Foodhound

If you’re in a particular town, where should you head for good food and coffee at reasonable prices?

Bath

Not as easy as you’d think to find good food and coffee in Bath.

Best all-rounder: Chequers (River’s Street) – great for a varied (gastro) pub lunch menu and delicious suppers. Nice medium-sized interior:  Georgian windows, large old tables. Vegetarian Sunday roasts. King William (on the London Road) is also excellent.

Best everyday coffee: Jika Jika (George Street) – spacious, great tables for working,  simple, good food too – did I mention the breakfasts? the cakes? the lovely lunches? addictive flat whites

Colonna & Smalls – (near Queen Square)  boutique coffee shop with specialist approach to coffee and many intriguing varieties,  light interior, great railway station benches, small garden, and nice homemade flapjack too

Ben’s Cafe (Walcot Street) Small with 4-5 tables but lovely coffee and food including great cakes and hard-to-find Spanish omelette.

Edinburgh

Best all-rounder: Doric Tavern, 15 Market Street, just behind main train station

Best coffee: Kilimanjaro (apparently)

Bristol

Taste at St. Nicolas Market and the Portuguese stall opposite for amazing and authentic custard tarts (£1 each)

Oz, The Triangle (off Park Street) – lovely Turkish food at great prices

Norwich

Britons Arms, Elm Hill – I’ve been eating and lounging around here since I was a small child.

London

Best all-rounder (but difficult to get table – ring a week in advance): Andrew Edmunds, Lexington Street

Moro, Exmouth Market

Bedford & Strand, off Strand, near Covent Garden

Natural Kitchen, Marylebone High Street

Ottolenghi, Upper Street, Islington

Brindisa, South Kensington (near S. Ken tube)

Best coffee and teatime

Monmouth Coffee Company in Covent Garden/ Shaftesbury Ave; Borough Market (they sell the BEST decaf coffee in Britain – buy some to take home)

Market Cafe, Smithfield (lovely English teatime treats too)

Maison Bertaux, Greek Street, Soho – obviously – for best buns and cakes in Britain

LRB (London Review Books Bookshop) cafe, near British Museum

Villandry (Gt Portland Street, near Oxford Circus)

Devon

Riverford Field Kitchen for lunch feasts – everyone smiling especially when the 8 varieties of pudding are mentioned

The Seahorse, Dartmouth for a blow-out local fish supper – Mitch Tonks’ new restaurant and wonderful. Also his laid-back Rockfish resturant (and takeaway)  for traditional English seafood from pints of prawns to fish and chips

Cafe Alf Rescos, Dartmouth for best breakfasts and coffee in the whole of Devon – if not the South-West.

Devon Guild, Bovey Tracy – five minutes off the A38 between Exeter and Plymouth – perfect for a quick tea break or lunch.

Blacks, Chagford – has this the most delicious deli food in England – possibly – really really lovely quiches and soups. Not much space to eat-in.

FOOD SHOPS ETC

North Norfolk and coming soon: Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester.

Meanwhile if you have any recommendations please let me know.