The Reliance, Leeds

Touted as a gastropub by son's mate and he thought it would be good for his birthday meal. So we went. Very Londonish with old pub look. I thought grunge but was slapped down by son as being 15 years out of date.

Meals was good apart from one striking element of which more later. Starters of warm salad of home cured, air dried bacon, Reliance black pudding, broad beans, frisee & poached free range egg. Beautifully presented and promised a great meal. I had Gazpacho with crab meat and another had Naturally smoked haddock & spring onion fishcakes with watercress sauce. 4 great starters. As an aside we had 2 local bitters a white wine & soda and a 6% cider.

Mains of Yorkshire rabbit in cider with celery hearts and apple; Herb gnocchi, roasted yellow courgettes & Yorkshire pesto and then the strange one. Two of us went for Smoked rare breed pork belly with French style peas. The striking element was what the smoking had done to the pork crackling. It was dark brown, gelatinous (according to the waiter), rubbery (according to us) and almost impossible to cut and when you tried to eat it almost impossible to eat. Waiter when informed of our dislike said "That's what happens when we smoke it..."

The meat was nice enough but we left two slices of brown rubber on our plates.

Eton Mess, pannacotta and a chocolate pot rescued the meal a little but 2 of us felt a little dissatisfied. Good value at £25 a head for a nice ambience,; service was a little slow but most of it was very good.

Aston Hotel, Dumfries.

Beautiful setting in acres of green with well tended gardens. All it needed was petanque court to be heaven.

Novel system was £96-50 for evening meal, bed and breakfast. Thus I made my way to the restaurant to see what I could find. And it was good. Cullen skink (look it up) with fresh wholemeal bread followed by Rump of Lamb with dauphinoise potatoes and cherry spiced red cabbage. Very good. A trad too much cabbage but a very tasty meal. More chilean Red.

Breakfast next morning was pretty good. You can judge a breakfast by the sausage and although it touted it as a local product it was only average. To be honest you get better sausages in tesco than in most restaurants - pork & apple, pork & leek, the list is endless. The breakfast itself was good quality.

Total bill £100 but when the evening meal was £20 and the breakfast £10 that leaves £70 for the room which itself was very impressive. Comfortable bed, compact en suite but shower you could live in. Highly recommended.

(The extra money was a pint of beer. Not that good but it was a hotel. Top Tip *** Get in a real local ale. That will wow the tourists.)

Beaufort Park Hotel, Mold

Booked very late but at £44 a night it was a very reasonable price. There were many coach parties, restaurants, bar meals, weddings all taking place at the same time. Buzzing.

Into the restaurant and an unexpectedly good do. Starter of duck and goose salad. Cold and served on celery & apple with a dressing which was so light it was almost invisible & tasteless. Nice presentation.

Roast of the day was pork so I went for it. Full pork roast with everything you'd expect. 4 veg, roast spuds, gravy, apple sauce, cracking. Fantastic and only £9-95.

A glass of chilean red and it was an unpretentious restaurant serving good unpretentious food. Waiter assumed I was with a coach party and only charged me £9 until I pointed out that it should have been nearer £20 so he made the adjustment.

Brasserie Blanc, Leeds

Friday lunch next to the lovely river Aire. Sitting outside and a wonderful afternoon. Small olives, warm bread with soft butter as a pre starter then moules marinieres. Strangely the serveuse didn't let us linger over the pre starter and my dining companion instructed her to take them away until we were ready.

5 minutes later we were ready. I still wonder if they ditched them and served us a fresh pot... See later.

Wine to accompany was excellent. Chateau Maris Organic Syrah. £19-50 a bottle but we managed two.

Main course was veal. Slow cooked with wonderful vegetables and sauce. Sauce required lots of mopping up with bread. Added Maman Blanc’s miscellany of salads which was standard french crudites but very nice.

An unexpected long lunch. Very pleasant but not cheap. Cut out the wine and it's £70 for two but we didn't skimp on anything.

Post script. Leeds station was closed due to an incident so an expensive taxi home as well. Fellow diner felt ill over the weekend. Blamed the mussels.