"French bistros and their staff could learn a very great deal from our gastropubs." This memorable observation is to be found in the introduction to Egon Ronay's 2006 Guide to the Best Restaurants and Gastropubs in the UK and doesn't it send the most delicious ripple of delight down your spine. Gloat? You bet What I like about this guide (apart from the above) is the clarity of presentation and the common sense to be found in its forewords.

Unlike last year's guide to the UK's top 200 restaurants which Ronay published in conjunction with the RAC this is a solo venture for the great man of gastronomy.

As such, he has decided to extend his critique's remit to incorporate 300 gastropubs in this guide, as well as boosting the number of restaurants given the once over from 200 to 230.

The reason, he says, is that "proud as we justly are of this country's considerable number of internationally outstanding restaurants, this achievement of culinary excellence pales into insignificance against the puzzling phenomenon of the sudden emergence of hundreds of excellent gastropubs".

Ronay questions the name gastropub' and suggests that British bistro' would serve such establishments better, were it not for the fact that the gastropub is such a "thoroughly British Institution, and that in a number of ways it is much more appealing than French bistros".

There you go again Mr Ronay, all this praise and rightly so, especially for Cumbria's entries in the guide including the Drunken Duck at Ambleside (no surprises there) and the free house Blacksmiths Arms at Broughton-in-Furness, a character-packed hostelry boasting open fires, beams, stone floors and working gas lamps (the pub only got electricity in 1961).

The Blacksmiths which was built in 1588 and became a pub in 1748 - "oozes leisurely bonhomie" says the guide which describes the food as "solid, unpretentious country pub food produced with skill and enthusiasm".

Although the inn has made it into various guides in previous years, Egon Ronay is only the second such accolade for Michael and Sophie Lane since they took over the pub two years ago. Their head chef is 24-year-old Paul McKnight, from Millom.

"Paul has a great deal of drive and a tremendous work ethic," lauded Michael. "And he understands the need to continue to serve traditional food in a pub like this alongside quite sophisticated dishes."

Which is why next to "gargantuan" portions of steak and ale pie and braised lamb shanks, you will find a trio of Thai-style fishcakes, oven-baked figs, Cajun-spiced chicken, and aubergine, mascarpone, tomato and herb bake'.

Elsewhere in the guide, there are two restaurant' stars for the Gilpin Lodge country house hotel, near Crook, where the head chef Chris Meredith and his team offer "a panorama of taste and texture, subtlety and creative originality".

There's also one star each (the same as Michelin) for L'Enclume, at Cartmel; Holbeck Ghyll and The Samling; at Windermere; and Sharrow Bay, at Ullswater.

Jericho's of Windermere (which featured in Egon Ronay's top 200 restaurants in 2005), also receives a very honourable mention in this latest tome ("simple enjoyment but with more than a touch of class").

I think there are some notable exceptions The Punchbowl, at Crosthwaite (gastropub), and Hipping Hall, at Cowan Bridge (restaurant) but I suspect the guide was already on the presses when these particular establishments opened. I also think that although there were only three pubs from Cumbria in the guide, the county is blessed with many more deserving of a mention.

If you agree, then send your recommendations to My favourite pub food', c/o Gillian Cowburn, The Westmorland Gazette, 1 Wainwright's Yard, Kendal, LA9 4DP and we'll try to give them a mention.