The south west is rather spoiled for good food, with nearby Cornwall boasting a number of fantastic restaurants, and much of the country's best fish and seafood coming from the ample West Country coastline. Now Devon can add another to the list with Andria in Dartmouth - a modern European restaurant with a local reputation for exemplary cooking.
Head chef Luca Berardino is well-travelled - trained in the UK but raised on five generations of Italian home cooking. His eclectic influences reflect in his menus, which take on inspiration and influence from all over Europe.
There's a wide array of small plates to choose from, from lamb shoulder agnolotti with zero waste broth and lemon, to beef and ale tart with celeriac, parmesan, creme fraiche. Naturally, there's a heavy focus on top-quality local seafood, with dishes like Brixham crab with apple, ginger and lemon sorrel, Torched Brixham Cod with smoked butter sauce, caviar and samphire, and hand-dived Torbay scallops with artichoke and guanciale.
Andria has a fantastic reputation with vegetarians and vegan too - the separate vegetarian menu is no cop-out, with a whole host of inventive new ideas on display. The small plates concept allows you to try multiple things - at the time of writing, dishes include sweet cabbage, madras butter, lime and yoghurt, roasted winter squash, chilli, mint, almond, and local wild foraged mushrooms, parmesan cream, slow cooked egg yolk and chives.