The Dower House Restaurant

Locations don't come much more exclusive than the Georgian splendour of Bath's Royal Crescent. A top-hatted doorman sets the tone in a blue-blooded setting fit to serve as a film set for a bodice-and-breeches period drama, while the eponymous luxury hotel's Dower House Restaurant is tucked away in a secluded rear garden - perfect for alfresco summer dining. It is a luminous space done out with swathes of mink-hued silk and plushly-padded olive-green seats at widely-spaced linen-clad tables. The kitchen deals in bang up-to-date food, backed up by sharp technical skills and a creative vein that mines influences from the Mediterranean and further afield, as in a starter that brings together a torchon of foie gras with apple, lemongrass and ginger jelly, apple purée, peppercorn salt and ginger caramel. Main courses might showcase Wiltshire Downlands lamb - a herb-rolled loin, say, with a honey and lavender reduction, autumn vegetable gratin, goats' curd and caramelised sweetbread. Desserts are refined affairs too - perhaps sage roulade with sharp orange purée, bitter chocolate, and Cointreau sorbet.