ONE of Bournemouth's best-kept secrets on the restaurant scene has been Highly Commended in the AA's Rosette award for the eighth year running.

The Escoffier fine dining restaurant at the Bournemouth and Poole College's Lansdowne site provides high quality training experiences for catering students.

It offers some of the best food in town but there are still many people who don't know it exists.

Following an unannounced visit, the AA inspector said the service team had "impeccable presentation" and that the restaurant gave a "true dining experience."

The skilled cooking was also praised, as was the value for money offered.

First introduced in 1956, the AA’s Rosette Award was the first UK-wide scheme for assessing the quality of food served by restaurants and hotels. To achieve the award, Escoffier has demonstrated high standards of food preparation, understanding and skill, and attention to the selection of quality ingredients.

Tracy Butler, learning manager for catering at the college, said: "We’re thrilled to have been Highly Commended again by the AA. It’s recognition for all of the hard work we put in to ensuring we’re delivering the highest quality with the best ingredients.

"Escoffier is the college’s fine dining restaurant and is pivotal to the training and development of our hospitality and catering students. Students go on to work in some of the top restaurants locally, nationally and globally and being able to train in such a high quality restaurant helps them gain the vital skills needed to be successful in this industry.

"It would be fantastic to see more people visit the restaurant to sample our culinary dining experience, as this in turn helps the students learn."

The Escoffier restaurant is open from Tuesday to Thursday with lunch served at midday and gourmet and themed dinner menus at 7pm. Go to thecollege.co.uk/escoffier for more details and to book.