Second helpings: Restaurants that rule Brittania

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Review: Philip Owens Dining Room, London

Simply Heathcote's Liverpool Beetham Plaza, 25 The Strand, Liverpool, tel: 0151 236 3536

One of the more recent arrivals in Paul Heathcote's clutch of restaurants noted for their bright, contemporary spin on British cooking. Even the Liverpool football team were in for the smoked haddock, leek and potato tart, and baked beans, and honey-roast ham with mustard mash – none of which seems to have done them any harm.

Rhodes in the Square Dolphin Square, Chichester Street, London SW1, tel: 020 7798 6767

Gary Rhodes was a main player in the great British retro-food revival of the early 1990s, reinventing Lancashire hotpot, bread-and-butter pud and boiled bacon for a new generation. In this smart restaurant with its sunken floor, the good work continues with mushroom-and-onion suet pudding with marjoram and pigeon and foie-gras faggots. Hang on, Gary – foie-gras faggots?

Quality Chop House 94 Farringdon Road, London EC1, tel: 020 7837 5093

Period decor and quaint wooden benches and booths give loads of character to this city boys' favourite. There's plenty in Charles Fontaine's cooking, too, which splits into British classics and more contemporary fare. So as well as steak-and-kidney pie, there's lemon sole with tomato and olives, and lobster and rocket salad. Very nice, I'm sure, but no contest.