Portpatrick, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

This “secluded country-house hotel in a private bay” with “refreshingly unpretentious, warm and attentive staff” has a “beautiful dining room” and serves “delicious dishes in generous portions”. Head chef Tony Pierce has served a different set menu every day for the past 30 years, of four courses at lunch and five at dinner (but it is not rigid, and guests can request changes). Built as a hunting lodge in the 1860s, the venue is thought to have hosted a meeting between Churchill and Eisenhower in early 1944 to plan the D-Day landings – but it was so secret that it has been difficult to obtain proof!