Durham house hotel

This intimate, personably run restaurant is just around the corner from the eponymous chef-owner’s flagship, House of Tides, and serves a multi-course tasting menu of well-balanced, highly intricate and complex dishes. The kitchen’s skill allows top-drawer ingredients to shine, whether that be scallops or pigeon, and the meal ends on a high with the varied, exquisitely constructed desserts. The chefs present the plates to guests themselves and provide detailed descriptions of their make-up. Go for the wine pairing for the ultimate dining experience.

This much-loved 'proper' pub is named after the lane it sits on, in the most historic part of the city. Housed within a converted warehouse by the quay, the operation is split between the cosy ground-floor bar – serving snacks and over 50 different beers – and the rustic upstairs dining room. Here, the kitchen produces a consistently high quality offering of hearty, punchily flavoured dishes like haggis on toast and grilled calves liver with bacon, sage and crispy onions. Fair prices and a friendly team add to the appeal.

This long-standing restaurant continues to operate with smooth efficiency and serve unfussy, eminently satisfying dishes you want to eat again and again. Start with a gin from the large selection behind the zinc-topped counter then head through to the smart red-and-black brasserie. The à la carte offers a wide selection of confidently cooked, classically based dishes that showcase the kitchen's great understanding of ingredients and flavour. The fixed-price menu offers a wallet-friendly option, while Sunday lunch includes a traditional roast.

After opening a shipping container café, local food blogger Anna Hedworth crowdfunded this stripped-back, industrial-style restaurant with a pleasant terrace and a relaxed feel. Dinner is the main event, with many of the vibrant, fiercely seasonal dishes cooked on the hibachi barbeque.

Named after the owner's childhood dog, this intimate, personally run restaurant has a quirky narrow shape, with art by a member of the family on the walls and rustic wooden tables. The set menu, available in two lengths, offers seasonally informed dishes that often utilise overlooked ingredients, such as a flavour-packed faggot made from less glamorous cuts of venison, served with the tender loin. The wine list includes some interesting organic and biodynamic choices, and it’s worth going for the pairings. Friendly, caring service is the icing on the cake.

Head Chef Kleo is Albanian by birth and spent time in Italy before making the UK his home, so it’s no surprise to see the flavours and colours of the Mediterranean feature at this charming neighbourhood brasserie. There is a welcome lack of fussiness to the cooking, as each dish bursts with flavour. Go for the à la carte for the most choice, the fixed-price menu for the best value or the tasting menu for the full experience; sensibly priced wines from across Europe are an added bonus whatever you choose. Lisa, Kleo's partner, looks after the service and is a natural host.