David Levene takes a stroll down Omoide Yokochō – Memory Lane – to try out old school Japanese delicacies such as salamander, loach and viper wine. It’s all good for the stamina

Only in Tokyo can you sample the finest sushi from a skycraper, try tofu beside a carp pond or taste tempura under an oversized fedora. Robbie Swinnerton picks the best upmarket restaurants

• As featured in our Tokyo city guide

Kozue

No other restaurant in Tokyo has a setting to rival Kozue. Perched far above the fray on the 40th floor of the Park Hyatt, Kozue is still as swish as the day it opened in 1994, with a contemporary look (soaring ceiling, stylish tables and chairs) to match the confident modern inflections on kaiseki (japan’s version of haute cuisine). The menu features torafugu puffer fish in winter, ayu sweetfish in summer, matsutake mushrooms in autumn, and year-round shabu-shabu of perfectly marbled beef from premium wagyu cattle. Book a window seat to enjoy a peerless view of the western hills and even (if the weather gods are smiling) Mt Fuji’s cone silhouetted in the distance.
• Park Hyatt Hotel, 3-7-1-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, +81 3 5323 3460, tokyo.park.hyatt.com, lunch from ¥3900 (around £34), dinner from £115. Open daily 11.30am-2.30pm and 5.30pm-10pm, closed Wed. English spoken

Mikawa Zezankyo

Tetsuya Saotome produces flawless tempura, succulent morsels of premium seafood and vegetables served straight from his deep-frying wok to your plate. He follows the classic Edomae style, using only ingredients that (with a couple of exceptions) would have been available in 150 years ago. He works solo, which is why he can only seat nine at his counter. The cuisine and configuration may be traditional, but the eclectic decor – from European antiques to traditional lacquer-work and an extractor hood in the shape of a fedora – certainly isn’t. There are many contenders for the crown of Tokyo’s finest tempura, but none take it to quite the same level of idiosyncratic artistry. Zezankyo is hidden away in the residential back streets to the east of the Sumida river, but it well repay the effort and taxi fare to get there.
• 1-3-1 Fukuzumi, Koto-ku, +81 3 3643 8383, lunch from £90, dinner from £140, mikawa-zezankyo.jimdo.com. Open Thurs-Tues 11.30am-1.30pm and 5pm-9pm. English not spoken

Nodaiwa

The speciality at Nodaiwa is unagi, charcoal-broiled freshwater eel. This is one of Tokyo’s unsung plebeian pleasures, but here served with refinement and a grand setting – a transplanted timber mountain farmhouse. The fifth-generation owner-chef uses eel caught in the wild rather than from fish farms and the flavour is incomparable. The cosy ground-floor dining room is fine for a simple (but rich and satisfying) lunch of unaju (juicy eel fillets broiled golden-brown, on a bed of white rice). Up the stately staircase, the private rooms are best for a full banquet. The highlight: shirayaki, eel that’s lightly steamed and grilled, then topped with caviar. Perfect with a bottle of crisp local koshu wine.
• 1-5-4 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, +81 3 3583 7852, nodaiwa.com, set menu £60, a la carte from £17. Open 11am-1.30pm and 5am-8pm. Some English spoken

Nihon Ryori Ryugin

Ryugin sprang to prominence on the back of chef Seiji Yamamoto’s imaginative application of modern cooking techniques to classic Japanese cuisine. These days, he has no need for any molecular magic: his vibrant contemporary kaiseki speaks for itself. Yamamoto is now at the top of his game (as recognised by his third Michelin star), drawing massive depths of flavour from his premium ingredients – such as sakuradai snapper, from the Naruto Strait close to his hometown, creamy an-kimo (monkfish liver, known as the foie gras of the ocean), or hand-reared Iwate wagyu beef. Yamamoto’s candy pear dessert nitro-chilled to -196C and served with a sauce of the same fruit heated to a scalding 99C, is the stuff of legend.
• Side Roppongi Building 1F, 7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, +81 3 3423 8006, nihonryori-ryugin.com, dinner £200. Open Mon-Sat 6pm-1am (last sitting 10.30pm). English spoken

Aronia de Takazawa

Chef Yoshiaki Takazawa’s bijou restaurant has long been one of Tokyo’s most intriguing secrets, more talked about than actually visited. Hardly surprising, since Aronia only sits two tables (maximum eight people) each evening. His French-Japanese signature dishes include: a ratatouille terrine, with vegetables layered into multicoloured cubes; carpenter’s salade niçoise, with sashimi tuna and tapenade sauce solidified in the shape of spanners and screws; and his hot balloon of seafood slow-cooked with bamboo shoot and seaweed. Takazawa stands centre-stage in this hushed, windowless chamber, with its sleek wood panelling and dramatic spot lighting, preparing or finishing each course himself, while his wife Akiko serves and explains in faultless English. • Sanyo Akasaka Bldg 2F, 3-5-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku, +81 3 3505 5052, aroniadetakazawa.com, from £140. Open daily 6pm-9pm (last sitting). English spoken

Les Creations de Narisawa

Creativity lies at the heart of the eclectic modern cuisine dreamed up by Yoshihiro Narisawa at his impeccably polished Aoyama restaurant, with its swish, modern dining room and gleaming kitchen revealed through massive picture windows like a balletic silent movie. The fundamentals may be French but Narisawa’s ideas and execution are his own: from the foraged herbs and edible soil to the damper-style bread cooked at the table. At times, it all feels overly cerebral, but his delectable char-cooked vegetables and wagyu beef bring a sensual satisfaction, and the desserts seem to never stop arriving. Narisawa also boasts a cellar especially strong in Burgundies, as well as a groaning cheese trolley.
• 2-6-15 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, +81 3 5785 0799, narisawa-yoshihiro.com, lunch from £65, dinner from £185. Open Mon-Sat noon-3pm and 6.30-9pm. English spoken

Sushi Mizutani

Sushi doesn’t get much finer than at Mizutani – or more austere. There is virtually no decoration on the plain ochre walls of the small 9th-floor room where Hachiro Mizutani holds court. Nor are there tables, just one long counter; a single massive timber of smooth-scrubbed cedar and 10 plain chairs. The air is crisp with the faint aroma of rice vinegar and the atmosphere is hushed. Sushi veteran Mizutani is taciturn in his own language and speaks no English, but there’s little that needs saying, except to specify beer or sake (there’s only one brand of each). The sushi arrives in a set order, determined according to whatever is in peak season. A succession of flawless morsels of seafood on lightly vinegared rice kept at exactly skin temperature, it will include several cuts of the finest bluefin you have ever tasted, and the best abalone too. A couple of caveats: perfume is frowned upon, as are cameras and mobile phones. Nothing is allowed to disturb the serenity.
• Juno Ginza Seiwa Building 9F, 8-7-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku, +81 3 3573 5258, lunch from £130, dinner from £180. Open Mon-Sat 11.30am-1.30pm and 5pm-9.30pm. English not spoken

Tofuya Ukai

In a city of contrasts and surprises, few are greater than discovering the traditional garden, carp ponds and sprawling low-rise wooden architecture at Tofuya Ukai. There is no central dining room, just a warren of private chambers (most with tatami mats and low tables, but some with chairs) with garden views built around the timber buildings of a former sake brewery. The multi-course kaiseki meals focus on tofu, produced freshly at Ukai’s own small workshop in the hills west of Tokyo. In winter, the house-special tosui-tofu delivers a triple whammy of bean goodness: cubes of tofu cooked down at your table in a creamy, savoury casserole of soya milk blended with chicken broth, topped with layers of yuba tofu skin
• 4-4-13 Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, +81 3 3436 1028, ukai.co.jp, lunch from £50, dinner from £75. Open daily 11am-10pm (last sitting 8pm). English spoken

Bird Land Ginza

Toshihiro Wada was one of the first artisan chefs to elevate the humble craft of grilling skewers of chicken (yakitori) to a cuisine of substance and subtlety. He uses only top-quality free-range shamo gamecock, cooking the morsels of meat and offal over premium Bincho charcoal. Open the meal with his trademark liver pate, continue with wasabi-coated rare sasami white meat, and don’t miss the sansho-yaki, succulent breast meat dusted with piquant Japanese pepper. In another break from the tradition of smoky neighbourhood grills, Wada stocks a small cellar of Burgundies and New World wines – perfect with grilled fare of this caliber. • Tsukamoto Building B1F, 4-2-15 Ginza, Chuo-ku, +81 3 5250 1081, ginza-birdland.sakura.ne.jp, dinner from £55. Open Tue-Sat 5pm-9.30pm. Some English spoken

Akasaka Kikunoi

From the bamboo-lined, lantern-lit path to the simple, traditional wooden decor of the rooms (with either chairs or tatami mats), Kikunoi is a microcosm of traditional Kyoto. The Tokyo outpost of one of Kyoto’s most illustrious kaiseki houses, it serves the rarified cuisine of Japan’s ancient capital – expect to spend a good three hours at table if you’re having the full-course dinner. For a more concise, affordable introduction, the lunchtime Kodaiji bento is an exquisite tasting menu in miniature, served in a lacquered box with several side dishes. Owner-chef Yoshihiro Murata is revered for the depth of umami he coaxes from the dashi soup stock that underpins all his dishes.
• 6-13-8 Akasaka, Minato-ku, +81 3 3568 6055, kikunoi.jp, lunch from £45, dinner from £140. Open Mon-Sat noon-1pm and 5pm-9pm (last sitting). English spoken

For more information go to the Japan National Tourism Organisation’s website: jnto.go.jp/eng

• Robbie Swinnerton writes the Tokyo Food File column for The Japan Times

Whether you fancy sushi, noodles or top tempura, it’s easy to find good, cheap restaurants in Tokyo, says Robbie Swinnerton

• As featured in our Tokyo city guide

Kanda Yabu Soba

In a city that has celebrated the understated flavour of soba (buckwheat noodles) for centuries, no restaurant is as revered as Kanda Yabu Soba. Founded more than 100 years ago, it’s a handsome, free-standing wooden villa in its own tranquil garden courtyard with the feel of a traditional tea house. Kimono-clad waitresses bustle about, ferrying food and drink from kitchen to table (either with chairs or on tatami mats). Locals prefer their noodles cold, as zaru soba (plain noodles with a dip) or ten-zaru (the same with batter-fried shrimp). In winter the classic dish is kamo-nanban, hot soba in a rich broth with slices of duck breast and leek.
• 2-10 Kanda-Awajicho, Chiyoda-ku, +81 3 3251 0287, norenkai.net/english/shop/yabusoba/index.html, soba noodles from around £6. Open daily 11.30am-8pm. English menu

Tsunahachi

Tempura – batter-fried morsels of seafood and vegetables – is one of the supreme delicacies of Japanese cuisine and, like sushi, at the upper end it can cost a prince’s ransom. Hidden away on the upper restaurant floor of a mall close to Shinjuku JR Station, Tsunahachi proves it doesn’t have to. Bright, modern and drawing a youngish demographic, it brings some innovative nuances to the tradition, such as serving a choice of four different kinds of salt with the tempura instead of just the standard soya-based dipping sauce. Drop in for a quick, affordable lunch of tendon (shrimp and a few cuts of vegetables served on rice), or settle in for a leisurely dinner, picking from the considerable side menu of sashimi and other Japanese delicacies.
• Lumine 7F, 3-38-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, +81 3 3352 1012, tunahachi.co.jp, lunch from ¥1,260 (£10.50), dinner from ¥2,625 (£22), English menu. Open daily 11am-11pm

Sushi-Bun

Tokyo’s central fish market is an essential part of most visitors’ itineraries, and so is breakfast at one of its legendary hole-in-the-wall sushi counters. The seafood could hardly be fresher, and the sushi is as good as you’d expect at places charging four times as much. Sushi-Bun is one of the best in the market – it’s just as tiny (10 seats at the counter at a pinch) and as tasty as the others, but it’s left out of most guidebooks so the queues are usually shorter. Most people go for the set sushi menu (from £22 for eight servings of whatever seafood is in season, plus soup), which includes their succulent house-special, anago sea eel. The rough sake they serve with it, though, is far from premium.
• 8 Chuo Shijo Building, 5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, +81 3 3541 3860, tsukijinet.com, sushi chef’s menu (omakase) from £22, English menu. Open Mon-Sat 6am-2.30pm, closed Sun and holidays

Kushiwakamaru

Yakitori – bite-sized cuts of chicken (and some vegetables) skewered, grilled and then seasoned with salt or slathered with thick soy sauce – is classic blue-collar fare: cheerful, affordable and best washed down with flagons of lager, sake or shochu. The cheapest places tend to be raucous and smoky, and often specialise in offal, but Kushiwakamaru hits just the right note. The feel is casual and accessible, while the charcoal-grilled chicken is well above average. There are always a few specials, such as duck or quail. And don’t miss the negima (chicken and leek), the tsukune (balls of minced chicken) or the tebasaki chicken wings (forget chopsticks – these you pick up and gnaw with your hands).
• 1-19-2 Kami-Meguro, Meguro-ku, +81 3 3715 9292, r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1317/A131701/13003193, yakitori from £1.60/stick, English menu. Open Mon-Fri 5.30pm-midnight, Sat-Sun 5pm-midnight

Nogizaka Uoshin

Five minutes’ walk from the opulent Roppongi midtown complex, the Nogizaka branch of the Uoshin group sets the template for the genre that’s come to be known as fish shack dining. Fresh seafood served any which way you like, at prices that reflect the rudimentary decor: bright lights, colourful fishermen’s banners and no-frills seating. Uoshin’s parent company is a seafood wholesaler, guaranteeing freshness and a great variety of seasonal seafood. You can’t go wrong here: generous sashimi platters; whole squid or other fish grilled to order; warming winter fish stews; and humongous portions of sushi.
• 9-6-32 Akasaka, Minato-ku, +81 3 3405 0411, uoshins.com, full meals from around £30, including two hours of all you can drink. Open Lunch 12-2pm on weekdays; dinner 5pm-12am; Sunday and holidays 4pm-11pm

Maruni

Maruni does barbecue in a style all its own. The building is an old converted rice merchant’s store that somehow got left behind among the modern office buildings close to Shinbashi Station. The decor is all gaudy black and red. Instead of tables and chairs, there are half a dozen oil drums, each with a charcoal grill set into the top. You just order a plate or two of meat, then grill it yourself. The beef is all from the famously pampered Japanese wagyu cattle. Maruni doesn’t serve the super-premium steak grades so it’s all highly affordable.
• 1-11-1 Shinbashi, Minato-ku, +81 3 3572 1129r.gnavi.co.jp/gar6100/lang/en/, grilled beef from around ¥550 (£4.60 a plate. Open Mon-Thurs, Sat 5pm-midnight, Fri 5pm-4am. English menu

Ippudo

Ramen is Chinese in origin, but it’s unquestionably Japan’s de facto favourite late-night fast food. You find ramen counters on virtually every street corner, serving up nourishing, steaming hot bowls of wheat noodles in rich, meaty broth, invariably topped with slices of chashu pork, half a boiled egg and chewy strips of menma bamboo. Within the genre, though, numerous regional variations have evolved: all are available in Tokyo. Where to start? You can’t go wrong with Ippudo, a chain (now with a New York outlet) that flies the flag for Fukuoka ramen. The noodles are light and the tonkotsu soup (made from long-simmered pork bones) rich and satisfying.
• 1-3-13 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, +81 3 5420 2225, ippudo.com/store/tokyo/ebisu.html. Open Mon-Sat 11am-4am, Sun 11am-2am　

Shin-Hinomoto

There’s nothing in the West quite the equivalent of an izakaya: neither pub nor restaurant, it’s a place for eating — often well and always cheaply — as much as for drinking; and, just as importantly, for de-stressing after work. Shin-Hinomoto is a classic example. It looks unpromising, a cramped room full of noise and cigarette smoke shoehorned in under the railway tracks in Yurakucho. It’s a typical izakaya in all but one respect: the master of the house is British. Known to one and all simply as Andy, he married into the business and now runs it. Seafood is his speciality, which he sources each day from Tsukiji market. But you’ll also find chicken, cooked vegetables and simple salads alongside the tempura and sashimi.
• 2-4-4 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, +81 3 3214 8021, andysfish.com/Shin-Hinomoto. Open Mon-Sat 5pm-midnight, English spoken

Little Okinawa

The food and drink of Japan’s southernmost prefecture are so distinctive they could be a totally different cuisine. The Okinawa archipelago is far closer to China than to Tokyo and the influences are marked. Little Okinawa is a welcoming, long-time (yes, and very compact) bastion of this subtropical culture, and it serves all the island exotica. Start with umi-budo, seaweed resembling miniature grapes, and jimami-dofu, a tofu-like custard made from peanuts. Continue with goat sashimi and pig’s ear (crunchy, but served with a nice vinegar-sharp sauce). And don’t miss the goya-champur (scrambled egg, tofu and bitter gourd) and rafutei, pork belly soft-simmered till you can cut it with a chopstick. Wash it all down with shots of awamori, a fiery liquor that can pack a wallop.
• 8-7-10 Ginza, Chuo-ku, +81 3 3572 2930, little-okinawa.co.jp, ramen from £6.50, English menu. Open noon-1.30pm, 5pm-3am Mon-Fri, noon-1.30pm, 4pm-midnight Sat and Sun

Tonki

The first thing you notice about Tonki is how bright it is: it’s as spick and span as an operating theatre. The chefs wear spotless white uniforms, the kitchen gleams and the wooden counter and tables are scrubbed smooth. Quite remarkable for a place where the only form of cooking is deep-frying. Tonki’s speciality (in fact the only thing it serves) is tonkatsu: cutlets of pork that are dipped in breadcrumbs, then fried till the outside is a crispy golden-brown and the meat inside perfectly tender and juicy. You have two basic choices: rosu (blubbery-rich belly meat) or hire (lean loin “fillet”), though the latter is also offered as kushi, bit-sized cuts cooked on skewers. Most people order the set meal, with rice and miso soup on the side, leaving as soon as they finish.
• 1-1-2 Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-ku, +81 3 3491 9928, tonkatsu from £7, set meals from £14. Open 4pm-10.45pm, closed Tues and third Mon of the month

For more information go to the Japan National Tourism Organisation’s website: jnto.go.jp/eng

• Robbie Swinnerton writes the Tokyo Food File column for The Japan Times

Whether you’re visiting for the rugby or the races, Gloucester Cathedral or Cheltenham Jazz Festival, it pays to know where to find good affordable restaurants, cafes and pubs

• See our interactive map of Britain’s best budget restaurants
• If we’ve missed your favourite, tell us on our blog

Vanilla

If you’re looking for “cheap eats” you could easily overlook this smart basement restaurant. It is located below an upmarket hairdresser and beauty salon in one of Cheltenham’s many handsome Regency buildings. The window, moreover, is dotted with Michelin stickers – not usually a signifier of keen value. But don’t hover at the door: get in there, because Vanilla delivers sharp cooking at very competitive prices. Between 6pm and 7pm, it offers a two-course menu for £10. That menu is also available at lunch, alongside a selection of sandwiches, salads and simple mains. It is crowd-pleasing stuff, rendered with style and precision: Gloucester Old Spot sausage and mash; haddock fishcake with wilted baby chard and chive velouté; chicken liver parfait. Whisky and honey gravadlax (£7.50) arrived atop an incredibly light pillow of a blini, accompanied by clean, lemony blobs of creme fraiche, tangles of nicely modulated pickled beetroot and a mound of bright, sharply dressed salad leaves. The salmon’s dressing smoothly melded honeyed sweetness and cockle-warming single malt flavours, too.
• Lunch, sandwiches from £3.95, light meals/mains from £4. 9-10 Cambray Place, Cheltenham, 01242 228228, vanillainc.co.uk

Svea

This small, charming Swedish restaurant is a cafe by day, offering decent, non-stewed filter coffee (£2.25) and first-rate baking (try the kanelbullar cinnamon buns, £1.90). The lunchtime menu runs from open sandwiches, such as the Hönö – falukorv sausage and cheese with a fried egg, served with a green salad – to the definitively Scandi Kungshamn – herrings, new potatoes, creme fraiche and crisp bread. A sample hagasmörgås on a thick slice of rustic bread is sound: the ever-so-slightly dry pork and beef meatballs coming alive when mixed with the creamy beetroot salad below. It is a happy to and fro of sweet and savoury flavours. On the menu you will find various useful phrases translated into Swedish, including “I hate flatpack furniture” and – either a typo or very subtle satire, this – “Sven bought out the best in English football”.
• Lunch, dishes £4.95-£9.95. 24 Rodney Road, Cheltenham, 01242 238134, sveacafe.co.uk

The Swan

A literally and figuratively beige gastropub, complete with the obligatory Chesterfield sofa by the front door, the Swan won’t win any awards for design originality, but the food is good, the price is right and the staff are on the ball. It is a perfectly if generically pleasant place to hang out. The kitchen uses good-quality artisan products, including O’Hagan’s award-winning sausages, and air-dried ham and cured meats from Oxsprings in Worcestershire and Monmouthshire’s Trealy Farm. A sample burger, topped with a fried sliced of Diana Smart’s renowned, robustly flavoured double Gloucester, was spot on (£6, lunch menu). The coarse ground patty was well-seasoned with herbs, cooked to a moist pinky-purple and had a decent exterior char. The beer – the Swan has five real ale pumps – was also in excellent condition. A glass of Brakspear’s Oxford Gold (pint from £3.30) sang with flavour, its bristling, almost peppery hop tang giving way to a mellow caramel sweetness. Food prices climb a little at night, but all the main dishes (sausage and mash, fish pie, ploughman’s) come in under £10.
• Lunch dishes from £4, evening mains from £7.95. 35-37 High Street, Cheltenham, 01242 243726, theswancheltenham.co.uk

Well Walk Tea Room

Look closely at the myriad antiques that fill every nook of this (very friendly) tea room, and you will notice they are all priced. Who knew that you could pay £250 for a piece of what, to the untrained eye, looks like distinctly amateur 19th century needlepoint? Not that you’ll be buying, of course. Not if you’re travelling on a budget. Instead, you can take all this in, while enjoying some fantastic, traditional baking and speciality teas. Although, winningly, Well Walk serves no-nonsense Yorkshire Tea as its house brew. The pot arrived correctly primed with two bags, too. The baking includes several low-fat and coeliac-friendly options, which, judging by a slice of moist courgette cake filled with homemade raspberry jam, are much less worthy than you might imagine. The wider menu includes a variety of affordable old-school snacks, such as Gentleman’s Relish on toast and potted stilton (£2.50). A retro soundtrack which toggles between Adam Faith, Frank Sinatra and similar icons adds to the convivial atmosphere.
• Snacks and sandwiches from £2.50, cakes £2 a slice. 5-6 Well Walk, Cheltenham, 01242 574546, wellwalktearoom.co.uk

Simpson’s

Simpson’s is one of those slick new-school chippies – half takeaway, half cafe – attempting to bring a modern foodist rigour to fish ‘n’ chips. It does the right things (sourcing sustainable cod from the Barents Sea; using freshly chipped local spuds; cooking to order as much as possible) and the result is a superior fish supper. The chips could have been a shade crisper, perhaps, but were buttery- soft within. The fish was great, encased in a light, nicely seasoned, largely greaseless batter. The only significant flaw was the homemade tartare sauce. Tartare should be clean, sharp and, preferably, full of capers and gherkins. Simpson’s almost smooth version had a curious cloying sweetness. Not good. Still, overall it was worth the 20-30 minute walk from the centre. Away fans note: it is not far from Cheltenham Town’s Whaddon Road ground.
• Fish and chips from £5.75. 73-75 Priors Road, Cheltenham, 01242 521964; simpsonsfishandchips.co.uk

Red Pepper

There is a lot going on at chef Richard Whittle’s three-storey cafe, deli and bistro. Scan the blackboards outside and you may well find a sub-£10 bargain on that evening’s bistro menu. For instance, on the Thursday night I visited, you could snaffle a plate of gussied-up sausage and mash for £8.95. The bistro also offers a two-course £10.95 pre-theatre menu – the Everyman Theatre is just down the road. However, if you’re really watching the pennies, get a takeaway, or head downstairs to the “coffee lounge”, a rather dated basement of black floor tiles, red leather armchairs and blonde wood furniture. It serves from 9am to 5pm, the menu morphing from eggs Benedict, through a populist lunch menu (homemade burgers and pies, quiche and potato salad, pea and pesto risotto, around £6/£7) to late afternoon cakes from local bakery Vanilla Pod. The bourbon-spiked pecan pie is highly recommended. A sample smoked bacon and mushroom soup was very good. It delivered great fungi flavour, a slight smoky tang at the edges and, thanks to some tiny flecks of chilli, an understated base note of heat. To conceive and enact such a combination successfully takes thought and skill.
• Coffee lounge, breakfast from £2.50, hot dishes from £4.15. 13 Regent Street, Cheltenham, 01242 253900, redpeppercheltenham.co.uk

Cafe El Bahdja

Gloucester is hardly the most frenetic of places, but this North African cafe is a notable oasis of calm, the dispatch of good food accomplished not with the usual crashing of pots, pans and plates, but smoothly under cover of esoteric ambient music. It is a place, perhaps, to linger after you have eaten over mint tea or El Bahdja’s brilliant baklava. The menu includes lamb and chickpea harira soup, “ratatouille-style” chakchouka with baked eggs, minced beef borek and several tagines. A sample dish of Moroccan lentils served with a semolina-topped khobz bread roll was just the thing to brighten a wintry day. The lentils had been cooked with tomatoes and onions almost to the point of disintegration. The heat, such as it was, was residual and mellow. The whole thing was an advert for patient slow-cooking and the judicious use of spices and herbs to draw out fathoms of flavour from simple ingredients. Prices are low anyway, but takeaway prices are a real bargain. The lentils cost just £3.40.
• Mains from £4.50. 59-61 Westgate Street, Gloucester, 01452 545178, elbahdja.co.uk

StanMan’s Kitchen

All blackboards, bunting and wicker baskets, this deli-cafe and gift shop is a popular haunt among Gloucester’s foodies. The simple snacky menu is all about good-quality artisan products, many from the Cotswolds. It includes, for example: a handmade scotch egg with mustard; a rather good locally made open beetroot and goat’s cheese pie with chutney and pickled cucumber (£5.95); a local cheese plate; and a selection of good-looking cakes and scones. Typically, a breakfast sandwich uses dense bread from Hobbs House (the local baker du jour) and tasty Gloucester Old Spot sausages from Nick Brown, butcher in Longlevens. Said bangers were, however, almost overwhelmed by a layer of strident, very jammy onion marmalade. Service is refreshingly bright and cheery.
• Dishes from £3.50. 42-44 Westgate Street, Gloucester, 01452 412237, stanmanskitchen.co.uk

Peppers

You will find this tiny hive of making ‘n’ baking activity, which places a high emphasis on organic, seasonal produce, down an alley off Westgate Street. It is but a stone’s throw from the cathedral and the Folk Museum, and well worth hunting out. It is rare for a salad bar to set the pulse racing, but the one at Peppers is a real treat: thick glossy coleslaw; an interesting colourful mix of giant couscous and vegetables; and a moreish savoury amalgam of wild rice, peppers and seeds among its highlights. Alongside those, a caramelised onion quiche struggled to shine, a little, the onions not as evenly distributed throughout the filling as they should have been. But the flavour was there. Peppers’ filled baguettes looked good, too. Hot dishes include soups and pizza, alongside specials such as curry, chilli and hot pot. There are also multiple vegetarian options. If you eat in – there’s seating upstairs and in a “hidden” courtyard – you can also chug on an organic beer from Stroud Brewery (£3), regional ciders and English wines from St Anne’s Vineyard.
• Baguettes from £2.95, dishes from £3. 2 Bull Lane, Gloucester, 01452 384343,

Blue Thai Kitchen

This small, cash-only cafe-restaurant is a no-frills affair. The strange leatherette tablecloths look makeshift, the floor is worn and the A-board outside has seen better days. But there is a reason why it is packed at lunch: it’s cheap, cheerful and, for the money, pretty good. The daytime menu includes a core of mainstay Thai dishes, such as tom yum soup, pad thai and green and yellow curries, as well as stir-fry noodle dishes at £3.99 and £4.99 (£4.50 take away). My massaman curry was a little oilier and less creamy than you might expect, but all the constituent parts (potato, a good scattering of cashews) were present and correct, and the notably fresh vegetables were accurately cooked. What it lacked in sophistication it made up for in flavour, and the fact that, on a freezing day, it left a ringing chilli tingle on the lips.
• Eat in, lunch mains, £4.99, evening from £6. 19 St. Aldate Street, Gloucester, 01452 526531

• Tony travelled from Manchester to Cheltenham with CrossCountry (crosscountrytrains.co.uk). For more information on things to do and see in Gloucester and Cheltenham from thecityofgloucester.co.uk and visitcheltenham.com

It’s a cliché to say you’d like to eat everything on the menu, but in some rare cases it’s a reality, too

This job relies, to a large extent, on tip-offs. This week, one from Matthew Fort, who lives in Gloucestershire and had a find to report: a pub called The Butchers Arms, just outside Eldersfield in the north of the county, hard by the Worcestershire border.

Gloucestershire isn’t an easy place to open a restaurant. There’s quite a bit of money in the area, but much of it belongs to the kind of people who – in the words used to me by a disgruntled Australian chef who went broke trying to open a gastropub in the county before gastropubs had been properly invented – “spend it all on horses and cows”. Prospective restaurateurs might look at the demographics of the area, and the quality of the ingredients, and think they’d be on to a winner, and next thing they know the bank manager is shaking his head sadly and taking back the keys. It’s a look you start to recognise in a restaurant’s owners, the bright-eyed glimmer of dawning desperation as they fight off the realisation that the locals aren’t buying and that as a result their business is screwed.

They don’t have that look at the Butchers Arms. For a start, the “they” here is just two people, Stephen and Elizabeth Winter: he cooks, she is the front-of-house. (Or three, if you count the baby being carried by the exceptionally nice and very pregnant Mrs Winter when I turned up a month or so back.) This wouldn’t be possible if the operation were any bigger, but it’s a two-room pub, red-brick on the outside and inside it’s older – the core of the building dates back a few hundred years – and newer, with modern decor and an open flow between the two rooms. There doesn’t seem to be a distinction between dining room and pub, since people were eating in both, though they don’t have many covers and you will need to book (at lunchtime they do food only if you have).

The menu is perfect: five choices per course, and all things you want to eat – at least, you do if you’re me. I took some friends who live locally, which meant we could try pretty much everything, so I’m in a position to report that the menu contained no duds and several outstanding successes, in particular a fish soup that was a single-handed attempt at creating a new British soup to rival the French classics. It was made of smoked cod, red mullet, crab and scallops, and was intensely flavoured, but not in that tomato-oriented, saffron-flavoured Mediterranean manner we expect from fish soup. There was a lot of parsley, which sounds wrong, but it worked, and it no doubt helped that the day-boat fish from Cornwall was of such high quality. A brilliant dish, and if Mr Winter invented it, he’s a genius. Seared squid, perfectly charred, was served with a rich square of pork shoulder and a beetroot relish. I ordered this as a challenge because I don’t much like beetroot, so am always curious about what good cooks can do with it. Winter spikes it heavily with cumin, a brilliant idea that gave it real kick and cut the sweetness while also emphasising it.

He can really cook, this bloke. His food isn’t tricksy or cutting edge, but it delivers lots of flavour and never has that plonked-down quality that some pub food lapses into. Ingredients are first-rate, and he does them full justice. Fillet of Hereford beef came with a salsa verde and a highly diverting crispy cake of cow’s tongue and cheek. Winter likes these little touches of heartiness and offal, as shown by a lamb faggot that came with best end of lamb and peas. Kedgeree was a beautifully judged accompaniment to sea trout.

I’d have been too full for pudding under normal circs, but professionalism obliged me to try a nicely dark and unsweet chocolate torte, set off by caramel ice-cream, and a wonderful blackcurrant ice-cream with almond shortbread. I think ice-creams may be Winter’s thing: he does a lovely pistachio one with raspberries and meringue, too. Heaven only knows how one man turns out all this food single-handed. The only bad thing about the Butchers Arms is the missing apostrophe in its name.

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

If you’re after a foodie treat this autumn, Been there readers have the answer – try chestnuts in Sorrento, a wine tour of Alsace or a meat-feast in Rio

Click here to add a tip, and you could win a digital camera

WINNING TIP: Chestnut festival, San Felice D’Ocre, Italy – 30 November

In an impossibly perfect medieval hilltop village, a stripy food tent is crammed with extended family groups dining on chestnut dishes made with beef or chickpeas, then a selection of chestnut desserts. A steady stream of sacks is delivered to a giant hotplate for roasting, then transported to the back of the kitchens to be transformed into more chestnut delicacies. bit.ly/pQe7OM MandyMc

France/Germany

Alsace wine route
We toured the Alsace wine route one autumn. The vines were bare as it was after the harvest, but the little wine towns of Kaysersburg and Riquewihr were ravishing. For one afternoon we popped over the Rhine to the pretty university city of Freiburg in Baden-Württemburg for a look at the gorgeous high-gothic Münster. In the Christmas markets we sampled hot bratwurst in crusty rolls, currywurst and dampfnudel – a suet pudding – with a cherry sauce and custard.
duncandonuts

Italy

Sorrento, Campania
In late summer, the evenings are cooler, but the days are still sunny and warm, and the colours of the autumn foliage blaze along the Amalfi coast. Foodies are in for a treat, as this is the time of year for freshly picked mushrooms, chestnuts and walnuts. For a splurge try L’Antica Trattoria – fabulous food (tasting menu €180 for two people), a beautiful terrace and a cosy traditional interior for the cooler evenings. For a restaurant with a local neighbourhood feel, try Il Leone Rosso – spot on for an authentic pizza marinara (€4).
lanticatrattoria.com, illeonerosso.it
troutiemcfish

Sibillini mountains, Le Marche
We spent a superb weekend in autumn sunshine staying at Villa San Raffaello with its great apartments, amazing views and free organic vegetables. We blew away the cobwebs walking along old mule tracks in the rolling hills, past the heady scent of locals making vino cotto (cooked wine). The next day we hiked into the Sibillini mountains and ate at the rifugio (refuge) at Monte Amandola – tasty strozzapreti pasta with truffle and sausage, and succulent lamb cooked on coals. The bill, including wine and homemade tiramisu, was under €20 a head.
villasanraffaello.com, apartments from €700 in autumn; rifugiocittadiamandola.blogspot.com
VinniForno

Santa Lorica, Livorno, Tuscany
Surrounded by wooded hills and vine covered slopes, this rural agri’ is perfect for foodies and families. Breakfast on homemade preserves, tarts and local cheeses while taking in the views across to the medieval town of Sassetto. The evening meal was our daily highlight, the friendly owner and his family served delicious and unusual regional dishes, always with an equally tasty veggie option. We chatted over local wine at communal tables under the stars while the kids hunted in the grounds for wild boar and fireflies.
+39 0565 794335, agriturismo.it/santalorica, €55pp half-board
dawnhove

Brazil

Marius Carnes, Rio de Janeiro
There are loads of all-you-can eat meat restaurants in Brazil and we tried three while I was there for a two-month stay working my way through Brazil. This place was the best. For meat-eaters it was heavenly. Best tip – don’t bother having lunch and stroll up about 7pm. You’ll feast. If you take a trip to Brazil now it will be coming into their spring – it’ll be hot but a great time to visit.
Av Atlantica 290B, +55 21 2104 9000
Mozzawatt

UK

Northumbria Food and Wine Festival, Corbridge
This takes place over three days, featuring wine tasting and live music, plus classic British cuisine. You can indulge your tastes, explore some great local food, all in a picturesque rural setting. Entrance includes tokens for wine samples and a commemorative tasting glass to take with you as you trot gracefully (or stagger) between tables. A great starting point for a trip to Northumberland.
7-9 October, Tynedale Park, tickets £20, northumbriafoodandwinefestival.co.uk
Forbesspeaks

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

The Natisone valley in north-east Italy is home to hidden villages in fairytale forests. And in autumn, the local restaurants play host to one of Europe’s best food festivals

I live in Venice, and I’ll make any excuse to escape the invading tourist hordes at the weekend, not to mention the eye-wateringly expensive restaurants. So when friends told me about an autumn food festival, Invito a Pranzo (“Come for lunch”) in the Natisone valley in Friuli, on the border with Slovenia, I jumped at the chance to explore one of the wildest, most upspoilt corners of northern Italy and, at the same time, discover a unique regional cuisine at knock-down prices.

Every weekend, in-the-know food lovers flock here from all over Italy, unable to resist the temptation of a lazy three- to four-hour lunch – especially when the fixed price for a 10-course tasting menu is just €23. A dozen rustic trattorie and osterie take part in Invito a Pranzo each year, and although they are open all week, this special menu is only offered every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from October through to December and you must make a reservation.

Many of the restaurants also have rooms, either basic B&Bs or old-fashioned pensione accommodation, so it is easy to plan a long weekend that takes in not just a couple of the restaurants, but also hiking or mountain biking through thick pine forests, or less strenuous pursuits, such as trout fishing and mushroom picking.

Natisone is an isolated, mountainous land that divides Italy from Slovenia. Getting here is easy, as the autostrada links Udine, the rather noble capital of the region, with Venice, Treviso and Trieste, all of which have low-cost air links with the UK. A short drive from Udine brings you to the ancient Roman town of Cividale del Friuli, where things start to get more complex. Road signs, when they do appear, are in both Italian and Slovene, and addresses of the restaurants taking part in Invito a Pranzo rarely give accurate details of their actual location, in tiny hamlets deep in the forest. It is impossible not to get lost – satnav doesn’t work here – and many winding lanes peter out into dead-ends or lead you over the frontier into Slovenia.

I headed first for the Trattoria Alla Posta (+39 0432 725000) in the sleepy village of Clodig, where the road hugs the Cosizza river, passing austere stone farmhouses. Just outside Clodig the river widens, with an islet in the middle marked by a bright white statue of the Virgin Mary. There are probably only 30 to 40 inhabitants in Clodig, but just as many cars are parked outside the Posta. This trattoria is a gastronomic temple to la cucina casalinga (home cooking), with Maria Gilda Primosig creating dishes in the kitchen that are worthy of a Michelin-starred restaurant. She makes wonderful use of autumnal products – wild boar and venison, dandelion and chestnuts, porcini mushrooms and radicchio – then produces her own recipes, adding wild herbs she collects in the surrounding forests. Her chestnut and porcini soup is unforgettable, her blecs (buckwheat pasta) are flavoured with nettles, her risotto features myrtle berries, while the first bite of her melt-in-the-mouth strudel shocks – it is filled with pumpkin and pears.

Maria’s cuisine is so fresh and surprising it makes me think of the media hype surrounding new cooking methods in Scandinavia, as pioneered by Noma restaurant in Copenhagen; except that here, no one is following trends or food blogs, they are simply using seasonal, carbon-zero products as creatively as possible.

The idyllic Albergo alla Trota (via Specognis 10, Pulfero, +39 0432 726006, allatrota.com, double rooms €60) sits right on the edge of the Natisone river itself, and the speciality of the house is, naturally, delicious river trout, oven-baked with herbs and served with polenta. The owner-chef is Patrizia Maring, who used to be the local school teacher until she bought the Trota, transforming it from the village’s general store into a trattoria and albergo, or family-run hotel. Maring has been president of Invito a Pranzo for the past 10 years, and she told me that each autumn the event attracts more and more visitors. Not surprising, when her Invito menu features 10 different assaggi (tasting dishes) for €23. Wine is not included, but then a litre of the surprisingly good vino della casa costs only €9, and at the end of the meal, several glasses of the local digestive, a serious prune brandy, are offered on the house.

Lunch at the Trota is served outside on a shady terrace that has panoramic views over the river and pine-clad mountains, and while most of the tables are packed with visitors, this is also still very much a local bar. One table is left for villagers who spend the afternoon in an animated game of cards, and I found it a bit of a culture shock that none of the locals speaks Italian, as everyone prefers to talk Slovene here.

Driving up into the high mountains that surround Albergo alla Trota, tiny villages seem to pop up in the middle of thick forests – a few houses, a bakery selling the famous local cake, Gubana, and a cosy locale taking part in Invito a Pranzo. Osteria all’Antica in Cras (+39 0432 709052, osteriallantica.com) has a fabulous flower garden and waterside terrace in summer, but in autumn, diners prefer a cosy table inside, sitting around the stufa, a traditional stove, where a pot of polenta is slowly bubbling away, ready to be served with a hearty wild boar stew.

Don’t expect too much in the way of gourmet dining at the simple but friendly Trattoria Ai Buoni Amici (via Tarcetta 76, Pulfero, +39 0432 709164), while San Pietro al Natisone’s Enoteca ai Trevi (Via Alpe Adria 118, San Pietro al Natisone, +39 0432 727454) only serves local cheeses and salamis, though it does offer an exceptional cantina of local wines.

And for a last stop-off, I couldn’t resist lunch at Sale e Pepe in Stregna (Via Capoluogo 19, +39 0432 724118), no longer part of Invito – something to do with local politics – but renowned for the highly original cuisine of chef Teresa Covaceuszach. Stregna is right on the Slovenian frontier, and the place feels like the end of the world, but push open the door of Sale e Pepe and you enter a warm, elegant dining room, where Teresa transforms strange Italian-Slovenian recipes into gourmet dishes. Bizna is a rich minestrone soup of potatoes, beans and brovada (pickled turnips), while wild duck is roasted with chocolate and cinnamon. And forget the traditional Gubana for dessert, as the house speciality is Teresa’s take on a crème brûlée, leaving the kitchen clouded in fragrant puffs of smoke.

Driving back to Venice from Sale e Pepe, I got the feeling I was leaving a curious no man’s land and coming back into Italy again.

• Invito a Pranzo, Friday, Saturday and Sunday lunch from 1 October– 8 December. By reservation only: +39 04321 714559, invitoapranzo.it

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

Pop-up tandoor tents in Suffolk, France’s first Fête de la Gastronomie and a herring fair in Helsinki – our writers pick the best treats for foodies around Europe this autumn

Harvest, UK

Harvest is a food and music festival split between two farms: Alex James’s in Oxfordshire and Jimmy Doherty’s in Suffolk. Both include pop-ups (Lily Vanilli’s Piece of Cake Diner, Dock Kitchen’s Tandoor Tent), a cookery school, chef visits (Richard Corrigan, Francesco Mazzei, Yotam Ottolenghi, Nuno Mendes), workshops and farmers’ markets, and this year’s British Street Food awards take place at Jimmy’s.
• 9-12 September, adult weekend camping £97.50/£105 (Suffolk/Oxfordshire), adult day ticket £36/£45, harvestatjimmys.com
Oliver Thring is a regular contributor to the Guardian Word of Mouth food blog

Fête de la Gastronomie, France

When France organises a food festival you can be sure that all the stops will be pulled out, and that is certainly the case for the first ever Fête de la Gastronomie on 23 September, with 2,400 foodie events taking place all over the country. There are a host of Michelin-starred celebrity chefs involved, such as Alain Ducasse, but it also features master charcutiers, bakers and pâtissiers, farmers and wine makers. Hundreds of gourmet restaurants are offering two meals for the price of one (19-25 Sept, tousaurestaurant.fr), and you can attend a giant picnic or go on a foodie treasure hunt.
• 23 September, nationwide, fete-gastronomie.fr
John Brunton is a food and travel writer based in Venice and Paris

Ebel Festival, Denmark

As we all know, in recent years Danes have become much more aware of the produce that grows around them, and one of the emblems for this new pride in local produce is the Danish apple, or rather apples. The Danes are coming to realise that there is more to life than sugary Pink Ladies and turnipy Golden Delicious, and that there are more than 300 apple varieties to be found in the country. This diversity is celebrated in October in the eastern Jutland town of Ebeltoft. At the Ebel Festival, locals get together to rejoice in the fact that different types of apple can be used for different purposes – for juice, cider, cakes, brandy, vinegar, snaps or art.
• Ebeltoft, 15-22 October, ebelfestival.dk
Michael Booth’s latest book is Eat, Pray, Eat (Jonathan Cape, £14.99)

Stromming – Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair, Finland

The end of the arduous, but hopefully successful, fishing season is celebrated in early October with Stromming, a festival dedicated to the Clupea harengus membras, otherwise known as the Baltic herring. The fair has been held since the 18th century – thousands of locals wrap up against the icy chill and descend on the harbour to eat more than 50,000kg of their nation’s favourite fish, served in traditional ways such as salted, pickled and smoked, and with dark rye bread. Helsinki’s restaurants get in on the act, too, offering more modern interpretations using the herrings with local berries and even Asian spices.
• 2-8 October, visithelsinki.fi
Simon Majumdar is the author of Eat My Globe (John Murray, £8.99) and Eating for Britain (John Murray, £9.99)

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

The west coast of Scotland offers fantastic sailing with millionaire views at affordable prices. Rope-pulling is optional, but everyone enjoys mooring up for fresh, locally caught seafood

Read about two new tourism developments on Scotland’s west coast in Saturday’s Guardian newspaper

You can emulate at home our first night in west Scotland’s waters, as the waves lapped on the aft cabin of our boat: simply lie on the floor and ask a friend to drop a sack of potatoes next to you, over and over. For effect, add in a mild whisky hangover and get a neighbour to wake you at 8am playing the bagpipes.

In my pounding head were dreamlike memories of drinking below deck with a Liverpudlian sailor cuddling his post-alopecian African grey parrot ransomed from kidnappers in Grimsby – man and bird alike nodding along to electro-bagpipe pop. It was the kind of night to ruin a weekend: yet within moments of popping my head out into the fresh sea air of Oban’s marina, it had been miraculously revived.

Living in London, Scotland’s west coast looked too remote for any kind of weekend break. But a flight to Glasgow on Friday morning gave enough time for a guided visit of the ornate City Chambers by Queen Street station before catching the scenic train to Oban – a ride worth taking for views of the Firth of Clyde and Loch Lomond alone. We reached Oban by mid-afternoon, and one quick whisky distillery tour later we were on the ferry to the marina on the island of Kerrera. There you can eat lavish platters of fresh seafood, in what looks little more than a hut next to a marquee, at the Waypoint Bar and Grill (June-September only). While the rain lashed down, we warmed up with chowder and feasted on scallops, clams, mussels, langoustines and salmon from the grill.

It felt like I’d packed so much into the first 24 hours of my trip, and we hadn’t even set sail yet. My boat for the weekend was Caitlin , a 12.7-metre Bénéteau yacht that comfortably took six of us – including the skipper, Jim Smith, veteran of decades in the Royal Navy and his wife and navigator Dorothy, arguing agreeably over the course to sail. While qualified sailors can charter yachts “bareboat”, anyone can go out to sea by hiring skippers while chipping in with as much (or as little) rope-pulling as they’d like under expert supervision. Our small three-boat flotilla included Jeanne, skippered for now by the bagpipe-playing Colin Brown with Paul and his parrot as crew, and Moonshadow, a bigger, more luxurious yacht whose owners Colin and Pauline Taylor both sail and cater for their guests.

Sailing, like skiing, is too good to be left to the rich. It’s often perceived as a bottomlessly expensive billionaires’ pursuit, but a sailing trip can also have the rough and ready feel of a camping holiday, and if you fill the berths on a boat with a few friends it works out cheaper than many hotels – around £40-£50 per person per night. And there’s no checking in or out. One of the most surprising sensations to me still after a couple of sailing trips is the moment the ropes are first slipped from their moorings and your home is suddenly drifting off somewhere entirely new, and you haven’t even had to pack.

Here, we were heading up to the Sound of Mull, as Oban’s Victorian seafront slipped further away behind us. And then, with motor off and sail raised, the incredible moment when all is silence bar the waves and the wind, a few seabirds – and somehow this boat is zipping through the water, sucked on by the strange magic (or aerodynamics, as Jim explained) of the sail.

The forecast was grim: rain followed by showers, then showers followed by rain. But even – perhaps particularly – with overcast skies the panoramas were something else: clouds rolling over clifftops with forested slopes and waterfalls below, and ruined castles to port and starboard as we sailed.

At Lochaline, we stopped at a new pontoon built in the loch off the Sound of Mull – part of an ongoing investment in upgrading facilities for leisure sailors along the west coast. A short, atmospheric walk past an old sand mine took us to lunch. Once a remote Scottish village promised little for the hungry visitor, but times have changed. The Whitehouse Restaurant, a lovely, cosy yet bright place, was serving langoustines fresh from the loch and roast monkfish that we washed down with jugs of fresh fruit cordial and Heather ale.

We couldn’t linger: Saturday night meant a booking at another miniature seafood paradise, Cafe Fish on the brightly painted harbour of Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. In the last hours of sunlight, we overlooked the stretch of water that separated us from the western tip of the mainland, back where cities and stress existed. After dark, a trad-music night in MacGochans pub – highland dancing, wellies filled with drink, and Colin from Jeanne playing bagpipes on the dancefloor – was as far removed from any city nightlife I remember (and more fun).

Our night was completed by Moonshadow’s Colin, who on board his boat in the small hours took us through a passionate “nosing” of the various Highland single malts, including the peatier, acquired tastes of the likes of Laphroaig. (Jim told me the next day he had a bottle at home: “We give it to people we don’t like.”) That sea air truly is invigorating: the next day, Colin and Pauline were up to cook us first breakfast and then, after seven hours sailing, a farewell lunch back at Kerrara.

Our boats returned into the final strait of water amid a pod of porpoises; a sea lion bobbed around the harbour as we said goodbye. Some touches of a Scottish sailing weekend just can’t be emulated at home.

• Portway Yacht Charters (01369 820120, portwayyachtcharters.com) offers a range of yachts from its bases at Kip Marina, Craobh Haven and Ballahulish for either bareboat or skippered charter. Weekly charter rates start at £800 for the smaller boats (sleeping four-six) in low season, and go up to £2,400 in high season for a larger boat sleeping 8-10. For accommodation offers and further information on Scotland go to visitscotland.com/surprise. For more information on sailing in Scotland visit sailscotland.co.uk

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle

‘Weather is our biggest problem. And supermarkets.’ Nick Cunard spends a day with ice cream van man Mr Whirly, aka Ron Sutherland of Chard in Somerset

guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle