The Arlington, 161 Snargate Street, Dover (01304 209 444)
Local carpenter Ian Groombridge and his brother Carl, a chef, took over what was 'Kent's smallest pub' in March 2003 and reopened it as a sleek modern restaurant. The Arlington seats just 20, allowing Carl to cook and serve typical brasserie-style lunches single handed. In the evenings, a full menu runs from sea bream with Vietnamese-style veg to apple and toffee crumble with Amaretto glaze - very popular now, 'probably because of the weather'.

The King's Arms, Market Square, Stow-on-the-Wold (01451 830 364)
The bar of this old coaching inn features exposed Cotswold-stone walls, but it's upstairs that fans of Peter Robinson's cooking go for the chance to choose their own tipple from a 'wine wall'. Robinson and wife Louise brought sophisticated ideas with them from their time at the Tresanton Hotel, Cornwall; on an ever-changing menu are the likes of roast quail with Italian sausage, French beans and marinated pork chop with turlu turlu, a sort of Lebanese ratatouille.

Thyme & Plaice, 8 Newbury Street, Wantage (01235 760 568)
Some folk think the name of this restaurant, set in an 18th-century townhouse 'a bit naff', but no one quibbles with Duncan Basterfield's superb British cuisine. Sometime sous-chef at Le Manoir, Basterfield recalls when no one was doing his sort of cooking for miles, let alone in Wantage. Thyme & Plaice has been open only a year, but it's packed at weekends; who could resist 'apple polenta, mascarpone, Parma ham and blackberry balsamic'?