Restaurant: The Westerly, Reigate

Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey. It is set at the foot of the North Downs about a mile off Junction 7 of the M25. It has retained some of its historical buildings including its castle which sits within the one-way system that encircles the town.

Probably the biggest down-side of Reigate is that the A25 runs right through the middle of the town. In fact the High Street is actually part of the A25.

In common with many other towns it has plenty of chain restaurants such as Pizza Express, Strada, Cafe Rouge, ASK etc. However it also boasts a number of individual restaurants serving above average food. The best of these is undoubtedly The Westerly.

The Westerly is situated just around the corner from the High Street on the London Road. If you were shopping in Reigate you might be tempted to turn back at the end of the High Street as it looks like there's nothing else of interest there but if you follow the one way system around on to the London Road then you will quickly come upon The Westerly.

It calls itself a "Modern Bistro" and I guess this sums it up neatly. It's got an air of casual elegance about it. It's informal and unfussy in a bistro type of way. However, unlike a Paris bistro such as Chez Georges (qv) there is at least some space between the tables.

I've been going to The Westerly since it opened about 18 months ago. It took over the premises previously occupied by another favourite of mine "Sweet Potato". When I first discovered it I was quite pleased that we had found another top restaurant not far from us.

My wife and I mistakenly thought this would become a regular place to visit on our Friday nights out. We always eat out on Friday night as it starts the weekend off on the right note. However I rarely book more than 24 hours in advance as I like to keep my options open to suit my mood.

Bit by bit it became impossible to get into The Westerly at short notice as word spread about how good it was. And then the floodgates opened.

The Westerly won the prestigious accolade of the 2008 Rémy Martin UK Restaurant Excellence Award. This award is given to the restaurant which has shown itself to be the most outstanding rising star of the UK restaurant scene.

The Westerly had not only finished ahead of other similar restaurants around the country but it had also beaten many Michelin-starred places to the title.

I don't know how many covers per week they did before the award but I'll bet that since the award they must have added at least 20% to the number. It is now nigh on impossible to get a weekend table at short notice. Unless you're really lucky like I was recently when I phoned in the hope of a cancellation. And bingo - I got a table.

The food is definitely a modern take on standard bistro fare. This is food that I would normally only expect to find in London or maybe in one or two of the top echelon of gastropubs.

I started with Croquette of Pig’s Head with Sauce Gribiche. My wife had Terrine of Chicken Livers, Cornichons and Onion Chutney. Both dishes hit the spot nicely.

Portions were just the right size for a starter - big enough to take the hunger away but small enough to leave you still yearning for the main course. They were accompanied by a basket of good quality bread. (I don't know if it's home made).

My main was the star of the night - Roast Icelandic Cod, Mash & Salsa Verde. This is a match made in heaven. As Michael Winner would say - "historic".

I'm fussy about my fish. Not only must it be fresh but it must verge on being undercooked. Fish that is overcooked (as most restaurants do it) is just a waste of money. Every fish (including shellfish) gets chewy and dry when it's cooked too much. That's not the way I want my fish.

I want a fish that has been seared on both sides and allowed to heat through until just past raw. This way it stays juicy and succulent and the flesh just falls away when you start eating it. I wish that fish could be ordered like beef i.e medium rare (or blue in the case of tuna!).

Needless to say The Westerly got the cod spot on. A lovely juicy piece of fish on a bed of the most unctious mash imagineable with a perfect salsa verde on top. This is the second time I've had this dish here and each time it has been 10 out of 10. I'm drooling thinking about it now.

My wife had Duck Confit, Garlic Roasties, Watercress and Blood Orange Salad. Again, another masterpice of execution.

From past experience we knew that The Westerly serve brilliant chips - triple-cooked in the Heston Blumenthal way. So we were a bit greedy and ordered a portion.

Now the main meals are meant to stand on their own as they each come with vegetables. In truth we overdid it with the chips. By the time I got through my cod and mash my appetite for chips had dwindled and so we ended up leaving half the bowl untouched. Sinful I know.

I did manage to squeeze in a dessert though. I had a Chocolate Malt Ice Cream and Peanut Butter Cookie. The ice cream was perfectly smooth and delicious. A find end to a fine meal.

Just around the corner from The Westerly is Tony Tobin's restaurant The Dining Room. For a long time this was my favourite restaurant in Surrey. I've literally spent thousands of pounds there entertaining over the years.

However, based on my last two visits, the standard at The Dining Room has fallen so far that I don't bother to go there any more. This is a restaurant living off its chef's TV fame.

Luckily I have The Westerly to go to. It's less pretentious, the food is better and it costs a hell of a lot less. It's a gem. But whatever you do don't tell anybody else about it. I want to be able to get a table there!

Restaurant: Wentworth Grill

After a splendid afternoon's golf on the West Course at Wentworth we stayed on for dinner at the Wentworth Grill.

As an introduction to the Wentworth Grill it is worth saying that this is no ordinary golf club restaurant. The restaurant is run by the Caprice Restaurant Group the owners of Le Caprice, The Ivy and J Sheeky amongst others.

The food was excellent. I began with a starter of Crispy Duck and Watercress Salad and followed this with Roast Hake on a bed of Spiced Arrocina Beans.

My friend ordered a bottle of Pomerol to accompany our meal. This was one of the finest reds I've drunk in quite a while - rich and smooth with a wonderful nose. Delicious! Unfortunately as I was driving I couldn't drink as much of this as I would have liked.

After the starters and mains I was feeling stuffed and I was going to pass up on dessert. However, my friend waxed lyrical about the Wentworth Sticky Toffee Pudding claiming that it was the best sticky toffee pudding on the planet. He banged on about it so much that I thought he must be on a commission for selling it.

Anyway I relented and, to give credit where it's due, he was not wrong. It wasn't at all stodgy as I had feared. It was a very light sponge covered in masses of toffee sauce served with a scoop of velvety smooth ice cream sitting in a brandy basket. Heaven!

This was probably the best meal I've eaten at a golf club in the UK. The Wentworth Grill could easily stand on its own two feet as a top restaurant even if it wasn't attached to the club. I've eaten here three times and each time the food was faultless.

Go there even if you don't play golf. You'll not be disappointed.

Golf Course: Wentworth West Course

The West course at Wentworth is the one that most people know as it has until recently been used for two televised tournaments each year.

Each May the BMW PGA Championship (formerly the Volvo PGA Championship) is played here and in the autumn Wentworth has long played host to the World Matchplay Championship (this is now moving to Valderama).

Whilst I had played here twice before it's been some time since then and my memory of the course was based more on what I see regularly on televison than on a previous round I've played.

It is always exciting to play a course that you've seen the pros play. For a start you are nearly always guaranteed that the condition of the course will be perfect and Wentworth was no exception.

Apart from the first 5 holes, when it was cloudy, the rest of the round was played in beautiful warm sunshine. The fairways were immaculate and the greens were in tip-top condition - fast but not ridiculously so.

We teed off quite late (15:10) but were blessed with a virtually empty course. We never saw anybody behind us and the first time we say anybody in front of us was when we caught a four-ball on the 18th. Even then they were playing their second shot and we didn't have to wait.

How enjoyable is that, having a world-class golf course to yourself?

The course has so many enjoyable holes (2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18 to name a few). It's a hillier course than you would think from watching it on TV. There are also a few blind landing areas so you need to watch your club selection to avoid hazards.

I played with a friend who is a member and who told me that it was safe to play a 3-wood off the 7th as the out-of-sight ditch was out of range. I promptly hit a sweet 3-wood into the ditch. Not happy with the advice!

On the 9th he advised me to hit my second shot left of the green. Again I hit a shot right out of the middle of the bat exactly on the line he indicated only to discover when I got up to the green that my ball was in the front bunker (which I couldn't see) on the left.

Definitely not happy with the advice. Needless to say I didn't listen to my friend for the rest of the round!

Most of the holes are tree-lined although the fairways weren't too tight. It's certainly a course that rewards good driving. Unfortunately I was not having my best day with the driver. My iron game was good however. Just as well as I had to play a few tricky recovery shots after going off-line from the tee.

As you would expect from the headquarters of the European PGA, the facilities at Wentworth are second to none in the UK.

Overall it was extremly enjoyable days golf. I was lucky that I was with a member as I only had to pay an £80 green fee. For a course of this quality that is a reasonable fee to pay and I would happily pay that again and again.

However if you turn up as a visitor you are going to have to pay a £280 green fee in the summer (this might explain why the course appeared so empty). I might pay that just to say that I've played Wentworth but that is not a fee I would more than once particularly as there are other fantastic courses nearby for a fraction of that cost e.g. Hankley Common at £70.

I've played all 3 courses at Wentworth on multiple occasions but I'm still not sure which one I like best. They are each excellent courses and have something different to offer.

Individually none of the courses are as good as the Old Course at Sunningdale (just down the road) but if I lived nearby I would love to be a member here and have three great courses to play.

Restaurant: Morston Hall in Norfolk

In recent years Galton Blackiston has come to nationwide prominence thanks to his presence in the BBC programme The Great British Menu.

He has, however, held a Michelin star for a number of years at his award-winning hotel in north Norfolk. Morston Hall is situated on the coast just opposite the little quay at Morston.

Unusually, he only serves a single set menu each day. He bases the menu on whatever is available on that day, ensuring that you always get fresh ingredients. If you have certain food dislikes or allergies then you can tell them in advance and they will cater for you.

The food was classic Michelin-style cooking, everything perfectly executed and professionally served. There was little to fault in the meal and yet I left feeling a tad underwhelmed.

It was all just a bit too safe. There was no adventure in the cooking. There were no outstanding flavours (except for the superb orange ice-cream). This is food that is replicated in dozens of Michelin starred restaurants throughout Europe.

If that's your cup of tea then you'll love this place. Personally, I'm always looking for something that's got more edge to it.

We stayed overnight at Morston Hall in one of the best rooms I've had in the UK. Their new Pavilion rooms are beautiful contemporary suites with all the mod cons and a little patio area.

As a total experience (hotel + restaurant), Morston Hall is hard to beat. So if you're short of brownie points with your loved one then you could do worse than book a night or two there.

Restaurant 7½/10 Hotel 9/10

Golf Course: Chateau d'Augerville France

Chateau d'Augerville is situated about 90k south of Paris down some of the smallest, windiest roads you'll come across for a long time. It takes about 75 mins to get here from the centre of Paris.

The Chateau itself is a fine 4* hotel with about 50 rooms/suites. We played there on a Saturday and the hotel was buzzing with lots of guests staying for the weekend. Unusually many of the cars were Dutch and we didn't see another English car there.

Having driven down early from Paris we managed to blag a table in the hotel dining room for a buffet breakfast which kick-started the day nicely.

Teeing off on the first you have no sense of what a delight lies ahead of you. The hotel's 18-hole golf course has been classified amongst the 10 most beautiful in France and it definitely lives up to this.

The 1st is a short Par 4 doglegging around some trees to the green. Nice and easy start as long as you keep your drive fairly straight.

From the 2nd hole onwards the course is a succession of beautiful holes. The 2nd is a Par 5 that doglegs right up a hill to a huge green. The green has multiple levels and you could easily find yourself 100 feet from the hole if you find the wrong level. And if you're on the upper level putting down the slope then you're in big trouble.

Most of the holes are tree-lined and there's a real sense of quiet isolation as you plot your way around the course. Each time you think it can't get better it does just that.

The 9th hole finishes right in front of the chateau with the moat running in front of the green. The 18th hole finishes parallel to the 9th but to the side of the chateau. If there was one design change I'd make it would be to find a way to swap the 18th and 9th. The 18th hole deserves to have the grand view of the chateau.

The course has some great Par 3s. My favourite hole was the Par 3 15th. The tee box is set high up on a rocky outcrop looking down over a pond towards the green 180 yards away. It helped that I nailed a 5-iron to 5 feet and sank the putt for a birdie. My 2nd birdie of the day at a crucial point in our match.

The four of us rated this the best of the three courses we played on the trip (the other two were Chateu de la Chouette and Apremont). There wasn't a bad hole on the course and the greens and fairways were in excellent condition.

For me this is a must-play course if you are in the area. In fact I would recommend anybody to come to this area and play three gems - Fontainebleau, Chateau d'Augerville and Belesbat. These are all within 20 miles of each other. Play these three and you would think you were in golf heaven.

Restaurant: Chez L'Ami Jean, Paris

On a recent trip to Paris I had the pleasure of eating at three restaurants.

On our last night we ate at Chez L'Ami Jean which is situated on a quiet street in the 7th arrondisement.

This is a modern bistro headed up by a chef from the Basque region who bases many of his dishes on food from that region.

The place is small and the decor has lots of wooden panelling. You literally sit elbow-to-elbow with your fellow diners. However, rather than this being a negative it creates a very buzzy atmosphere and you quickly find yourself in conversation with people at nearby tables.

The place was packed - not a surprise given that it was a Saturday night. It seemed like the clientele was split evenly between locals and tourists.

This is clever and inventive food that is full of flavour. In fact the menu descriptions do not do justice to the tastes that you experience. Unlike Chez Georges which serves well-known classic dishes, you will struggle to find a single dish here that you recognise.

The service here is frenetic but friendly. The waiter was even able to joke with us in English. In response to a comment from us that everything on the menu looked good he remarked that "all the food and wine is excellent. It's only the service that's crap!".

As a starter two of us ordered the Croustillant dish. This was like a large piece of filo pastry wrapped around a very tasty filling of carrots, egg and other ingredients which I'm not sure about. Very unusual and very delicious.

I can't even remember what the main dish was as I ordered something that I didn't recognise. I like trying different things so I thought I'd chance my arm. It had the word "Volaille" in it so I was assuming it would be based on chicken.

It was some concoction of chicken with a sauce and spices. Again very unusual and very delicious. One of the other mains was a rabbit dish which I tried. Again nothing but praise for this also.

There were four of us at our table and each one of us raved about our chosen dishes. In fact, at the end of our trip, we all voted Chez L'Ami Jean as the best of the three restaurants we had eaten in. Fine praise indeed given that we all loved Chez Georges also.

And to make matters even better it also was the cheapest of the three restaurants by quite a distance. With three courses, a couple of bottles of wine and some water the bill for four came to just over €200 euros. In my book that represents excellent value.

The only slight negative on the evening is that we got hurried away from the table at 10:30pm as there were people queueing to get in. We had booked the 9:00pm sitting fully expecting the table to be ours until closing time but it seems that this restaurant has a third sitting for late diners.

This is unique cooking and you come away feeling that you've just discovered a little hidden gem.

Just one tip - reserve your table well in advance. This place is popular both with Parisians as well as tourists.

Restaurant: Hiramatsu, Paris

One of my all time best meals in Paris (in fact, anywhere) was at Stella Maris a French restaurant run by a Japanese chef.

It was therefore with much anticipation that I had booked Hiramatsu. Like Stella Maris it is run by a Japanese chef and serves classic french cuisine. It also holds a Michelin star.

I had anticipated that of the three restaurants that our golfing group were going to visit, Hiramatsu would be the best. The other two were Chez Georges (qv) and Chez L'Ami Jean (qv).

All four of us elected to go with the Tasting Menu (Delice Gastronomique) as the tasting menu at Stella Maris the previous year had been stunning.

As you'd expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant the meal was kicked off with an Amuse Bouche.

The menu comprises various courses designed to show off the talents of the chef. These included a crab and prawn dish, a foie gras dish, a fish dish, a lamb dish, a cheese plate and a dessert.

It was all faultless in execution but somehow lacked excitement. This is a typical Michelin one-star restaurant in that it serves classic food faultlessly but it lacks that edge that will get your taste buds excited.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was also very stiff and formal. The service was friendly but slow at times. One of my pet hates is when a restaurant takes the wine that I have bought away from the table. On more than one occasion I had to indicate for a top-up. Very poor.

The most distinctive part of the evening was the bill - €650 euros for 4 of us with two bottles of wine. By far the most expensive meal we had over three nights. And by far the least memorable meal also!

Nearly 14 months after eating at Stella Maris we still talk about it and some of the dishes we ate. A couple of days after eating at Hiramatsu we could hardly remember the dishes. It really left no memorable impression with us.

By unanimous decision we would all return to both Chez Georges and Chez L'Ami Jean many times but one visit to Hiramatsu is plenty for us.