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A really good traditional chippie just a few yards from the town centre.
Dolgellau town centre
First stop on the Curry Mile from the City Centre, and no need to go further - excellent service, from the complimentary poppadoms and pickles -tasty, well-prepared and presented curries and high tolerance for families. They have two other branches in Didsbury and Heald Green, but Rusholme works for me.
Oxford Road, Rusholme
Curry house that always delivers fantastic food. Rich, spicey and delicious.
38 Brighton Rd,
Surbiton
Surrey.
KT6 5PQ.
020 8399 9647
Devana is the best Indian restaurant I have been to - it is reknowned in my family as the place to go for a mouth watering Peshwari naan!
80 Christchurch Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG2 7AZ
0118 987 1803
Great restaurant, great food, good selection, excellent service, ice-cold draught Cobra (and bottled King Cobra), very good fixed price menu with good selection midweek. Book on Fridays and Saturdays.
I've tried them all locally and this is the best.
133 Chanterlands Avenue Hull HU5 3TJ. About 1 and a half miles from city centre.
Fantastic local curry house. A tiny little place in a run-down back street in SW8. Fantastic east-African food with real flavour and very cheap. Bring your own drink. Regularly changing specials. Particularly good for vegetarians.
Wilcox Close, London, SW8.
Nearest tubes Stockwell and Vauxhall.
Nearest bus routes 2, 88, 77, 87, 196.
Babur is (apparently) a bit of a south-east London legend and has existed for over 20 years. Their takeaway is the best I've ever had (whole spices, judicious application of chilli heat, pretty decent quality meat etc).
They have just refurbished their restaurant (which is in a differnt location to the takeaway). It's always packed at the weekend with a nice crowd, and no p*ssed-up punters, which could be due to the fact it's a bit dearer than your average ruby due to it's modern take on regional classics. Good wine-list too, and really helpful, friendly staff. I really can't recommend this place enough...
119 Brockley Rise
Forest Hill
London SE23 1JP
www.babur.info
Prashad serves a mix of tasty Dosa and Gujarati cooking, delicious chaat and roadside snacks. Mrs Patel - the chief cook - has been named Yorkshire Forward Chef of the Year 2004 & 2006 and South Indian Chef of the Year in 2005 & 2006. Don't let the fact it being vegetarian put you off - I always take my friends and they are always gobsmacked with how great the food is!
86 Horton Grange Road, Bradford, BD7 2DW; tel: 01274 575 893;
The best vegetarian Indian restaurant in town, which is saying something. Some of the 50 or so dishes will be new to many - for starters, try mysore bonda (amazingly light fried lentil balls with coconut dips), mosar vade (lentil doughnuts in yogurt) or a tangy, crunchy bhel puri.
Highlights among the mains include dosais, aloogadde soppu (the best spinach and potato dish I've eaten), a wonderful mutter paneer and a vibrant, earthy beetroot sasami. It's cheap, too: the most expensive main dish is £5.75. Service is always friendly, helpful and relaxed.
153 Granby Street,
Leicester,
0116-255 4667
www.hallirestaurant.com
Oldest seafood cafe in Nice. Eat moules, oyster, lobster and shellfish platters. Wash them down with delicious white wine/whisky.
Plaza Garibaldi
Central Otago has more than its fair share of wineries where you can enjoy tastings and/or a great meal among some of New Zealand’s finest scenery.
One of my favourites is the Amisfield Winery which is halfway between Queenstown and Arrowtown on the shores of Lake Hayes. It’s a fantastic place for a relaxed lunch or dinner with a great outdoor terrace (weather permitting). If they’ve got any left, try their rose but I’m afraid I may have drunk it all on my last visit.
www.amisfield.co.nz
10 Lake Hayes Road, RD 1, Queenstown
It's a fantastic cafe and deli on the wharf in one of the most picturesque spots you can imagine.
Everything is locally produced and smoked in-house, from tomatoes to fish to meat, you name it they smoke it. The café is on the wharf itself so you sit with the water gently lapping beneath your feet.
www.smokehouse.co.nz
Sheds 2&3, Mapua Wharf
Nelson Bays
Starfish Bakery is a charitable cafe/bakery/art shop with internet access that also offers excellent massages in its Sala Santepheap.
My massage, with a blind older lady named Janara, was one of the best I'd ever had and only cost US$10 for 90 min (in Sept 2007).
The cafe food also looked delicious. Mainly western stuff like omelettes, cakes, coffee.
Proceeds support Starfish Cambodia www.starfishcambodia.org/
www.canbypublications.com/sihanoukvilleads/starfishbakery.htm
Downtown Sihanoukville, on a small dirt road right around the corner from Samudera Market(1-2 min walk)
tel. 012 952 011
Golden Bay is a unique and gorgeous area hidden away right at the northwestern tip of the South Island, and could just be the country's most complete destination.
It is sandwiched between two national parks (Abel Tasman and Kahurangi - lots of walking and adventure options) and stretches back toward the mountains from a strip of coast with loads of different beaches: from golden sands and perfect swimming (e.g. Tata Beach, Paton's Rock) to the vast, wild, and often deserted west coast ones, such as the unmissable Wharariki. There are also mountains, rivers, springs, forests, caves, limestone cliffs etc.
Yet, not only is the scenery totally stunning and worth a visit for its own sake, but the various little settlements of the Bay (Takaka is the main town) feature a wonderfully characterful jumble of shops, cafes, restaurants and accommodation ranging from old school rural to laid-back contemporary, via quirky hippie/traveller (the place has long been a magnet for alternative lifestylers).
You will be spoiled for choice for food and drink whether you want to chill out with a perfect coffee and cake and watch the world go by (or the sea - there's even a cafe based on an old (moored) boat of Jaques Cousteau's, scoff fish and chips by the water (Golden Fries in Takaka is tops, and the sea a five-minute drive away), drink a nice cold pint of award-winning beer brewed onsite at the Mussel Inn, or savour the delicious nightly set-menu at the Sans Souci Inn.
There are plenty of cheap camping and backpacking options to be had and a good selection of mid-range, although if you want to splash some cash there are also some seriously luxurious places to stay. Just make sure you book accommodation ahead during high season (December-February), as the most popular places fill up fast.
And finally, make sure you save some time (and money) for dropping into the legions of home-based studios and galleries dotted all over the area, as the natural beauty of the area has long made it irresistible to artists and craftspeople.
Listing all this, I just can't wait to go back myself!
From Nelson head to Richmond and take State Highway 60, through Motueka and then over the Takaka Hill. Follow the signs for Takaka and/or Collingwood - there is a well-stocked information centre on the left just as you arrive into Takaka which can sort you out with maps, brochures, bookings and knowledgeable advice.
This little cafe serves filling and deliciious vegetarian meals. It's unpretentious and good value.
97 Stewart Street Dunedin
ph +64 3 477 9983
Slope Head is the most southerly point on mainland New Zealand which was cold, wild and waterlogged but provided a photo opportunity next to the signpost pointing to Antarctica in one direction and the Equator in the other, before heading for Bluff and half a dozen of its famous oysters and a pint of Guinness. Actually it was the end of June, and the only place advertising this delicacy was closed.
The coast road between Invercargill and Dunedin.
Visit "Le Zimmer" (a stone's throw from Notre Dame) and you'll see why this restaurant inspired the idea for "Le Tour".
If you've ever experienced more sumptuous carpets and curtains you clearly are or are related to Linda Barker!
La Rotisserie d'En Face, 2 rue Christine 75006 Paris is a magnificent restaurant.
You have never tasted spit roasted free range organic chicken like it and the mashed potato is possibly the best in the world.
I impressed them when I had the Hereford irish prime rib with bearnaise sauce by having another jug of bearnaise.
Do I need to mention the creme brulee?
Treat your taste buds and try the ice cream at Berthillon (29-31 rue Saint Louis en l'Ile). You will find it by taking a footbridge behind Notre-Dame leading to the beautiful Ile St- Louis.
Being a vegetarian in France is always a challenge - but at Le Grenier de Notre Dame, within a lentil's spitting distance from the Left Bank (18 Rue de la Bucherie, ironically enough), veggies will find on the menu not just edible, but interesting.
I enjoyed an Algerian dish - and the point is that you still get the experience and joy of a good French restaurant, without the endless array of meat. Yum!
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