London has never been short of places to eat, but the most compelling meals increasingly require a little commitment, and more than a reservation: a train ticket, a hired car, the willingness to trade home comforts for a sense of occasion.
Not every restaurant is worth that, but those below are. These are restaurants that understand food as destination rather than diversion — kitchens hiding in manor houses, clifftop dining rooms buffeted by Atlantic weather, improbably brilliant chefs working in villages with more sheep than people. You don't stumble into these places by accident. That, though, may be the joy of them.
