Some of the best star hotel properties are in South Goa. If you're looking for a beach to do your own thing, the Palaolem beach is the best beach there. No hotel nearby but you should be able to find a shack nearby where you can make base.
Best restaurant in the Colva area is Martin's which is a must. Next to the Police Station at Colva is Dourique which is a typical Goan food (read beef and pork). Some shacks on the beach worth looking up are Joncys and Nickys. Fishermans Wharf is a nice place on the river. Google these names and you will get locations on Google Maps. These are all hard core Goan joints.
South Goa is a lot nicer than North Goa. Great beaches with little or no crowds at all.
Yes, absolutely a double thumbs up to Martin's Corner. Their food and even their live music is some of the best you can find in Goa. If you are a carnivore and feeling adventurous, you can try their Sorpotel which is cooked with pig's blood and liver. Their seafood is superb too - cooked with lots of vinegar in the typical Christian Goan style. Their racheado style fish is quite nice.
Unfortunately, Palolem has been becoming more and more commercial and has mostly lost its original charm. It is becoming the Anjuna of South goa. Or at least that's what I have noticed in the last decade or so from my personal experience.
The hidden gems, IMHO, are Patnem, Agonda, and Canacona. If you want a star/resort experience, you can try the Lalit in Canacona. I stayed there once when it was called the Intercontinental and it is a lovely hotel indeed. They also have a submerged bar which is always nice to find in a resort hotel
If you are a bit adventurous, you can also stay at the beach huts - I've stayed there a few times with my wife, and it is actually a really nice experience. You get to stay literally on the beach (which is otherwise not possible in India due to coastal regulations), and many of the good ones are also very well constructed with good privacy, safety, and other creature comforts like air conditioning, attached bath/toilet. Its like living in a log cabin. I can recommend
Cuba in Patnem where I've stayed a couple of times.
Papaya's is also good but they don't have ACs. Or you can try your luck at
Hidden Gourmet or
Home (or Home Is Patnem) - which are proper rooms but are usually booked out a year in advance.
While food options are not as great as in North Goa, there are some surprises to be found. You should definitely try the food at Home is Patnem. It is run by a genuine European chef who runs this place with his wife and cooks some surprisingly good vegetarian European food. There are some other seasonal surprises - the last time I went a couple of years ago, there was a pizzeria that was run by an Italian who was serving up some genuinely good wood fired pizzas.
There are plenty of beach shacks or beach restaurants serving up decent food as well. The only downside of most of these places is that they don't usually serve Goan food, which is ironic. Most of the food is catered to the Western palate, but if you talk to the waiters or chefs, they can fix you up something to your liking. Of course, the seafood is absolutely fresh - one of the best lobsters I have had was in Patnem, and it was half the price of what you would get in say Britto's. Just don't expect it in to taste Goan style (most of the waiters and chefs who run beach shacks in South and also North Goa are actually migrant workers from the North - you will usually only find a few Goans running or working the shacks). Your best bet to find Goan food is actually to go to an established restaurant "where the locals eat". Its a bit more difficult to find them in South - I guess since the population density is lower in the South, and it is much more rural.
. Would be accompanying them to Kolkata instead starting 25th Oct. 
hyeah:
