Dining out

We don't often go out to dinner, but Caroline was anxious to try out the acclaimed fish and chip restaurant (cum shop) on the other side of town. So, we booked a table for this evening and gave it a try. Not bad, was the verdict, if you don't expect haute cuisine. The chips weren't cooked enough for my taste, but they were certainly not too oily. My sea bass could have been anything, though again the batter didn't cloy in the mouth as it can do. There was a genuine no nonsense feel to the place, and a warm welcome

Funnily enough our friends the Greenwolds, whom we saw on Saturday, were telling us about their son Michael's new venture: the first fish and chip shop to be opened in Paris, The Sunken Chip.

Winchcombe pubs

I used a two-for-one voucher today when visiting The Lion at Winchcombe with one of my two regular lunchmates. I can't recall ever going in there before: like so many, it's now very much a gastropub, and run with much Polish efficiency, it seems. My minute steak and French fries were excellent - all the better because they were free (being the cheaper of the two main courses we ordered). However, you need wine with steak, and the sting in the tail was that there was hardly a bottle under £20.

A while back we were taken to 5 North Street, along the road from The Lion. Much poncier - and still pricier: I prefered the pub. Years ago, the Winchcombe pub to go to was The George: my photograph (taken this afternoon) shows that it still retains a recognisably publike look, even now it's converted into flats.

Armagnac

Olivier Azam is better known as the Gloucester hooker than as waiter in his restaurant in Montpellier here in Cheltenham. Today, however, I was lunching at Armagnac, and there he was, struggling a little with reading out to us the chef's specials: you could say we hung on the words of he who was suspended.

When the food came, however, it was excellent: frogs' legs, a rare delicacy, for my starter, and deliciously fresh mussels for a main course. Not that I eat out much, but on this form, the Armagnac chef has to be amongst the best in Cheltenham - and their businessmen's lunch the best value. (Too bad Caroline has 'flu.)

15 Rotunda Terrace always seems to have been a place for French food: Olivier's previous business there was fittingly "Le Quinze" - I photographed its window in June 2006 - and before that it was Le Beaujolais, scene of a number of memorable family parties as I recall.