Offshoot of a the mega-popular Pimlico Ottoman, an east-City spot that makes an particularly suitable venue for a recession-busting lunch. In Pimlico, the restaurant-land that time forgot, the ori

A former banking hall, recently re-relaunched as a bar and restaurant; in spite of cooking that’s good value – especially by St James’s standards – we find an overall lack of character that ma

A North Kensington Mexican, just north of the Westway, with good food and notably friendly service; it’s a useful spot – open all day at weekends – but the kitchen can sometimes be irritatingly

A boon for Waterloo travellers and South Bank culture-vultures – a modestly-priced bar restaurant, where an ex Gordon Ramsay group chef dishes up simple but satisfying fare at notably keen prices; t

A large and bright brassserie-style Battersea spot, offering a straightforward menu generally realised to a good standard; we enjoyed our visit, but wondered if it was on the pricey side for a venue c

Near Finsbury Square, a trendy club dining room that welcomes outsiders for lunch and dinner, and makes a congenial place for a friends’ rendezvous; the food has no great ambitions, but it is compet

The main dining room of the revamped St Pancras Station; our (very) early-days visit found an unusually glamorous room and welcoming service, as well as food – from a long and varied menu – of som

From the same backers as Chelsea’s excellent <a href='http://www.hardens.com/az/restaurants/london/sw10/the-painted-heron.htm' target=“_blank”>The Painted Heron SW10</a>, an exemplary contempora

Off the Embankment, near the Savoy, a vast new pan-Asian bar/restaurant, modelled on (and run by the same team as) the original Paris establishment of the same name; on our early-dog-days-of-August vi

A stylish and buzzy Hoxton spot, with good cocktails and a buzzy atmosphere, but where the vegan fare is a decidedly acquired taste. “How about a trip to Hoxton”, we said to our friends, bright

A case-study in ‘how not to do a restaurant opening’ (and that was leaving aside the ultra-mean portions); the design of this City newcomer is great, but is the current environment going to be rec

A dull Gallic re-launch of the Mayfair dining room until recently tenanted by Angela Hartnett; the food on our early-days visit impressed only by its enormous prices. More mature readers may recall

Handily located near St Paul’s, a rare new-build restaurant (Norman Foster) offering surprising good Italian food on a number of levels. We weren’t frankly expecting much from this new City Ita

On the former South Kensington site of Lundum’s, an ambitious Gallic newcomer from a Lyonnais chef (Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex) of considerable repute; on our visit, food that was somewhat below e

Near Liverpool Street, a large new bar/brasserie in the Devonshire Square (re-)development, whose only real distinguishing feature appears to be that it has a large number of tables, many of them semi

Handily close to Oxford Circus (on the former Mash, RIP, site), the first UK outpost of a German chain of Italian cafeterias, specialising in pizza, pasta and salads; at off-peak times, it would make

A classic Gallic brasserie style St James’s newcomer, on the former Fiore (RIP) site; despite some auspicious backing, it falls surprisingly flat across the board. **Note (27 June): We hear that,

A disappointing second branch of the Japanese skewer chain, far inferior to the South Bank original. When we <a href='http://www.hardens.com/az/restaurants/london/se1/bincho-yakitori-oxo-tower.htm'

An elegantly ambitious newcomer, near the Barbican, which deserves to transcend the obvious description of ‘City Italian’; on the basis of our early-days visit, it appeared to be one of the best r

From the team behind the Thomas Cubitt: another elegantly transformed Belgravia boozer, where the grand upstairs dining room offers an extensive English-slanted menu realised to a solid standard.

Inspired by the grand <i>hotel</i> grill restaurants of yore, a decidedly English re-launch of the long-established Soho restaurant; the straightforwardness of the formula arguably risks tipping into

Just off Carnaby Street, the latest venture from the capital’s leading oriental restaurateur, Alan Yau; it’s as smart and elegant a budget venue as you could ever wish for, and – at least in the

From Gary Yau, a path-breaking restaurant, bringing high-quality Japanese fare (including top-quality sushi) and striking design values to Soho; it’s no bargain, but standards on our early-days visi

An elegantly-conceived bar/brasserie, on a corner of a square which is a byword for fashionability; the latest product from the Martin (‘Gun’) brothers, it offers ‘high street’ fare at boutiqu

An airy, clean-lined and spacious Kensington parlour, serving top-class burgers at reasonable prices; service is friendly but sometimes inattentive. A rave review elsewhere drew us to this new burg

In Soho, the second member of a new Gallic bistro chain (brought to you by many of the people who created Strada); it’s a useful enough place, in a chain sort of way, and friendly too, but our visit

A laid-back but high quality gastropub that’s all the more welcome in the gastronomically deprived environs of Muswell Hill. Typical Conversations We Have with our Customers: No 14. <b>Reader<

A basic Balham bistro, aiming to offer a true Gallic experience at reasonable prices; on our visit, however, the food was very up-and-down, and service was shocking. The first Gazette is hidden-awa

A plain Smithfield establishment on the former Rudland & Stubbs (RIP) site, bearing the name of a former Caprice group executive chef; our early-days sampling of the meat-heavy English menu showed sig

By the tracks at the new St Pancras, a run-of-the-mill ‘English’ pub-cum-brasserie, from Geronimo Inns, with ideas above its station. "Yeah it's good... well, it's all right... it's fine." O

Italian bistro-meets-Marylebone boozer – Claudio Pulze’s latest addition to London’s dining scene (his 50th!) is an odd and hard-to-characterise venture, offering good food at good prices, and f

A would-be-trendy Indian restaurant-cum-cocktail bar, on the Chelsea ‘Beach’; it offers good and sometimes innovative cuisine, but the atmosphere on our visit was rather flat. The site which is

Something of a club for affluent Mayfair locals, this convivial basement Italian offers straightforward cooking at prices which would not be sustainable in most other parts of town. Chefs are a rat

A brave, newly-built restaurant – on a rather obscure north-Islington site – which has attracted some very positive press reviews; on our early-days visit, the food – which has a touch of the

The latest addition to the Gordon Ramsay stable, this Mayfair steak-specialist offers food of consistently high quality; prices are high, though, and neither the setting nor (in the early days) the se

A (grander) offshoot of a north London Turkish restaurant of some note; a good and friendly all-rounder, it seems a little out of place among the shiny boutiques of Brompton Cross. Here’s an oddi

Spruced-up and relaunched in spring 2008, this classic Gallic café/bistro retains its charms as a definitive heart-of-Soho rendezvous. No one ever went to Café Bohème for the food, and that’s

A straightforward and welcoming pub-conversion, in an ‘emerging’ quarter between the City and the East End; the menu – which has an American slant and a particular emphasis on steaks – is real

Near Piccadilly Station, an atmospheric basement dining room offering grazing (and other) dishes as good as any in Manchester; the extraordinary value of our lunch here suggests that this may indeed b

A notably welcoming World’s End newcomer, maintaining the ‘handy rendezvous’ status of its predecessor on the site, Bacio (RIP); the food on our week one visit was almost invariably satisfying,

Claiming to be London’s most eco-friendly restaurant, a pioneering, if obscurely located, Shoreditch brasserie with a nice atmosphere and pleasant, informed service; on our visit, though, the cookin

A middle-market steakhouse, handily located in the heart of the City, and already doing very good business. All forty-plus British readers will recall Berni Inns: the steakhouses which defined ’7

Occupying perhaps the most lavishly-refurbished conservatory in London, this new restaurant offers a true grand luxe experience, albeit in rather American style; an Italian menu is realised to a compe

Pétrus’s ex-chef has helped tranform this once-sleepy townhouse in a Kensington back street into one of the most notable London openings (well, re-openings) of recent times; efficient service and t

A simple but pretty-much-perfect Gallic bistro, on a Primrose Hill corner site that’s seen a number of occupants in recent years. What are you looking for in a restaurant? Glamour, excitement, no

Old-school in all the best ways, this (relaunched) Mayfair restaurant is one of two truly English grand hotel dining rooms in town (the other being the Goring); a soothing and clubby sort of place, it

Fronting on Park Lane, a classic brasserie-style operation, where the attractions of good Gallic food and service are overwhelmed by depressing design and high prices. Is it deliberate that hotels

Alain Ducasse’s re-launch of a grand (but quite small) brasserie, near the place Wagram, offering an almost exclusively fishy menu; it offers food of solid quality, but the service adds little joy t

A grand and agreeable brasserie, handily located in the heart of the City; it offers good (and reasonably-priced) wines and friendly service, but seems to us to ‘miss’ fractionally on the food fro

A good but pricey ‘eco-chippy’, from celeb-chef Tom Aikens, which offers a very handy Chelsea stand-by – just two minutes’ walk from a road (King’s) that’s always been infamously short of