Sometimes the food isn't the whole reason for going out.

You could eat somewhere perfectly pleasant, sit at a perfectly pleasant table and have a perfectly pleasant evening.

Or you could eat dinner on a 119-year-old Dutch barge.

Peterborough has a few places where the answer to “Where shall we go?” gets more interesting before anybody has even opened the menu.

So we've ignored places that are merely nicely decorated.

These three actually give you something different.

Dinner on a boat that isn't going anywhere

Let's begin with the difficult one to beat.

East Restaurant sits on the upper deck of Charters beside Town Bridge.

Except Charters isn't a building.

It's the Leendert-R, a riveted iron Dutch barge built in 1907 that spent decades carrying cargo on European waterways before eventually making its way across the North Sea and up the River Nene.

It has been moored in Peterborough since 1991.

Downstairs is Charters Bar.

Upstairs is East, a 100-seat Pan-Asian restaurant serving dishes influenced by South-East Asian cooking.

So yes, you can have dinner on the River Nene without needing to check whether you've packed a life jacket.

The boat isn't taking you anywhere.

Which is probably reassuring after the second drink.

This is what we mean by somewhere different.

The food still has to deliver, but the setting gives the evening a story before you've ordered anything.

East Restaurant

Peterborough East is serving sandwiches again sort of

Our second stop comes with railway tracks rather than water.

The Shed Taproom & Deli occupies part of a 19th-century engine shed from the former Peterborough East railway station.

The building subsequently had one of those career changes that makes local history considerably more entertaining.

At one point, it was a Greggs.

Now it's an independent taproom and deli.

Inside, the railway story hasn't been polished away.

There are working signal lamps, railway memorabilia and a large Peterborough East station sign.

Food is deliberately less formal: Italian-style hot and cold deli sandwiches, alongside drinks, with Sunday roasts also featuring.

Live music and comedy are part of the wider programme.

That's a very different proposition from East.

You aren't dressing up for an elaborate restaurant experience.

You're eating and drinking inside a surviving piece of Peterborough's railway history.

And we'd much rather see an old engine shed full of people eating sandwiches and listening to music than sitting empty while everybody argues about what should happen to it.

The Shed Taproom & Deli

Then there's dinner that arrives for the whole table

The third doesn't depend on an unusual building.

It changes how you eat.

Adam Noble's Seafood Brasserie at The Bull in Newborough is Chef-Patron Adam Noble's seafood restaurant, built around British fish and seafood.

But certain Sundays become something rather less restrained.

Seafood Boil Sunday.

The restaurant currently has seafood boils scheduled during October and November, including 11 October and 25 October.

But Adam also does an amazing Crabfest which is running again on the Sunday 18th October if you missed the last one in August.

They're American-style communal seafood boils intended for the whole table to get stuck into.

That's the bit we like.

A normal restaurant meal gives everybody their own plate and an unspoken international border around it.

This actively encourages everyone to pile into the same food.

Roll up your sleeves and get involved.

Suddenly dinner has become an event rather than simply three courses.

Because these are specific event dates rather than an everyday menu item, we'd check the current schedule before making plans.

Adam Noble's Seafood Brasserie

Perhaps “different” is a better test than “best”

We spend an enormous amount of time asking which restaurant is best.

Best curry.

Best Sunday lunch.

Best burger.

Best value.

There's nothing wrong with that, but occasionally it's a rather boring question.

Try this instead:

Where would make tonight feel different?

Maybe that's eating on a Dutch barge.

Maybe it's lunch surrounded by old railway signals.

Maybe it's putting a seafood boil or crabfest in the middle of the table and abandoning any pretence of an elegant evening.

None of those experiences needs to be declared Peterborough's “best restaurant” to earn its place on your list.

It just needs to give you a reason to remember going.

Now find us something stranger

We know these aren't the only ones.

There must be a Peterborough pub, restaurant, café, food event or completely unexpected place where the experience is half the reason you go.

Not simply somewhere with nice wallpaper.

We want the place you describe to somebody and they reply:

“Hang on. Where is that?”

Tell us where it is and what makes it different.

We'll investigate the best ones.

Don't forget to comment below