Food Of The Week

What better way to round off a meal than to buy provisions at the restaurant's own deli? Andy Lynes has the top picks

There's only one thing dedicated gourmets like better than a damn good meal and that's a damn good meal followed by some food shopping.

The good people of Bath have been flocking to Rebecca & Daniel Blackstone's Kitchen gourmet takeaway since it opened in 2004. Now the couple have opened Blackstones, 2-3 Queen Street, Bath (01225 444 403; blackstone food.co.uk), a restaurant just a few doors up the street. The menu runs from Bircher muesli for breakfast to slow roast Moroccan lamb shoulder for dinner.

Select your own steak at the latest Battersea opening, The Butcher and Grill, 39-41 Parkgate Road, London (020-7924 3999; thebutcherandgrill.com). Have it grilled to your liking and served with chips and salsa verde or take it away to cook at home.

Enjoy a plate of vitello tonnato at Carluccio's Caffé, 7-8 Christopher's Place, St Albans (01727 837681; carluccios.com), while you decide which of its own-label fine egg pastas you're going to buy from the shop.

The distinctive and stylish black and white packaged goods in the food hall are nearly as big a draw as the foie gras and duck confit terrine at the Fourth Floor Café and Bar, Harvey Nichols, 107-111 Briggate, Leeds (0113-204 8000; harveynichols.com).

Goodfellows, 5 Sadler Street, Wells (01749 673866), isn't just one of the top seafood restaurants in the south west, where chef Adam Fellows serves up the likes of ballotine of salmon - it's also a fishmonger and deli.

The Goods Shed, Station Road West, Canterbury (01227 459153), a converted railway building, goes one better than a deli with its own on-site farmers' market. The ever-changing menu in the mezzanine restaurant is based upon whatever is available from the stalls below.

The shelves packed with Italian gourmet items seem to reach to the clouds at Valvona and Crolla, 19 Elm Row, Edinburgh (0131-556 6066; valvonacrolla.co.uk). In fact they stop just short of the upstairs café where traditional family recipes are created from the shop's own stock.

You'll often spot chef Tom Heal dashing to the deli next door to stock up on ingredients for his bistro menu at Wyndhams, Victor Jackson Avenue, Poundbury, Dorchester (01305 259359; wyndhamsfood. com). Dishes include scallops with pea purée.