary dimension - langoustines are served with a butter sauce flavoured with coconut milk and tamarind, while the sorbet tastes of lemongrass and red pepper. Self-taught chef Santi Santamaria has won three Michelin stars at Can Fabes, Sant Joan 6, Sant Celoni, Spain (00 34 938 672 851; racocanfabes ). Adding to the appeal is chef Les Rennie's red mullet with tomato sorbet, and pistachio souffl?mail Terry Durack about where you've eaten lately at t.durack independent.co.uk. Great restaurants are about more than just the food, drink and service. The seasonally driven menu runs to pan-fried mackerel and coriander-crusted venison.Lords of the ManorUpper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, tel: 01451 820243 Set in a 17th-century former rectory in the heart of the Cotswolds, this is one of Britain's prettiest country house hotels. Dinner around £75 for two, including wine and service.Second helpings: Some more pubs with panacheDuke of Cambridge30 St Peter's Street, London N1, tel: 020 7359 3066 The all-organic Duke of Cambridge serves up pub grub with a conscience, from chicken liver parfait and bream to fennel ?a Greque. It also stocks organic beers, lagers and wines.Sir Charles NapierSprigg's Alley, Chinnor, Oxfordshire, tel: 01494 483011 This charming converted inn in the Chiltern Hills boasts a helipad, a beautiful garden and striking statues by Michael Cooper.

The Marquess definitely has the right bones and the right ambitions. Now it just needs a touch of greatness, and it will be as hard to get into as my local local.12/20 Scores 1-9 stay home and cook 10-11 needs help 12 OK 13 pleasant enough 14 good 15 very good 16 capable of greatness 17 special, can't wait to go back 18 highly honourable 19 unique and memorable 20 as good as it getsThe Marquess Tavern, 32 Canonbury Street, London N1, tel: 020 7354 2975Lunch and dinner served daily. boring.On the up side, the staff are as nice as pie, a gluten intolerance is dealt with gracefully and without fuss, the wine list is more interesting than most, and the whole place is low-key and relaxed, if noisy.But it's a pub, after all, and that's what we want from a pub: a noisy, unpretentious space in which we can stop for a pint or stay for a decent meal presented without fuss or bother in a uniquely British manner. To finish, a big bowl of rice pudding and apple jam (£5.50) is down-home comfort food that only just rises above being milky rice topped with a spoonful of apple pur?What is missing in most of these dishes is that touch of the inspired that gives you more than you bargained for. Everything, once touched by human hands, seems reduced to the ordinary instead of being lifted to the extraordinary - be it produce, cooking or presentation It's a bit... She could get away with the bland white sauce and the slightly gummy mash if the ham were juicy and brightly flavoured, but instead it is dry and dull. A dish of green salad (£3) is doubly disappointing, the leaves tired, floppy and under-dressed.Floured and pan-fried, a decent-sized whole lemon sole is good value for £13, served with a swag of boiled jersey royals and a chunky cucumber salad.

Pea and mint soup (£5) starts off salty, but settles down into an honest, hearty, sludgy soup, instead of a gussied up, big-night-out pur?A main course of ham, mash and parsley sauce (£11) is straight out of Mum's kitchen. The trouble is, the food comes back as a shopping list as well - two fresh sardines (£5) are plonked on a thick wedge of dry toast with a tomato; three kidneys (£6.50), ditto. Sardines and tomatoes (on toast); pea and mint (soup); oh, and don't forget the (devilled) kidneys. The Chapel Down Pinot Blanc 2004 (£22) is assertive and acidic enough, however, to drive me south to New Zealand for a Matua Valley 2005 Pinot Noir (£19.50) that is very light, delicate and balanced.Ordering the food, the three of us sound as if we are reciting a shopping list. Hayes has sought out some top local Islington suppliers - such as fishmonger Steve Hatt, Elliott's butchers and Patricia Michelson's La Fromagerie - to make sure the simplicity is more than skin-deep.It is not as easy for the wine list to be so proudly British, but it tries, with a Chapel Down Epoch 1 red from Kent, and the excellent Nyetimber Cuv?Blanc de Blancs Brut 99 from Sussex.