Bites: Off-centre venues
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Your support makes all the difference.Belair House, Gallery Road, Dulwich, London SE21 (0181-299 9788). Daily lunch and dinner.
Belair House, Gallery Road, Dulwich, London SE21 (0181-299 9788). Daily lunch and dinner.
A magnificent Palladian mansion overlooking Arcadian parkland  just down the road from Brixton  Belair is where south-east Londoners go for country-house dining with contemporary panache. For around £30, cooking is accomplished with underlying earthiness: snail and artichoke salad or rabbit and black-pudding terrine with potato and gherkin salad, for example. Sunday lunch, for £24.95, is a family affair. Weekdays it's £14.50-£17.50.
Cucina, 45A South End Road, Hampstead, London NW3 (0171-435 7814). Mon-Sat lunch and dinner, Sun lunch.
A slick-looking, sunny restaurant with a restlessly global menu and a cosmopolitan clientele. Tuna nori rolls, or parmesan-crumbed pork fillet with flageolets and pesto typify the East-to-West range. But isn't boasting about Australian beef going a little far? Prices confirm its role as a service to well-heeled locals rather than somewhere to splash out: £20-£25 without drink, and lunch is £7.95 for one dish.
Juniper, 21 The Downs, Altrincham, Greater Manchester (0161-929 4008). Mon dinner, Tue-Fri lunch and dinner, Sat dinner.
Whether or not Altrincham qualifies as a suburb of Manchester, this is not what you'd call a neighbourhood restaurant, but one of the best in the North-West. The £30 no-choice set menu includes coffee and own-made petits fours; Ã la carte is little more, and lunch £14-£18. Dishes such as grey-legged partridge with chocolate sauce show technical prowess and meticulous presentation.
Fisherman's Lodge, Jesmond Dene, Newcastle upon Tyne (0191-281 3281). Mon-Fri lunch and dinner, Sat dinner.
While still in Newcastle, albeit the most salubrious side, the impression is almost rural. Seafood's the speciality, much of it simply or traditionally cooked  grilled halibut with sautéd prawns, or lemon sole Walewska  though adventurous ordering is rewarded with seabass, Chinese vegetables and sukiyaki sauce. Main courses approach £20, dinner is around £30; reasonably priced wines redress the balance. Lunch is £17.80.
Red Snapper, 1 Chandos Road, Redland, Bristol (0117 973 7999). Mon dinner, Tue-Sat lunch and dinner, Sun lunch.
This likeable local outclasses most neighbourhood restaurants, with skillfully cooked modern food: venison sausage with pea and elderberry chutney; Glouc- ester Old Spot loin with sherry vinegar and apricot sauce, or grey mullet filet with slow-roast tomatoes and salsa verde, then raspberry crÿme brûlée, all for less than £25 for dinner. Lunch is a snip at half that.
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