Gaby's La Tremblade

Stuck on the cul des sac past the market place I'd been before and it was just as good. This year there's a dining area right on top of the channel so you can watch the tide turn as you eat. Partner went for oysters followed by white fish in sauce de limon. I had mussels to start and a magret de canard to follow. All dishes were excellent. Waitress didn't feel I could eat mussels followed by duck but I found it remarkably easy. The duck was superb. Cooked rose and elegantly placed on the plate in small slices. An interesting twist on vegetables was green and yellow cylindrical concoction which turned out to be very tasty. Croquettes came from a bag though...

Les Parallels, La Palmyre

First time we encountered a Plancha - being a hotplate in the middle of the table powered by gas whereby you received a plate of raw food from the kitchen and cooked it yourself in front of your eyes. Nice idea and it worked quite well. I eschewed this however and had pate to start - the plate being loaded with two thick slabs plus much salad and toast. Followed on with Magret de canard aux cranberries with a sauce aigre douce and another sauce. Again one too many flavours and less duck than I was expecting and much salad dressing.

Town House, Markinch

Highly recommended by my client and my battered balls of Haggis served with lettuce, red onion jam, honey and mustard dressing were nice but probably a flavour too far as Masterchef would say. I was eagerly anticipating the main course of topside of beef and I asked for it rare but sadly it looked like it had come out of a packet and was well done and bland and also thin and had no texture or taste. The chilean Cabernet sauvignon helped a little.