Highcliff Grill

Sitting proudly on a blustery clifftop overlooking Bournemouth sands, this grand white hotel is a majestic Victorian edifice owned by the Marriott group, now offering due testimony to the prevailing sense of cool spreading along the south coast. Inside, the decorative approach is mellow modern, with soothing tones of green and warm crimson in the Grill restaurant. Sensibly constructed around box office dishes such as ozone-fresh seafood, chargrilled steaks and modern classics like monkfish wrapped in Parma ham, the menus are not above some more daring turns. So you might begin with smoked mackerel tian with a goats' cheese and beetroot bavarois, and continue through roast duck breast with celeriac dauphinoise, parsley purée and grapes in a Merlot vinegar sauce, before coming reassuringly home to treacle pudding with orange custard, or Dorset cheeses.