What the experts recommend
Mannings Hotel Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall (01872-247900).
The menu at Mannings, a handsome hotel restaurant in Truro, is long and “extraordinarily restless”, says Jay Rayner in The Observer – as if “written by a wellfunded backpacker” recalling the culinary highlights of jaunts to Italy, Japan, Mexico, Thailand and the Americas. Naturally, I feared the worst: could one kitchen really pull all this off? The answer is a resounding yes. A massaman curry of long-braised lamb has “depths you could lose yourself in”. Tom kha soup, bobbing with fat prawns, is “a big sweet-sour savoury broth, with the bellow and shout of fish sauce”. A plate of “sashimi-grade” tuna is just that, and dressed with a sticky soy-lime glaze of the sort you could happily lick off your fingers. My companions enjoy a plate of greaseless fish tempura, a well-roasted chicken breast, and some very fine salt-and-pepper squid. Mannings’ cooking will not leave you breathless, but it is assured, convincing and satisfying – and “any number of towns across this country would just kill to have a place” like it. Meal for two, including drinks and service, £70.
Dapur 13 Lamb’s Conduit Passage, London WC1 (020-7405 4659)
I was wandering through Holborn when, in a dog-leg off a side street, I came upon a “hidden courtyard of brightly coloured chairs and a queue snaking out of a small café” serving home-cooked Malaysian food. So I joined it, says Marina O’loughlin in The Guardian – and emerged with a takeaway container full of rich, tomatoey lamb masak rempah, crunchy beans, sambal hot sauce spiked with fruity, pungent chilli paste, and coconut rice. On a swift return visit, Dapur confirmed its serious credentials. A “glorious” little vegetable pie, slathered with home-made red chilli and anchovy sambal tumis, was the “emperor” of prelunch snacks. Slow-cooked beef rendang with nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) is thick, dark and delicious. The two women behind this unassuming place say that “all we know about cooking is through learning from our mothers and grandmothers using recipes passed on for generations”. You can tell, with every mouthful. About £7 a head; lunchtimes and Friday evenings only, bookable for large parties Monday-thursday evenings.
Topes 60 High Street, Rochester, Kent (01634-845270)
Charles Dickens famously demanded no memorials, says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. “But he got one anyway. It’s called Rochester High Street.” Here, in the town which the great man loved (but where he never actually lived), you will find the Tiny Tim’s and Peggotty’s Parlour tea rooms; a sweet shop called Sweet Expectations, and a greengrocer called Pips. I avoid a restaurant called Oliver’s. “I’m sure it’s very nice, but a name like that is going to make you worry about the size of the portions.” Instead, I take a punt on Topes, named after the chief verger in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and my decision pays off. A starter of pressure-cooked beef cheek is delicious; a main of guinea fowl comes with a terrific herb potato rösti. We enjoy an excellent Kentish wine (a fruity white from Biddenden). And the staff are endearingly indulgent of my “little beast” of a two-year-old, who enjoys his fish and chips. Sunday lunch for two, £50, plus wine.