What the experts recommend

The Newport 1 High Street, Newport-on-tay, Fife (01382-541449) I have been known to take pops at chefs for taking TV cooking competitions too seriously, says Marina O’loughlin in The Sunday Times. So when Jamie Scott, the 2014 winner of Masterchef: The Professionals, took a gentle swipe back at me on Twitter, I thought I’d pay his Tayside restaurant a visit. And I am glad I did: it’s a marvel. The room is dominated by a vast picture window framing a “mesmerising” view of the Tay Bridge. Even more transfixing is the glorious food. An opening dish of young beans, tender leak and broadbean velouté is astonishing. A “beautiful” plate of beetroot done any number of ways makes that “plodding” root seem exciting again. Cleverly puttogether dishes of hake, pig’s head and Gloucester Old Spot belly all work extremely well. Duck breast with star anise is “plate-lickingly lovely”. And there’s a collection of clever desserts showcasing (like the rest) local produce. About £120 for a large meal for two.

Coal Office 2 Bagley Walk, London N1 (020-3848 6085) “You know that piece of style advice from Coco Chanel about looking at yourself in the mirror before going out and then taking off one thing?” I’d say that about several of the dishes at this otherwise excellent new Israeli restaurant, says Giles Coren in The Times. “Except take off maybe three things.” Part of a swanky new King’s Cross development, Coal Office is very glamorously kitted out by designer Tom Dixon, and is related (via chefproprietor Assaf Granit) to acclaimed London restaurants The Palomar and The Barbary. Everything I eat is “unquestionably delicious”, but sometimes there’s too much of it. I didn’t need boiled eggs in my whole octopus tentacle sandwich, for instance. Another dish had far too many berries and pomegranate seeds and “blobs of this and that”. Still, there are lots of hits: we had an “out of this world” kubalah (puffy, cake-like bread); sweet aubergine grilled to a “heavenly squish”; a lovely manakish (a sort of foldable pizza) with a “rich, aromatic chickpea splat” called msabbaha. It’s great food, but sometimes less is more. About £40 a head.

Assheton Arms Downham, Clitheroe, Lancashire (01200-441227) “I went on holiday to Clitheroe recently,” says Grace Dent in The Guardian. I know that sounds like “something Alan Bennett would have Thora Hird say”, but in my opinion, the Ribble Valley that surrounds the town is “Britain’s finest jewel for the tourist-who-does-dinner” – full of fine country pubs with great cooking. One such is the Parkers Arms at Newton-inBowland, where I gorged on “dreamlike pie and mash”. Another is the Assheton Arms, a “glorious” stone-fronted early 19th century pub where a welcoming young team works culinary wonders, with a bias towards fresh fish. I loved the Goan-influenced curry that was teeming with monkfish and fat prawns on a bed of aromatic coconut rice. And my guest enjoyed a “fragrant, peppery and prettily crimped” handmade pork pie. This neck of the woods is not on many people’s bucket list, which “makes it all the more blissful”. About £30 a head.