PAUL AINSWORTH AT NO 6 SOUTH-WEST
Recommended by Tommy Banks Chef-proprietor, the Black Swan, Oldstead, N Yorks
Cornwall
I can’t wait to dine at Paul Ainsworth’s No6 in Padstow this summer. It has been on my list to visit for a while now and I’m super excited to finally get down there! We will have to make a few culinary stops en route of course – it is quite a drive from Yorkshire.
6 Middle St, Padstow, Cornwall, PL28 8AP; paul-ainsworth.co.uk/number6
I FITZROY Cornwall
Recommended by Keith Miller Sunday Telegraph restaurant writer
Honesty compels me to admit that my first two intended ports of call, if the gods will it, are both blue-chip London stalwarts: I’m booked in at St John on Thursday for a late two-bottle supper (here’s hoping the ox heart is on), and Fischer’s, for a possibly more temperate family birthday knees-up the following week. The purpose of both these visits is as much ritualistic as it is gastronomic: they’re about the renewal of personal ties in sacred spaces.
But the restaurant that’s got me licking my lips on its own terms, as a thingin-itself, is Fitzroy in Cornwall. It’s on the way down to the in-laws, where we shall be headed in due course – though of course it’s difficult to get to, as everywhere is in Cornwall. I haven’t quite given up hope of arriving by boat, one foot up on the gunwales (whatever they are), my lockdown hair rippling in a stiff onshore breeze like the corsairs of old, in hot pursuit of hake with green sauce. But I’ll get there somehow.
2 Fore St, Fowey, Cornwall, PL23 1AQ ; fitzroycornwall.com
I THE NOBODY INN Devon
Recommended by Susy Atkins
Telegraph wine columnist
Next week will see me making an unseemly dash in the direction of a classic country pub I’ve been enjoying for at least 25 years. It’s a 17th-century building 10 miles west of Exeter, which became a pub in the 1830s, and the inside is as traditional and cosy as it gets. The Nobody’s wine list is famously brilliant, independent and diverse with plenty by the glass; the beers are excellent and a 200-plus range of whiskies will ward off any vestigial chills after five weeks of outdoor dining. Doddiscombsleigh, Nr. Exeter, Devon, EX6 7PS; nobodyinn.co.uk
I BIANCHIS Bristol
Recommended by Claire Thomson
Telegraph food columnist
This trailblazer of a neighbourhood restaurant is reopening at the end of this month after a soft launch. I’m longing to book an early evening table with my children and husband, and watch the great and the good of Montpelier amble past the huge shopfront windows. A brilliant Italian restaurant with indomitable spirit.
1-3 York Rd, Bristol, BS6 5QB; bianchisrestaurant.co.uk