Bistro 21 Durham

This lovely converted farmhouse is one of Terry Laybourne’s mini group of restaurants in the North East, which also includes Jesmond Dene in Newcastle. It boasts a vaulted cellar bar & a rustic, beamed dining room set round an enclosed courtyard. The kitchen delivers a wide range of flavours, from crispy duck spring rolls with plum sauce to fillet of sea bream with cherry tomato salad & tempura soft shell crab, with the specials board carrying a raft of extras (French onion soup, or roast suckling pig with braised cabbage & apple sauce, say). Desserts reflect seasonal changes, with warming winter sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce proving a particular winner. Good value set lunch, too. ‘In an area without a huge choice of restaurants it is an oasis of quality cooking,’ says one fan.