City AM reviews

Wednesday, February 06, 2013 - The rib eye was excellent – a tender tract of meat the size of Greenland, cooked properly rare and marbled with delicate fat that melted in the mouth. I had it with the STK sauce, which turned out to be a rather unexciting barbecue dip. My guest went for the fillet steak, which, despite being from the “small� section of the menu, was as thick as a fist. It wasn’t bad but it was a little on the dry side and a touch over-done, lacking that deep, smoky flavour of a great American fillet steak.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - The mullet was soft, delicate and perfectly seasoned. Next up was a dish of smoked prawns with caramelised garlic bread. It looked basic but the crisp, rich crumb contrasted well to the punchy flavours of the seafood...One calamitous dessert aside, if the restaurant is going to be half as successful as the bakery, it is going to have to allow its dishes to move beyond a thousand-and-one elaborations on the humble slice of bread.

Monday, December 17, 2012 - At Tramontana, tapas are not tapas anymore. Dishes are huge, so we had the equivalent of six main courses, which left us feeling very fat and that does take away some of the fun of pretending you’re not actually stuffing yourself like a pig. Burgers have been big in this town for some time and Tramontana’s mini hamburgers felt like the pinnacle – a silky rich sphere of herb-studded, blood sausage in a glossy brioche bun. Sautéed wild mushrooms with truffle oil lit the whole table with their scent, though were a bit too oily...This isn’t the hottest venue in town, but it’s a sturdy one with good ideas.

Monday, December 17, 2012 - As a person who was never convinced by the sushi craze, the fact I am now a bona fide convert to raw fish is testament to just how tasty it is. Saying that, the best fish dish wasn’t a ceviche – the grilled salmon, which came covered in fresh coriander, was the star of the show. The meat plates were also winners and helped balance out the fish starters. Ox hearts in parsley were incredibly succulent and the addition of rocoto chilli added intensity.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012 - 1776 isn’t stuffy – the service is remarkably, and commendably, relaxed. The waiter insisted I try the fallow deer tartare to start, which is mixed at your table. I’m glad he did. The recipe, which includes Worcestershire sauce, capers and a splash of tabasco, was delicious – and the deer gives a much deeper, richer flavour than steak tartare...It’s not cheap – factor in a decent bottle of wine and you’re not getting much change out of £200 for two people. But this is a City restaurant. It has a giant silver bowl. If you’re worrying about the bill, you’re probably in the wrong place.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - The oysters rivalled the best I have previously enjoyed – a title hitherto held by some I bought several years ago at Rick Stein’s seafood restaurant in Padstow...Despite having the taste of sea on our tongues, we thought a visit to Hawksmoor would be incomplete without at least one steak – and thus shared a 300 gramme fillet for part of the main course. Slightly charred on the outside, red in the middle, it was – as one would hope from the self-proclaimed steak specialists – near perfect.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - We plumped for the steak tartar, which, as a dish, never ceases to amaze me just how impressive a plate of raw mince can be. The elegant Beard to Tail tartar, minced with Kentucky rye, whiskey, pepper and four cornichons, didn’t disappoint...A mere half an hour later, the rumpy pumpy arrives. The size of a small piglet, it was all fat, tender slabs of pork smothered in crackling and with a pleasingly fatty rind. It was clichéd melt-in-the-mouth-type stuff. More compellingly, the sheer size of the rumpy pumpy meant both myself and my friend took home a slab each.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012 - The cod and leek fishcake was crisp and flavoursome, served with a creamy, rich mustard sauce and soft, fluffy mash potato. My meat-eating friend ordered the fillet of steak – a huge chunk of succulent meat, although it was served a little on the bloody side for my taste. We fully planned to abstain from dessert until we spotted the chocolate hot cake. Thank God we did – it was to die for. The warm chocolate and nut cake, served with hot rich chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, was also divine.

Tuesday, September 04, 2012 - My expectations at this point, you may have gathered, were not spectacular. The crab cakes, though, didn't fall very far short of spectacular – fresh, moist, slightly crisp on the outside, with enough of a hint of chili to give them a kick without overpowering the delicate meat. The gazpacho soup, too, was excellent – tangy and moreish. This was proper restaurant food. The wine, too, recommended by a waiter who knew her way around the menu, was superb. The mains didn't quite measure up – the lamb was fine, but it wasn't as tender as you'd hope from a kitchen that puts this much love into a crab cake. The hake, too, was slightly over-cooked and far too salty, the skin singed instead of just crisped.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012 - I opted for the crab, served with a hearty portion of chips and salad. It may be a fine crustacean but it's hard to look graceful as you attempt to smash your way through its shell. My guest kindly looked the other way as a glob of boiling hot crab meat sprayed onto my hand. When I finally got it into my mouth, though, it was divine. The tender cut of venison on the plate opposite was even better. The Seagrass does the important things right. The service is good, the food is very good and, when you account for the bring-your-own-bottle policy, it ends up being quite reasonable, too.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012 - The starters, with one exception, are all raw. While not to everyone's taste, this really allows the flavours of the dishes to shine. Beautifully rich tones are mixed with refreshing ingredients, as Algarrobo tree honey, Ghoa cress, shaved foie gras and shreddings of duck find harmony together. The pick of the bunch, and one I would quite happily gorge daily, is the truly scrumptious confit of suckling pig, accompanied with roasted Amazonian cashew nuts, lentils and pear, accented with flavoursome crispy pork skin. The food is as beautiful as it is delicious, with Martinez carefully considering every detail.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - We tried a foie gras lollipop and found it delicious and surprising: creamy liver coated in sour cherry and pop rocks that fizz when you put it in your mouth. Grilled broccolini with burrata was also suprisingly good: the cheese melty and creamy like in Italy. Most delicious of all was the truffle gnocchi with cheddar, chives and nutmeg that came steaming in a jar. It packed a high-density hit of creamy carbohydrate. Divine...There is lots to try here and lots to enjoy - all you have to do is forget that behind a flap is a nightclub where the worst reality TV stars, footballers and their hangers-ons go to sink Grey Goose and Cristal.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012 - The food is clean, crisp and impossibly - sometimes infuriatingly - healthy: smoked, pickled, rolled in burnt hay or, more often than not, just served raw. It tastes like it was foraged from the icy tundra by a buxom fisherman's daughter. Even the posh pork scratchings were deceptively light - part of me wanted to run home afterwards and smear myself in lard and chocolate. At its best, the food is superlative. The asparagus - poached, fried and, of course, raw - with pheasant's egg, was a highlight: just the right combination of crispy and earthy. Other dishes were harder to love - the lumpfish roe with onion sauce and chicken skin was rather insipid, no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise.

Tuesday, July 03, 2012 - So how does Roast fare in the gastronomical London of 2012, when dayboat fish and local asparagus no longer elicit oohs and aahhs? Not badly. The food is still fresh and it still has one of the best views in the area - of Borough Market and the streets surrounding. But on entering - after a hiatus of several years - I couldn't help but notice the decor felt out of date. And the food was a little pricey, we thought.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - Marco is actually rather pleasant: an enjoyable, if not inexpensive, experience...My Cornish crab couldn't have been fresher and, as any starter should be, was nice and light, with just a few small leaves to inject extra vibrancy. I struggled to choose between honey-roasted pork or venison as a main, and then rather nervously asked for venison to be cooked rare. Most chefs don't believe you, allowing this particular red meat to become pink, at best. But my slices of seared deer, served with an extra of buttered peas, were boldly red.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - All in all, this is a very Marylebone sort of place: European, expensive, elegant. But it's more than that, too: the service is excellent, executed by a team of light-footed, earnest Italians, and there are no short cuts with quality. But given the sort of food now available in London for less money, Cotidie is just a bit too far off the mark when it comes to offering bang for buck.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - The pig's ears are a bit of a gimmick - consisting mostly of fried fat, which is just as well, really, as they'd have been completely inedible otherwise. The snails and bone marrow, though, were delicious; succulent and well cooked - better than I've been served in restaurants in France...It's probably not quite worth navigating the circuitous network of public transport it takes to get to Hackney, but if you're in the area, pop in and order some pig's ears while you chew over the absurd circularity of it all.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012 - Sticking with bubbles kept us fresh and our palates zingy where the hollandaise-esque custard (actually very delicious, a bit like omelette Arnold Bennett, a creamy egg dish with smoked mackerel) could have cloyed and thickened the taste buds. My friend had indecently rich Herefordshire snails (with garlic jus, parsnip puree, Mas air dried ham and country croutons), also benefiting from the Ruinart's sophisticated, lean zing...Le Balcon lacks Soho cool or Mayfair snobbery. But by God it's good for a hair letting-down session - just don't expect to feel slim when you leave.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - Foodwise, all the usual suspects are here: foie gras, lamb, scallops, but they're presented in stranger, more imaginative ways than normal. The liver pate was as dense and silky as you'd expect: with its confit, dates, lemon and dab of pearl millet, it took on angles of fruity richness tempered by citric notes. Highland scallops were great fleshy lobes served with - of all things - a tandoori flavour, cabbage, a dusting of garam masala and lemon confit...The groovy, crowded no-reservation places in Soho are great, but sometimes you want quality, elegance, and a stonking cheese trolley (or at least, I do). That's what places like the Greenhouse are for, and now Bignon is adding a clever bit of spice to a very neat formula.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - The food, which is pricey but not pricey enough to put off a West End crowd, is very good without ever being great. The scallops - at a whopping 16.50 - caved under the weight of a small mountain of garlic. I'm not sure about balancing your spiritual energies but they would definitely keep vampires at bay. The Amritsar Kali Mirch - succulent, crisp chicken in a creamy garlic sauce - was far better...At Chakra, the substance is (usually) there but the style gets in the way. There are too many asymmetrical plates and off-key design flourishes.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - Pan roasted baby lamb cutlets with rosemary and garlic and Grilled king prawns, mussels, squid and salmon fillet. Success of such dishes rests with provenance and both examples were spot on. The crustaceans tasted pleasingly of the sea, and the more delicate flavours of the salmon survived the grilling. My only quibbles were that the lamb was under seasoned, there was a dull insistence on bedding both dishes on rocket and the chef was rather over-zealous with the butter knife. Simple isn't always simple to achieve - but greedy enjoyment of both dishes was never in any real danger from these slip-ups.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - The food was not Michelin-starred in taste or pretension, but it was, by and large, tasty. It's not ruinously expensive, though not exactly cheap and cheerful, either...Braised pork belly with spicy sweet and sour glaze was honeyed and melting, and black pepper beef was just what the doctor ordered (for the patient craving Hakkasan-style pepper beef, that is). Novikov makes a virtue of choice, and the selection here is entertaining if deeply unrefined.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - Skip the plates of cured meats and vegetables to begin with - they were all pretty average. Also definitely skip the sea bass carpaccio as it tasted of socks. The plate of burrata was very good though: it was like eating milk, and it brought me straight to Puglia...I recommend going for whatever the meat or fish for two is. There was lamb when we were there (it looked in good nick) but we went for a sea bass that could be had a variety of ways - steamed, roasted, salt-baked and so on. We had it salt-baked and it was lovely, the flesh soft and cottony and, erm, salty.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - Staff are lovely and helpful, ideal conduits for the astoundingly succulent plate of oysters we're about to have (washed down with some English sparkling wine - what else? - before moving onto a white Rioja). The Duchy Natives and Lindisfarnes were good, but the Cumbrae blew us away (the cheapest of the lot at 6.50 for three)...Order the fish of the day, especially if it's anything like the great big roast brill for three we shared between two, with perfect new potatoes and broccoli. Fish can pack just as much a punch as beef: I was felled by far less than half the fish as my companion deftly continued scoring and serving it up. There was a touch of sea bass to the brill, but meatier, with a silky texture and buttery flavour.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - The tandir sturgeon we had was small and the flavour we'd expected (perhaps wrongly based on experiences eating Indian food) was not apparent; the sturgeon from the grill, served with pomegranate molasses, was also small. The 'beef turshu govurma' was an amazingly tender, fatty bowl of rib-eye slow-cooked and servied with onion, plum and chestnut...So I recommend dropping by Baku for drinks. For an authentic taste of Baku, though, I fear you may need to go elsewhere.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - I went for the roast rib of Casterbridge beef with Yorkshire pudding, which was as intimidating as it should be - a gigantic pink hunk of dead cow. It was cooked well enough - rare as all hell - but that couldn't disguise the fact that it wasn't a great cut of meat. It was OK, but to devour a 42 pound chunk of animal, it has to be more than that...There is nothing really wrong with The Rib Room, there just aren't very many reasons to gush about it.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - With the lobster roll, which was a very generously stuffed, heaven-sent buttery brioche, my (also American) companion and me looked at each other and said: 'It's good. It's good. But it doesn't taste that much like lobster.' Just why remains a mystery, but at 20 quid, you're getting good value - especially as it all comes with chips and a rather sexy pot of salad. The question of the burger's price tag is resolved, to some degree, by its quality and weight: all grass-fed Irish and corn-fed Nebraskan beef, sans filler, each weighs 10oz. It's a lovely burger, and should be, given its price.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - The chefs played their roles to a tee, preparing food that would have been at home on an ocean-liner buffet. The gnocchi starter came drenched in a watery sauce, while the cubes of sponge accompanying it were unrecognisable as crab. The buffalo with aubergine was a greasy mass of unappealing grey and beige that tasted like it had been violently drowned in a tub of oil. The starters were unpleasant but they were left in the shade by the mains. Coq au vin should be ingrained in the DNA of a restaurant specialising in Provencal cuisine; it should come as naturally as breathing or being rude to American tourists. Not so. The insipid hunk of soggy flesh came, rather appropriately, in its own tiny black sarcophagus, hunched in a feeble sauce and decorated with a sorry selection of wilted vegetable matter.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 - The pigeon consomme was a tender sliver of breast served beside islands of powder - seven or eight tiny hills, including one of dried carrot and another of bacon - which melted into the consomme when it was added at the table. The chorizo baked cod, topped with an impressive flourish of crispy skin, was a little heavy six courses in, which wasn't something the perfect rectangle of piglet that followed could be accused of...Tom Aikens Restaurant feels like the way great food should be served today - without stuffiness or ostentation. It comes very highly recommended.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 - I took myself by surprise, ordering the chicken with smoked egg and charred leek over the Devon beef sirloin. I was rewarded for my recklessness. Williams painted a dusky, Constable-esque landscape on my plate, with murky greens lurking around the edges of a globular terracotta egg yolk, which oozed satisfyingly when lanced with a fork. I would love to tell you how good the gnocchi was, but it had disappeared from my guest's plate before I got a chance to taste it. She assures me it was very good.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - The bowl of chilli mussels I had to start was so delicious I used a discarded shell to scoop up the leftover sauce (given the school canteen theme, I figured this was probably within the bounds of acceptability). The garlic mushrooms were a little light on garlic and heavy on fat but were perfectly edible. Next came the pizza (OK, flatbread). I went for the Woodman, topped with wild mushrooms, red onions and fennel. The base was crafted to perfection, crispy on the surface and doughy underneath, with a hint of charcoal where the bread has risen in the wood-fired oven. It's simple, tasty food - exactly the kind of thing Oliver is famous for.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - The food oscillates between perfectly reasonable and rather disappointing - never quite hitting the peaks of delicious nor plumbing the depths of inedible. The aubergine with melted campania cheese - every bit as unhealthy as it sounds - was a winner. The ribs alla braccia with spicy sauce, though, failed on several levels, the first being the pluralisation. One rib, even a decently sized one, is not ideal sharing food. In the event, my guest and I were both happy to pass it over, covered, as it was, in a viscous ketchupy sauce...Fornata is the epitome of no-nonsense Italian dining; tasty, hearty and reassuringly inexpensive.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011 - We began with belly ribs from Plum Pudding's excellent pigs: four melting wedges of carnivorous seduction, so moreish I nearly cried when they were gone...So the porterhouse arrived - meat lovers will also relish the chateaubriand and the bone-in sirloin, perhaps served with two fried eggs or a half of lobster if they've ditched the diet. Our side dishes consisted of truly terrific onion rings - enormous, sweetish, golden, almost cake-ish - that quite frankly distracted me from the meat. But the real set-piece of the meal was the macaroni and cheese with lobster. If decadence is the order of the day, Hawksmoor is the place to do it.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011 - Let's start with the good things. The pizza wasn't too bad (although my companion was less forgiving). The sourdough base was lovely and crisp, with a smatter of spicy sausage and juicy squirt-as-you-bite cherry tomatoes. And even though it looked like a tarted-up Jackson Pollock, the salad of avocado, tomato and mozzarella tasted fine and fresh. The rest of the food was a bit of a disaster. Fried sage leaves with anchovy fillets were bitter and terrible. Courgettes were limpid batons of blandness and were served with a basil non-garlic 'aioli' that had the extraordinary talent of increasing their blandness.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - Juicy clams with Fino sherry are at first sensational. There are complex textures and flavours going on in the pot, such as wonderful pasta that is crunchy where it catches on the bottom, also working to thicken the broth. But the grit of sand ruins a lovely dish. The gurnard (a wonderful fish in bouillabaise), and clam stew topped with dollops of yellow aioli is a deep, rich and punchy dish with beautiful poached scallops, but the fish is tough...Despite these quibbles, I'd say that Duck Soup is great for an impromptu night out. Go late, grab a group of friends and share that slab of foie gras.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - It's worth ordering from the raw bar as Bread Street home cures and marinates its meats and fish. The stone bass ceviche - translucent and milky white strips with rivulets of plum red, is topped with a pale avocado cream that gilds the clean bass on your tongue, and then comes the crunch of salt. This is the best of the sea. The mains are even better. A ribeye steak - thick with a well-hung flavour - has a shiny slick from bone marrow cubes melting on top, and slices of grilled yellow-fin tuna are seared perfectly - light yet almost meaty. Sides are mainly good: brussel-tops like spring greens are vibrant and crunchy with bacon. It's a pity such care isn't taken with the carrots - sad, over-cuminned and almost grey.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011 - The thing to have here is raw fish. Behind the slickness is the promise of sustainability by sourcing fish from day boats, which means damn good fresh fish for us. To the soundtrack of New York soft beats, we eat a plate of well-presented chef's sashimi - 15 pieces of raw fish and a neat pile of pickled wasabi, which are lovely chunks of mustardy heat. At 28 quid, you'd expect wonders, and the salmon sashimi is absolutely stunning, as is the mackerel and halibut...But the restaurant is based in Regent Street, and has Regent Street prices. There is a hint of the hotel bar feel to it, at times intimate and well-serviced, but ultimately, a little transient. The clientele is also slightly Chardonnay.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 - I felt neutral (not full, not empty) after eating about six plates at a restaurant. It was all herbs, citrus, vegetable, fruit and small portions of meat. It was, in short, a dieter's paradise. But was it a foodie's paradise? Sort of. The menu is beautiful and enticing in its strangeness. One gets bored of pork belly with mash and dressed crab, after all. But it's risky...Galoupet can obviously do vegetables and understands what is meant by 'light dishes'. They've tried to make a virtue of them and almost succeed. If you're the type who eats out in Knightsbridge or the type who spares a thought for your calorie intake (or both), then this slice of airy minimalism is an exciting new addition.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - I enjoyed the tasting dish of three different New York sirloins: American, English and some Aussie wagyu, though initially no one bothered to explain which was which (the maitre'd finally appeared and took care of this). The corn-fed USDA was sweet and unctuous; the wagyu was spongily soft with flavour that lingered marvellously; the grass-fed English was, I'm happy to say, my favourite - earthy, austere and rather glorious... If you want glamour, lavishness, buzz and a vast bill, CUT does the business.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - The minimalist descriptions make the arrival of each dish a bit of a surprise, though I suspect stoic St James's traditionalists may splutter when their lemon sole turns out to be a pair of crisply caramelised fillets, rather than an ovoid fish in a pool of brown butter...While my pal struggled with his lemon sole main, I had some spot-on venison - red slithers of rosy rich meat accompanied by spatzle noodles cooked with bacon. Alongside was a whispy fondant of butternut squash, upon which sat a little, foam-topped savoy cabbage leaf. It contained a magical veal shank melange - Mendham's take on ossobucco, and a delight.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - His lemon sole, recommended by a colleague of mine, was alright but a bit too fishy, if you know what I mean, while my risotto with lobster and king prawns and parmesan was so downright delicious, the rice so al dente and the seafood so meaty, that I asked to take it home in a 'doggy bag' and enjoyed it for lunch the next day. Heritage tomato salad with onions was also burstingly fresh, the quality of the tomatoes very high...Certainly I'm willing to return to Chiswell Street for a slap-up dinner again soon.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 - City appetites will be satisfied by the 10oz hunk of melting Argentine fillet I sliced through. Those with a bigger meat craving can go for 12 oz. Or hey - go for a prime USDA Angus 16 oz rib-eye. That'll sort you out - though I hear the Argentine beef is better here. This is a decadent menu, really - seafood and beef together always seem slightly extravagant...It's hard to fault the Door: the prices are very reasonable (16 pounds or less for most mains), the food is generally very pleasing and the service, well, I don't even remember it - which is the best kind.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011 - I had a satisfactory lobster bisque to start off with, served with croutons and cheese in a rustic clay bowl, while my friend's platter of Iberico Belotta ham - served, as is the way, on a wooden chopping board - made him swoon. While my bone-in rump steak didn't impress - I almost went for steamed steak and onion pudding, and wished I had - his Herdwick lamb rump was cooked to sweet, pink perfection and doused in a rather lovely lentil-and-vinaigrette concoction.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - I'll not go through all 10 dishes, but a few highlights. Tiny, soft discs of salt-baked turnip, the size of pound coins, nudging against an egg yolk that had been cooked sous vide and smoked to glorious perfection; ox tongue shredded, softened and transformed into the sweetest meat imaginable, squeezed between shards of sourdough 'paper' and surrounded by tiny spirals of pickled vegetable slithers; monkfish topped with the crumbly salt of reduced chicken stock, accompanied by surf clams and a mustard puree of wondrous depth. You've got two years. Now go.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - If ever a menu demanded return visits to work through everything, this is it. Smoked eel on a salad of roasted beets, horseradish, bacon and croutons is nostalgic and smoky and densely flavoursome; a ramekin's worth of Stinking Bishop macroni cheese can probably be smelled on the King's Road, and is a gloopy, decadent wonder; a Scotch egg is utter perfection, sliced in half with the runny yolk spilling into a sweet, carefully made piccalilli; while a jar filled with a creamy avocado panna cotta, devon crab and tomato is an inspired, delicate blend of textures and tastes. For pud, 'Eton tidy' is a charming idea charmingly executed.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - The Devonshire, which re-opened a couple of weeks ago, is now a stripped back place with bare floors, bare tables and khaki-green wooden wall panels. The menu is well-considered, with nothing too complicated but little that's run-of-the-mill - as it should be. I nipped along this weekend, and had unctuous, herby duck rillettes that spread beautifully on toast, and some nicely-cooked scallops that didn't really go with a rather tart piccalilli...Things are still getting in order at the Devonshire, and there's plenty on the menu to suggest a keen culinary mind at work here. Good ale selection too.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - Simple it may be, but every dish is a tempter. From potential starters that included squid with jersey royals and fennel, romaine lettuce with mussels and sour cherries and a sharing cheese course, we went for a platter of iberico bellota chorizo, and sea bass ceviche with broad beans. The chorizo was rich, peppery and wonderful - it's meant as a sharing dish, but my friend had no problems polishing it off. The ceviche was also marvellous - an elegant pile of tender, slippery fish morsels...The straightforward effortlessness of the cooking belied the sophisticated, fine-tuned understanding of ingredients and taste.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011 - The Gilbert Scott has been pitched as the glittering culinary addition to this line-up, a place to showcase brilliant British cuisine to incoming international visitors (notably, snobby French foodies from the Eurostar), and entertain business people in the rapidly transforming King's Cross area. In look and setting terms it does this with bells on (it's abundantly clear why Collins is being tapped to design just about every new bar and hotel these days.) It's just a shame the food doesn't quite yet have the same sparkle.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 - I go for a seared sea trout, with crab and leek salad and confit lemon vinaigrette. It's light, perfectly cooked and the buttery leeks are cut through by the lemon. My guest's choice is a little more ambitious: chorizo hash brown with poached eggs, which is gigantic. It's delicious, the chili gives the hash a great kick, the potatoes are crumbly and the eggs are done just so...The service is friendly and attentive but not overbearing. The food is simple but still interesting. It has also managed to be cool without feeling pretentious. Central London needs more of these.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 - If that big onion with its thick, piping-hot filling seemed more a dish for autumn than for spring, my fish pie compounded the effect - if was vast, with a sturdy morass of turbot, monkfish and potato sitting beneath a hefty puff pastry. Which isn't to say it didn't taste nice enough, but it was hard work. My friend's roast halibut, on the other hand, was a picture of spring freshness - a moist, flavoursome slab of perfectly cooked fish resting on a pile of glowing-green asparagus, with a simple lemon and butter sauce.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - We went for some Irish Strangford Lough rocks and some fines de Claire - a cleansing wash of oceanic protein made piquant with shallots and Tabasco. Some Gruner Veltliner, forcibly recommended, went well. Next was a whole cock crab served high on a platter in all its shell-bound enormity, but with the carapace thoughtfully loosened enough to make for easy retrieval of flesh. I got stuck into creamy brown meat and soon felt fuller than I thought possible from crab. Some time later, octopus with chorizo arrived (we'd been tantalised by the odour of its preparation) - tender, fragrant little white wheels surrounded by garlicky meat and broth. Razor clams were also meatier than usual, with a welcome heft and alpha punch.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - Starters are main-course prices: 11-18 pounds. So they need to be really, really good. Yet mushroom flan with cheese fondue and black truffle, which sounded terrific, tasted bland..And then: more disappointment. My veal loin (a special) came 'slow-cooked' with porcini mushrooms. This was dry and severely overcooked, like a chop my mother (a reluctant cook) might have produced when we were growing up and she'd had a long day at work. On the plus side, my friend's beef filet with radicchio and a rich purple sauce was very good but also a bit dry.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - The restaurant is described as having 'Italian flair with English style'. The room - marbly, black and red, opulent - has absolutely nothing English about it. Rather, it is pugnaciously Oriental. The food bears no signs of Anglophilia either, and is lusciously, commitedly and exorbitantly expensively Italian...The warm mozarella wrapped in crispy Parma ham, was madly delicious, thanks to the excellence of the cheese. The pasta was terrific: wholemeal ravioli stuffed with rabbit in broth with black truffle as good as it sounds; as was a chestnut tagliatelle with lamb ragout, which swirled in a sensual, oozing and salty sauce.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - It's noisy and fun down there, with the elements of the old pub interior - grand windows, dark wood panelling, that lively tavern atmosphere - injected with a bit of Latin vim...Among the stand-outs were the deeply flavoursome Iberico ham carved in strips from the aforementioned leg; beef onglet served pink and bubbling hot from the grill on a skewer with porcini mushroom and winter truffle; and delightful mini burgers of grilled pork and foie gras, a combination that felt naughtily indulgent. Salt cod was served with pleasing 'arroz negre' squid ink-blackened rice, while the confit of pork belly was heartily wonderful.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - Simple name, simple idea: cook fish brilliantly. And it does. A trio of Dorset crab tortellini with roasted cauliflower puree and basil was exemplary - as satisfying a mixture of textures as it was of taste, and presented beautifully. Similarly stunning was my starter of grilled scallops sitting on little cushions of truffle mashed potatoes, artichoke and chicken jus. Scallops are all very well, but scallops cooked with this delicacy and complexity of flavour - the tartness of the fennel, the succulent joy of the scallops, the earthy richness of the jus, the, er, truffliness of the spuds - was divine.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011 - Everything was delicate, delicious and often fascinating. Our sakizuke appetisers shone with ikura salmon roe and grated daikon (white rsdish), seared duck with wafu dressing and silky marinated yellow fin. Next came a really wonderful bowl of soup called wanmono: made thick and viscous with kuzu (a root), with a startlingly delicious prawn fish ball in the middle. Umami, the 'fifth' taste of savour-meets-succour that is so revered in Japanese cooking, wafts from everything...Surgeon-like skill, so much a part of top Japanese cooking, is to be found here in every dish.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - Dinner was beautiful: maximally rich, meaty and expert...From Pig we had pork rillettes which, I can't help but think, always taste of tuna fish and mayonnaise. Onwards and upwards we went, though, with some beautiful mackerel (so very 'clean'); a plate of sensationally tender, almost Turkish-style quail with pomegranate; a bowl of astounding sausage and sauerkraut that triumphed even over the great one at the Wolesley, and the dish whose violent garlicky character that stayed with me long afterwards: mushrooms baked with marrow. These mushrooms were so intense we couldn't finish them.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - It's a menu that's nostalgic but not whimsical; hearty but not earthy; sophisticated but not intimidating. It may not shout innovation, but imagination, deftness and integrity are all worthier qualities. My melting chunk of sweet, wine-braised beef shoulder nestled beside a couple of oval tranches of brilliant-red fillet, a rich dollop of creamed wild mushrooms sitting atop it like deep snow on a ski chalet...While the atmosphere may be intended to hark back to the place's inter-war heyday, the irony is that the Savoy Grill's heyday may, in fact, be now.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011 - A chunky casserole dish contained a beautiful lamb hotpot - acres of silky juice containing soft, pink portions of meat, topped off by a potato gratin. We appreciated the cones of pickled beetroot alongside it. However, my Tournedos Rossini was not a success. Their version has the foie gras - or rather, a cold, snotty mulch that might once have had something to do with foie gras - smeared on the crouton, with a dusting of a tasteless powder that might once have had something to do with black truffle but didn't anymore...A middling experience, but Eighty-Six has the potential to establish itself as a buzzy place in the area.

Thursday, January 06, 2011 - I started out with a couple of Scottish scallops that had been gently smoked, and were served surrounded by finely-chopped shreds of apple, dabs of horseradish cream and topped off by a see-through disc of jellified apple. The scallops were rather small, but this is a combinationof great elegance and freshness. I loved it. Things got more intriguing with a delicate lobster dish, in which the pieces of crustacean had been cured for a day in salt and sugar. Lightly reddened in places, the meat was mostly a raw, translucent grey - hardly appetizing until you tasted its rich sweetness.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010 - I decided to get into the spirit of things and order the bouillabaisse. This one terrified me: it was an enormous bowl of clams and several types of white fish placed in front of a gallon-sized pot of that famous viscous brown fish soup was poured atop. Now, looking carefully at the menu it appears the dish was for two people - why did nobody stop me?...My companion had lamb about which he was pretty over the moon. Lamb's not my favourite but the bit of his rack that I tried had a good, deep flavour.

Thursday, December 09, 2010 - We moved on - via lots of slices of thick bread slathered in good butter - to mains that were also a perfect ten. Well, almost perfect - perhaps my home-made pumpkin ravioli was too rich and a touch gluey. I couldn't finish it, which is odd for me, and my Italian companion commended it but said it was not quite what his mama would have made. Still, the home-madeness of it came through in a wholesome heft and luxuriant taste. It was a (quite) delicious dish. Mario's chicken and leek pie was a joy: bursting with vegetal flavours and thickened with shards of (presumably) once-happy chicken, topped by a good drift of buttery pastry. It was the perfect pub dish (yes, perfect).

Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - Fish at Hakkasan is utterly mind-blowing. We had the stir-fry Chilean seabass with Szechuan pepper, sweet basil and spring onion and it felt like another version of the silver cod, which in itself is related to Nobu's famous black cod. Genius. About dessert, I'll just say: skip it. It's horrid...For a fancy schmancy place, portions at Hakkasan are generous, making its prices not unreasonable - although the wine is very steep. But the bottom line is this: don't come here if you're pinching pennies.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - The Folly gets so much right, but the food is more of an aside than a main event. You can choose from great huge boards of antipasti, enormous pizza-style flatbreads, party-food style starters, sandwiches and burgers, mains and specials. Our lemongrass prawn lollipops were just big deep-fried prawns; likewise the crispy squid was deep fried, tasteless calamari...The Folly is a heaving, attractive and very welcoming spot and the result is a rather titillating ocean of City bodies eating, drinking and ogling. The genius lies in the fact that you can pick and choose what you want from it and you're probably going to enjoy whatever it is very much.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - We moved on to a plate of rich, squelchy sesame aubergine that was delicious - if you don't mind that uniquely pulpy texture of skinless grilled eggplant. Our plate of sushi was a solid, pleasurable mixture of melting sashimi and action-packed rolls. It was good but not a standout, so we hurried back to the rest of the menu, and got serious with great pink claws of Alaskan crab with ponzu butter (brilliant) and a whole sea bream cooked in magnolia leaf - huge, meaty, aromatic and, despite costing just shy of 40 quid, good value since you could easily share it.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010 - We had the famous Tamworth belly ribs - four great slabs of melting pork marinated in something more subtle and natural-tasting than BBQ sauce; bone marrow and slow cooked onions which came out in three enormous bones crammed with gratinated onions and the trembly marrow fat which, when rubbed on the accompanying thick-cut, smoky farmhouse toast, was simple heaven (and a steal at 5.50), and finally, corned beef and bacon. We were full, in honesty. But the main event was to come...

Tuesday, November 02, 2010 - The decor is a bit functional, a bit lacking in je ne sais quoi; a bit, well, tinny. But no matter, the food is generously served and tasty and the wine is quite extraordinary...Mains were terrific, too, wowing us with a melt-on-the-tongue meat-feast. My friend made a beeline for the braised ox cheek with parsnip mash and root vegetables and could not be contacted while it was in front of her, so absorbed in its dark, syrupy depths was she. I was preoccupied with discs of bavette steak, brown and crusty on the outside, paler and paler maroon inside with a glowing ember in the middle that sealed the deal for me.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 - The food is an elevated version of rustic French, with the odd Anglo element here and there...Roast halibut with razor clams was a delight, the plump white halibut offset perfectly by the slidey, buttery loveliness of the little pieces of razor clam that were served in their long shell. A soft, moist-as-you-like pork belly arrived inside a ceramic pot, surrounded by lentils and vegetables which lapped up its deep juices.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - It's in a modern building, right by the waterfront and it's clean and swanky, but with reassuringly rustic touches - barrels to rest your drink on, antlers on the walls...Over in the restaurant, the food is bang on. We started with a plate of mixed charcuterie, with several types of jamon, lomo, salchichon, and fuet - Catalan sausage. It was subtle, salty and smoky, just as it should be. We were told that we had to try the grilled octopus tentacle, and they were right. A whole, fat tentacle with black grill-lines served on a splodge of olive oil mash, it was the best dish of the night.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - It's intimate enough, even cosy in its soft blue chaired, purple carpeted way, but still feels a little dull and anonymous. That isn't stopping chef Robin Gill doing boldly sophisticated things with an elegant take on rustic European cooking. Take, for instance, a plump slice of sea bream fillet served with a leaf of greenest savoy cabbage and a smudge of butternut squash puree. This was the perfect seasonal dish: the wholesomeness of the nutty bulgur wheat and the splendid orange and sweetness of the butternut squash all seemed as nostalgically autumnal as kicking one's feet through a pile of crisp brown leaves.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010 - I started out with brown shrimp croquettes - a couple of crusty croquettes filled with luscious prawn meat in a sweet, oozy sauce. I could have eaten these all night, frankly, but that would have denied me the pleasure of Carbonnades Flamandes a la Duvel - beef stew in Belgian Duvel beer. This was terrific - large, meltingly soft chunks of beef swimming in a thick, velvety gravy. Big, bold, rustic food that would be easy to get wrong - how often does one order casserole and stew dishes at such places, only to be served meat that's leathery and tough? - but was satisfyingly right, and good value at 13.20.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - If this is meant to be your kitchen away from home, it's pretty glamorous. Huge river-facing windows, extremely high windows and a mezzanine all add minimalist chic...Herb and mascarpone risotto was a grainy rice pat oozing herby flavour, and enriched - not weighed down - by the cheese. His 28 day-old fillet steak was a fair attempt at a NY-style beef but not remarkable. The chips were great, though. My wiener schnitzel made from milk-fed veal and served with spinach was a bit average.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 - The new place looks and feels like the old place. The lighting's dim, the decor's brown and masculine and the attention is all directed to what's on your plate. To which end, there's the addition of a window into the ageing room...The sweet, buttery delights of the corn-fed American meat contrasted instantly with the soft, smoky earthiness of the Irish stuff, for instance. We barely touched our sauces since the meat naturally offered up so much flavour and juice. Triple-cooked chips and some sautéed mushrooms on the side were perfectly executed too.

Thursday, August 19, 2010 - The menu is impressive but punches above his weight. This is a middle-of-the range, funky-style steakhouse. Scallops with foie gras - like oyster platters - seem out of place. Prawns were good. The warm grilled ones with olive oil, pink peppercorns, basil and lemon were simply delicious - deep and warm of flavour and very meaty...From the steak menu, we went for one NY Striploin and one American grain fed T-Bone. Both were good but not great. My friend is from New York and she was less impressed than me - particularly as her 'rare' came out as 'medium' verging on the 'well done'.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - Okay, so the location is weird, the building uninviting and the room itself completely unprepossessing - the windowlessness of it, its cramped layout and the orange lights only augment a sense of disorientation...But let's get down to business. The food that we ate was, in the main, luscious, rich and delightfully flavoured. My friend's tournedos Rossini was pure red-meat fireworks. The discs of deep red, crusted fillet mignon came with a faintly sweet, butter-drenched potato cake (heaven) and, of course, a glistening piece of foie gras. To eat this symphony of naughtiness was to suspend all other attention.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 - You could and should go for Ponchelle's cooking, which turns out to be right on the money. We started with some plump scallops served with puy lentils and bacon in a gently curried sauce, and foie gras ravioli in a foamy truffle sauce. These were both rich, enlivening dishes cooked with care and precision, and the ravioli was particularly fine...The service is deferential and slick, and the wine collection is impressive. It's a restaurant that lives up to its classy history in every element, and with Ponchelle's tenure The Capital appears to be in a safe set of hands.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - The food here is serious: chef Simon Foster was previously at La Tante Claire, and Claridges. In keeping with the setting he's gone for a grand menu featuring a certain amount of fancy shmancy mousses and foams, but one that is also admirably restrained, down-to-earth, and just the way modern European food should be served these days. Ingredients are both locally sourced and imaginative and dishes range from the simple to the decadent. They are also generous, ultimately representing good value.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010 - Poached halibut with razor clams and fennel was a golden, cottony delight, but the evening's showstopper was the Gloucester Old Spot loin and belly of pork, which was sticky with juice and savour and slow cooking, to the point of being almost caramelised, and served with some brilliant mustard gnocchi. It was the kind of dish that you hoped would never end. Wines were exceptional throughout...Don't go if you're craving atmosphere and conviviality - in contrast to the food, the place is just too austere to enjoy.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 - The menu is simple enough and rather enticing, with a seasonal sensibility and lack of affectation that suits the venue's breezy, stripped back atmosphere. Not that it's without personality...A chilled cucumber soup that had crab meat lurking within was as fresh as a spring morning, the crab adding earthy depth to the cucumber's cleansing sparkle. A creamy pea risotto with smoked bacon, a brilliant shade of green and artfully presented, tasted marvellously of the garden. The main courses were a let down though.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - The a la carte combines uproarious modern European food with sheer excess...For the premier plat, 'green' asparagus - the spiritual sister of the purple broccoli. This came with lovage, crispy Serrano ham and some meat jus - lovely. Elsewhere: broad beans and thyme with olive oil tart and quail eggs, and young spring veggies with parmesan veloute and sweet cured bacon. A perfectly judged symphony of summer. Next up, who could resist scallops and brown butter with sauteed green chard and jerez vinegar? Not me, certainly, and I was repaid with all the melting luxury the dish's name suggests.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - The sub-head of 28-50 is 'wine workshop and kitchen' - the first part should be clear now. As for the kitchen part, the menu is enticing, warming and reasonably priced, if a little bit boring, with lots of French country classics and plenty of butter...Pork belly, with a caramelised topping, came with cabbage (a bit too finely diced) and pork scratchings. It was doused in a superb and not too heavy gravy. Meanwhile, lamb shoulder with new season garlic and butter mash was a generous, lovingly composed dish.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010 - My sister chose the Scottish fillet steak, which came in juicy pink slices accompanied by spinach, chips and a generous smudge of sweet onion puree. Chips were thick-cut, but as light and crunchy as thick-cut chips could ever be, and they made my sister swoon. Trusting Nadra's experience of four years perfecting his fish cooking, I went for grilled sea bass with buttered courgettes, saffron crab ravioli, basil and bisque sauce. Predictably, it was wonderful, the plump, buttery goodness of the fish and the supple and subtle ravioli proving a deep and lovely combination.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010 - Along with his famous burgers, another of Boulud's specialties is sausages: you can have them either as a starter or a shared platter. We went for the former option, since obviously we were still a bit low on protein and also we adore sausages. Gliding - painfully - past the Thai spiced link and the boudin noir one, we settled on the (extremely helpful and witty) waiter's recommendation: the Beaujolaise, with mushroom, onion, bacon and red wine. A good choice: the rough-textured pork was bursting with herbs and lacquered in a perfectly composed sticky gravy swimming with sweet onions. Heaven.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 - The dining room is small and sexy, with low lights - there are other tables in the main room that feel more airy, and closer to the all-important windows. Either way, the food ranges from the classic to the finicky...It's noisy, look-at-me food - but then, the view is like that too. You don't go to Paramount to be shy and stare at beige walls and eat pared-down food. So I say, go all out and embrace the purees, the creams and the daring combinations. They create a skyline on the plate that's almost a match for the one outside.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - This is a scene before it's a restaurant, and that scene is flashy uber-slick, Euro-dominated Mayfair. It's the sort of place I'd imagine attracting a Versace-clad crowd in Milan...I had a Milanese classic: breaded, fried veal cutlet with tomatoes and rocket. It was silky and naughty tasting, like posh chips, with good meat inside. But it was small, served without any carbohydrate, and cost 17 quid. Likewise pasta (homemade parpadelle with beef ragu) was nice but small-ish and cost a bewildering 17 quid.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - I started with a Cornish fish soup, served in a pretty clay pot, that was spicy, aromatic and deeply satisfying; accompanying it was dark slithers of fried French bread, grated cheese and a creamy mustard mayonnaise I could live off...For my main course I couldn't resist cow pie. Big, melty chunks of beef in a gooey, sumptuous gravy. A piece of bone containing a peppery marrow stuffing propped up the dark, buttery pastry. My friend bravely went for chicken kiev - it was plump, encrusted with crunchy breadcrumbs, and fell apart majestically as a river of herby garlic butter gushed out upon cutting.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010 - Mendes veers from the potent to the delicate, the animal to the garden. The Early Spring Garden was a light and simple array of seasonal veggies, and some razor clams dotted with fresh chilli and vinaigrette were as light and clean as spring water. Meanwhile a tender slab of beef was very ballsy with lots of garlic. Another favourite was a plate of celery involving roasted celeriac, onion tapioca (yes, onion tapioca), onion and hazelnut paste, and Saint Jorge cheese from Portugal.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 - It's no beauty - it feels half finished somehow, or furnished wrongly; tables are at odd intervals in an odd-shaped room with very little character or charm and that suggestion of All Bar One blandness...The special of chicken leg confit was well-executed, served with chickpea and chorizo stew. But the standout was the Wiltshire trout that was squeaky clean and super delicate but packed a punch with some salty cooked greens wedged underneath and a tremendous buttery crust. Really knockout.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - I went with lamb's liver, with three strips of shiny meat sitting upon a pile of spring greens - both were overcooked. I liked the sage-infused dollop of mash potato, but the overall effect was bland. I certainly came off better than my friend, who chose a smoked haddock fish cake that desperately needed a sauce, or even a squeeze of lemon to distract from its dryness. Apparently it had gruyere cheese in it, but it tasted mostly of potato. We ordered chips, which were thin-cut French fries with skins left on for added rusticity - we liked 'em...Brasserie Blanc won't win culinary awards, but it's a neat place that does its job.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 - I had pan-fried slices of scallops interlaced with crisply breaded leaves of caulifower in an anchovy-and-caper beurre noisette - it was flawless. Roasted pigeon breast was slow-cooked and served warm and bloody with sweetcorn and wild mushrooms. It was tremendously smooth, and oozed flavour. Next up was a roasted beef fillet that was perfectly pink and supple, its tenderness offset nicely by a rich and rustic wine sauce, and a richer and still more rustic mulch of braised shin which lurked beneath. The other main was a rather splendid take on surf 'n' turf: slices of gleaming pink lobster tail resting on a juicy strip of pork belly, with baby gem lettuce and a cider sauce.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - The menu is a bit confusing, with tapas, a tandoori section, dosas, salads, low fat plates, thalis and Big Plates. Some of these seem a bit ill-judged - an Indian style calzone pizza with mixed seafood and broccoli sounds like a big mistake...I started with lamb meatballs, which arrived very quickly (maybe too quickly, they might have benefited from a bit more time in the oven). My friend's gloopy lamb roganjosh with chickpeas and spinach and mushroom rice was also on the 'ugh' side, and there wasn't much mushroom with the rice. He was also unimpressed with his chipped plate.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - There was tandoor-glazed monkfish with crab vermicelli - a decadent dish whose charcoally fish was refreshed by the creamy crab. Falling off the bone in almost ridiculously melting strips were both mutton confit shoulder with caramelized onions and tomato, and roast fillet and cheek of veal, that had been slowly braised in its juices with garlic, red chillies and white wine vinegar...There was pan-fried sea bass with ginger-infused coconut stew and garlic mash about which I remember nothing but that I enjoyed it. Each dish is a full party in itself.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - It's all meant to create a more relaxed, less exclusive atmosphere, where you're as welcome for a drink and a bite as for a sit-down meal. However since the room remains a magnificently ostentatious old banking hall, relaxed is a relative thing...I started with a large, perfectly poached duck egg, the silky-yolk of which spilled out over a rich celeriac remoulade and crispy parma ham, with a watercress sauce that was a beautifully deep shade of bottle green. My dad's smoked haddock chowder was everything it should be: smooth, light, buttery and full of smoky flavour.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - We went for the Mauricette snails, meatballs, and royale de champignon and there was nothing frighteningly French about it. The snails were simply at their garlicky, earthy, buttery best with rich, herby mushrooms and meatballs bursting with savour. And the onion and cider soup was a thick, textured broth whose intensely aromatic flavour was further elevated by the caramelisation of the onions...The star of the mains was the hare royale with onion raviolo, pumpkin and dried mandarin puree. The hare came out in an enormous, almost pulsatingly pink medallion, fillet steak style, atop an ingenious orange mound of citrussy puree.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - We went for corn-fed duck and it was the most impressive plate of fowl that either of us had encountered in years: great slabs of juicy, maroon meat with the heft and tenderness of fillet mignon and a warm flavour that was somewhere between excessive duckiness and hardcore steakiness, with a nice caramelized skin and a blob of brilliantly soft duck liver on top. I had halibut with lingoustine and a rich seafood broth - the fish was as cottony and delicate as can be...The atmosphere is friendly, the food interesting if patchy and the views completely brilliant. If you can find it, Battery is well worth a trip.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - We plumped for roast wild duck with croquette of leg, foie gras, orange pippin sauce, parsnip, brussel sprouts and chestnuts - a vibrant, juicy cross-section of the duck's anatomy, awash in ingredients loaded with wintry, warming flavour. My fillet of Cornish sea bass was cottony and cloud-white, served with a single lobster ravioli, and a wonderful wet, pickly 'spaghetti' of shredded vegetables, all doused in lobster bisque with saffron and orange. If the technical composition of these dishes sounds overbearing, it isn't - each one is like a finely-hewn work of gastro-engineering that rewards a bit of faith on your part.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - I thought I'd better test Torode on what is meant to be his strong suit, opting for the 14 oz porterhouse steak. At 28.50, you expect a piece of meat to be magnificent, melting, bursting with flavour, begging to be finished. Instead, I had a battle on my hands, as I could barely chew through it. Because of the price, I persevered. At least I felt full afterwards. It's worth pointing out that at what has been called London's best steak house, Goodman, a 14 oz porterhouse costs 24. My companion's duck, pork belly and sausage dish was strong in flavour, but was doused in something bearing a major similarity to tinned tomato.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - Things took a wrong turn with the other starter, a roasted breast of partridge. Piled in a pyramid on a circle of gooey bread sauce, the breast meat was overcooked, dried out and salty. There was a leg too, wrapped in rubbery skin, beneath which some slithers of meat resolutely resisted any attempt to remove them from the bone. A main course of pork was better, with a moist cube of slow-cooked belly and a slew of loin medallions sitting cheerily upon some bubble and squeak. Roast monkfish was a little overcooked but satisfyingly buttery nonetheless, surrounded by sauteed new potatoes and creamed leeks.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 - There is plenty of added value in the ultra-glamorous interior, with its mirror balls, dancer's pole, matte white tables and confusingly labelled toilets. But there is also acrobatic performance, burlesque dancers and serenading guitarists... The menu consists of delicious, interesting American nosh, a cuisine the owner, Adam Davies, defines as being a mishmash of cultural influences. The result is a delightful array of playful dishes such as shredded pork with potato latkes, grilled corn bread with tomatoes, butter beans and feta - or with Cajun honey butter - and slow-roast beef ribs (instead of the better-known pork).

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - Sea bass sashimi - thin strips curled on top of a row of miniscule baby asparagus and drizzled in a gentle citrus sauce - was so good I wanted to stand up and hug the person at the next table...From the robata grill, lamb cutlets with Korean spices were gorgeous - charred and caramelised on the outside, oozing juice and smoky flavour on the inside. Highlights included skewers of perfectly-made kinoko garlic mushrooms, a chunk of miso-marinated black cod that fell into perfectly succulent flakes, and sweet potato mash served inside a parcel made from a dried bamboo leaf.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 - From the menu you'd think the haute cuisine revolution had never happened. As well as mince and spuds, there's fish and chips with marrow fat peas, chicken, bacon and leek pie, and a mixed grill...For mains, a roasted beef rib was tremendously juicy and satisfying, with crisp roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese. I went for Dover sole, which you can have grilled or meuniere - I chose the latter and it was cooked impeccably, pan fried in flour to soft, golden perfection with a sweet, luscious brown butter sauce. Take my advice - save room for pudding.

Thursday, January 07, 2010 - For mains, we skipped over the burgers and 'po boys' (meat sandwiches that are first and foremost lard-tastic, augmented by lashings of maple syrup, steak sauce and BBQ sauce), and headed straight for the seafood gumbo and BBQ ribs. At 12 quid each, these dishes were stonking value. My gumbo was a taste-party that included shrimps, mussels, swordfish, tomatoes, okra, beans and pepper and rice. I only got through a quarter of it. BBQ ribs were the size of a burly man's arm and served with coleslaw. They were sweet and sticky and smokey, and a joy to sink your teeth into.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009 - Salad of wood-fired autumn vegetables, walnut and goat's cheese was a playful and refreshing combination of artichokes, beetroot and soft, wet globes of goat's cheese. The veloute of Potimarron pumpkin with chestnuts and ceps was completely delicious...For mains, we thought we'd take the plunge and go for the cote de boeuf for two. Whoops. It was disappointing in a big way...Dinner returned to form with dessert: an intense blueberry souffle with lovely milk ice cream and a stunning selection of cheese.

Friday, December 04, 2009 - The tuna, relatively lightly cooked with the inside fresh and pink, was a little bland. However, my beef cheek served in a red wine sauce was a real humdinger of a dish. The meat was deep and gamey to taste and tender as anything, falling into beautifully moist chunks at the prod of a fork. The sauce was rich as you like. For a simple rural dish, it felt like a marvellous indulgence...I can't say I think it's worth the prices it charges. But it's a warm and welcoming restaurant nevertheless.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - It's a chattery, buzzy place when we visit on a Friday night, full of Shoreditch trendies packed in snugly and overlooked by black-and-white photos of music hall madams. The menu is English seasonal with the odd Gallic twist, and has some tempting combinations. It veers somewhat on the fussy side though...It's not the refined dining experience the prices and menu flourishes suggest, but it' certainly not bad, and the place has an easy charm helped by the attentive, friendly service.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009 - We began with some thickly-cut salmon, tuna and yellow-tail sashimi which wasn't the tastiest I've had, but king crab tempura following it was delicious. A prawn, scallop and mushroom soup, served in a little teapot, was smoky and aromatic, and fat tranches of charcoal-seared salmon served on a steaming hot stone slab were suitably theatrical...While it veers towards style over content, this is a vibrant place with good Japanese food and a glitzy atmosphere.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - From 'meat', we had grilled sliced flank steak and mushrooms, a simple hit of beef drenched in its juices and the exciting pumpkin dish mentioned earlier, which was a daunting pile of carved slices of the vegetable topped with the prosciutto and generously dusted with shavings of parmesan. From 'fish', we went with fritto misto - a generous assortment of deep fried seafood that tasted as light and naughty as it should. The cuttlefish in ink with gremolata was tasty but looked horrible.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - A dish of cod's tongues proved irresistible. They were beautiful, very like skate cheeks. Another starter of spider crab was stunning, and massive...we eventually got our mains. I had a massive turbot whose flesh was clean, tasty and meaty, though a little too salty. A plaice was another enormous slab of flesh and tasted beautiful, although it was a little too close to raw in the middle. A mayonnaise made with lots of tarragon was a stellar accompaniment to a plate of broccoli. Chips were great.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - The restaurant embraces its view in a way that many, foolishly, do not. Indoors, there's a semicircular bar facing outwards and the tables are arranged so that there are no bum seats...It is hearty American food with a twist. We had crab cakes that looked like big coins, served with slivers of pickled cucumber and mayo - yummy. Clam chowder was posher and healthier than any version I've tried before - a thin broth with lots of actual clams in it, diced unpeeled potatoes, peas and pea shoots...

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 - One main was a roasted plaice with creme fraiche potatoes and sauce Veronique - ie, with grapes and peanuts - which was picture pretty, the fish beautifully cooked and the sauce buttery and subtly flavoured, with a little piquancy from the paprika. I had an absolutely stellar beef faggot with deep, nourishing flavours, accompanied by mash so creamy that you could almost have smeared it on a scone...

Thursday, September 24, 2009 - Oysters being the name of the game, we plumped for nine of the little beggars, from Carlingford Lough in Scotland. They were plump and had the tang of the sea, just as they should. At 24.75, they were not cheap - let's hope those expense accounts are still going strong. The other food is basically posh English, with a whiff of the public school dining room about it, although with oodles of refinement. Soused herrings come with rosti, ham hock with piccalilli, calves' liver with sage mash. My bubble and squeak was seasoned beautifully and the poached egg was perfectly done, while the hollandaise was superb.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009 - The Kensington Wine Rooms is the latest venue to make a go of enomatic, or wine-dispensing, machines. When you find something you love and can afford, you simply come back and tell the machine to dispense a glass's worth, and it will charge you accordingly...We went for crab cakes with chilli jam, which were good though overpowered by dill and slightly mushy, and chorizo, scallop and broad bean salad that was playful, fresh and moreish. Meats here are excellent. My fillet steak with Bearnaise, watercress and chips was deep, tender and charcoaly, just as God intended.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009 - Inside, the first impression is of the colourful deli and fast-dining area - dominated by that counter - awash in a multitude of beautifully presented finger-food delicacies. Stacks of lovely green vine-leaf rolls, pastries, breads, wraps and salads seem to glow with enticing freshness...We got a mezze platter for two, a panoply of beautifully-arranged delicacies including a lush lentil salad, juicy and flavoursome vine rolls, pastry dumplings with spinach, aubergine baba ghanoush that's deep and tasty, and herby falafel...The place is buzzy, busy, and full of Eastern promise of the most chic kind.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 - This being a gastropub of the new order, the food is fresh, British and ambitious. The bread is the best I've had in a long time - Irish soda meets malted granary, served warm and fresh. To start, I went for salad of smoked haddock and quail's eggs, while my companion ordered pan-fried duck egg, pea shoots and bacon. The haddock seemed of good quality but lacked salt, smoke and punch, leaving the dish a bit bland. The duck egg was oddly rubbery but forked with the treacly bacon and pea shoots, pretty damn nice.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - As London dining rooms go, the Criterion is a place of almost unmatched grandeur, and it's with some relief that you pass through those imposing double doors into a vast area of old-world opulence...an opportunity to eat well-cooked mutton shouldn't be passed up. It comes three ways - a smoky leg slice, a rounded fillet and a mini kebab, all moist and densely flavoursome. Meanwhile a rich, peppery ostrich fillet comes with an African concoction named popotje - a bit like haggis with cumin. As I said, it's eccentric...

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 - The restaurant hadn't even officially opened when we visited on Friday at lunch, and already it was completely full. Buzzing. Noisy. Chaotic. Food came inexcusably slowly and with some mistakes (though the waitress was lovely and did her best)...The pasta was superb and I am convinced any Italian would be pleased with it - the winner was the 'delicious crab spaghettini' with fresh crabmeat, capers, chilli, fennel, parsley, anchovy and lemon. It tasted as good as it sounds. The carbonara was also great: pancetta and courgettes tossed with eggs, thyme and parmesan cheese and thick, firm pasta worms.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - The Clarendon is in a lovely space. It's all exposed wood and brick, cosy and with high ceilings and enormous windows. Upstairs is a pair of lounges and then a roof terrace...There was a very nice ham hock terrine with a piquant 'paprika caramel' sauce, and some heavy duty giant pan-fried prawns that were good but predictably a hassle to eat and therefore a bit out of place. The aforementioned steak was enormous - the width of a frisbee - but juicy and good. The amber chips on the sidecompleted the value-for-money feel of the plate.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008 - Bumpkin number two has installed itself in a quiet spot at the South Kensington end of Old Brompton Road, there to reel in a slightly Sloanier flavour of West Londoner, which it was doing very well when we visited on a Thursday night...Essentially it’s a gastropub minus the pub bit, though you can order a glass of Bumpkin’s very own ale, brewed by Shepherd’s Neame. The dining room’s pretty big, but there’s a softly cosy atmosphere, an exceptionally well-spoken hubbub and first-rate pies to get stuck into.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 - The room looks like the former Petrus; dark, opulent, oozing and tinkling with the expensive things in life, from the finely turned glass on the liqueur tray to the quiet rattle of the petits fours trolley to the mellow rumble of cheese chariot to the pop of vintage champagne corks…My companion and I were treated perfectly by the staff, and soon found the courage to roll up our sleeves and dive into Wareing’s high-octane, deeply foodie menu.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008 - Some of London�s top restaurants are in hotels these days. Some of them have opened recently and have got away with being unabashedly pricey - Darroze at the Connaught, Hartnett at the Murano and Wareing at the Berkeley have all triumphed. So it's hardly surprising that there's a restaurant at the St James's. Andaman is a jewel-like, lacquered black and yellow affair, with 1940s German paintings on the wall and the three Michelin-starred chef Dieter Muller in the kitchen. Andaman means well.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - I’ve yet to hear of anyone else being wildly impressed by a proper Turkish restaurant in London. Kazan would appear to be an exception. Its Pimlico location is an institution with a passionately loyal following. Hardly surprising, then, that Kazan’s owners spotted profit in expansion. Hence the opening of a new restaurant in Houndsditch Street…Kazan was humming at 8pm on a Thursday night, and was full to the gills with well-clad young people, making a lot of noise and having a good time. The Ottoman-style furnishings create an atmosphere of louche and the bar area is truly inviting with its cushions, deep chairs and golden light.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - Min Jiang commands one of London’s top pieces of real estate – of that there is no doubt. On the tenth floor of the Royal Garden Hotel on Kensington High Street, it’s an elegant, windowy box of contemporary laquered Chinoiserie with astonishing views of Hyde Park and the London skyline. In the wake of Hakkasan, London’s first Michelin-starred Chinese, and Yautcha, Alan Yau’s dim sum haven, Londoners no longer laugh at the idea of a gourmet Chinese restaurant.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - As with houses, so with restaurants: location is the thing, and the owners of Devonshire Terrace have found a good spot to reel in City workers. Just off Bishopsgate and only a couple of minutes’ walk from Liverpool Street station, it’s in a prime position.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - Some people are snooty about restaurants in venues that also have a trendy bar, believing somehow that the agitating of cocktail shakers, the thumping of loud music and people under the age of 30 having an alcohol-assisted good time somehow detracts from the chef’s dedication to food. It’s a mistake that people are all too likely to make about Kyashii.