The 100 best dishes in London

£6.50

The very model of a modern Thai restaurant, Kin + Deum is a laidback, minimalist space serving up big helpings of thrilling, Bangkok-inspired food with the aid of some genuinely lovely staff. Top of the hit list is the Thai spiced rice salad – a crunchy, chewy tumble of rice clusters (think wet, savoury granola) muddled with whispers of scallions, fresh coriander leaves, slivers of red onion, ginger and creamy whole cashews. Ripples of lime cut through the salt-sweet backdrop, followed by short, sharp smacks of heat from tiny chillies. As a signature ‘all-day snack’, it’s perfect.

£8 

You know about The Palomar and The Barbary – well, this King’s Cross cracker comes from the same crew, and it doesn’t disappoint. Expect a bold, thrilling menu highlighting the revved-up flavours of modern Jerusalem and beyond – including a truly memorable Moroccan fennel salad with a yoghurty harissa dressing. Every mouthful gleaned from this thick tangle of crunchy stuff reveals a new surprise  – a halved olive here, a whole toasted almond there, plus the sweetness of orange and the heat of fresh chilli, all strewn with zingy fresh coriander, mint and parsley. It’s the most reassuringly moreish salad you’ll have all week.

From £8.90

The folks at Xi’an Biang Biang know a thing or two about pulling and twirling strands of starchy goodness. They produce excellent hand-pulled ‘thin’ noodles, but our vote goes to their aptly named ‘belt’ versions – a current fave on London’s foodie scene. Bowls of these chilli oil-slicked ribbons come slathered with any number of delicious sauces and toppings: best of the lot must be the ‘special’ spicy beef, although we also fancy the cumin lamb and ‘big plate’ on-the-bone chicken. The combination of satisfyingly thick, chewy carbs with hunks of tender meat makes for a pleasing (if messy) mouthful – so avoid wearing your favourite white shirt.

£5

Once a linoleum warehouse (lino, geddit?), this buzzy semi-industrial eatery has a day-to-night vibe that suits all comers and all occasions, from breezy business lunches to dinner dates with drinks. The food is similarly modish but accessible, a selection of fashionable small plates devised by Richard Falk (previously head chef at The Dairy). There’s a lot to like here pistachio-studded game terrine, tempura oysters, beef tartare, but we’d single out the sauerkraut and cheddar croquettes, a trio of creamy, crunchy and staggeringly delicious morsels serviced with truffled mayonnaise. The perfect accompaniment to some lively chatter.

£10.50

Henry Harris is a chef’s chef who doesn’t pander to trends, preferring to concentrate on timeless, bourgeois Gallic food without poncey flurries. Take his emblematic calf’s brain – a dish that was ‘always on’ at his much-missed Racine. Here it’s as sublime as ever: rich, smooth and unctuous, with the texture of silken tofu. Harris brines the brain, then fries it, before drowning it in a vat of butter; the only additions are parsley and a heap of plump, vinegary capers to cut through the richness. Heaven.

£16

It was a long, long time coming, but when ‘MasterChef’ winner Tim Anderson’s Nanban finally opened in a former pie-and-mash shop in Brixton, it was an out-and-out hit. This inspired Japanese-Caribbean fusion dish – which playfully roots the restaurant in its neighbourhood while respecting Japanese convention – swiftly gained pet status. The deep, rich goat-curry broth reveals chunks of spiced, braised meat and wiggly noodles (originally served on the side). A tea-pickled egg, some eye-wateringly fiery bamboo shoots (pickled with scotch bonnet chillies) and a scattering of spiced seafood powder add yet more depth and flavour. No dessert required.

£7.50

You know those dishes that are absolutely delicious but enormously fiddly to make? Well, this is one of them (and that’s why restaurants exist). The signature dessert at Honey & Co is a creamy, vanilla- and honey-tinged, whipped feta filling loaded on to a crisp base of kadaif pastry, topped with herbs, nuts and seasonal fruit. Sounds a breeze, but it’s a dish best left to the professionals. The fact that the owners also namecheck this creation as ‘the one from Honey & Co’ on the menu at offshoot Honey & Smoke merely alerts you to its celebrity status.

£9.50

Laksa may be oh-so-trendy these days, but this Malaysian café-diner has been peddling its giant bowls of noodle deliciousness for two decades – and punters can still look forward to humongous helpings of spicy coconutty broth packed with juicy prawns, thin rice vermicelli, puffy fish balls, the works. C&R’s vibe is functional but contemporary, staff are friendly but terrifyingly efficient, and the lighting is set to ‘interrogation-level-bright’. Not ideal for a cosy first date, but great for an off-track fill-up.

£14

While super-chef Ollie Dabbous’s Michelin-starred Hide Above is super-sleek and exclusive, Hide Ground is a bit more lovable with chatty staff, touches of theatre and a menu of hot-ticket modern dishes. The food is simply divine from beginning to end, but don’t miss the warm, buttery acorn cake, baked in a teeny pot, which comes richly endowed with luscious smoked caramel and Cornish clotted cream. You also get to choose your own liqueur for pouring over this gorgeous confection. It’s seriously pricey, but worth the thrill.

From £4.50

Hand-related things can be bad: hand balls; hand guns; hand-wash only. And don’t even get me started on handwiches (just Google them). But hand rolls, aka temaki, are awesome, especially at Jugemu, where chef Yuya Kikuchi makes them to order for punters sitting at the counter. He uses beautiful fillings matched with still-warm sushi rice, and hands each little package over the instant it’s ready, so that the seaweed wrapper stays brittle. Eat immediately. 

£7

Like the titular fish eggs, Roe is tiny but bursting with flavour. Occupying a dinky shipping container in Pop Brixton, it comprises just two communal tables and a teeny kitchen that punches well above its weight. Seafood is the order of the day, so reel in a goodly number of small plates, from red gurnard carpaccio to the utterly brilliant squid ‘noodles’ – pale ribbons cut from the titular cephalopods, tossed in sesame oil and given an occasional sharp, fiery hit of fermented hot sauce. All sitting atop a handful of verdant and crunchy pak choi leaves arranged in a wet, nest-like little heap.

£5

A playful Thai twist on salted caramel, this ice cream from the duo behind Som Saa is fiendishly good – they get the palm sugar from a Thai-based sourcing company, owned by mentor David Thompson, that supplies Nahm in Bangkok and Heston’s Fat Duck in Bray. You could eat it on its own, but oh no. Instead, they take two scoops of this creamy, silky, salty, burnt-toffee deliciousness and add chargrilled, caramelised, only-just-ripe banana halves (first marinated in coconut cream, pandan leaves and fresh turmeric) – plus a final sprinkle of sesame seeds. With alternating moments of salt and sweet, creamy and crunchy, bitterness and spice, it’ll take your breath away. 

From £2.80 (£5 for two, except the Singapore chilli crab-stick puff)

Founded back in 1956, this Singaporean street-food chain is now peddling its legendary curry puffs in Covent Garden – and pretty damn good they are too. These big boys are the spicy counterparts to their Cornish cousins, with satisfyingly buttery pastry encasing a range of different fillings. The full range is on display behind an old-style glass counter – from the ‘classic’ curried chicken with potato coated in warm spices to veggie curried potato, black pepper tuna and even a take on Singapore chilli crab (made with crab sticks). And with prices starting at £2.80 a pop, the value’s hard to beat.

£18

The main characters behind this shiny new Notting Hill sophisticate are a starry couple: she is Michel Roux Jnr’s daughter; he is a former head chef at Le Gavroche. Together they have created a classy Franco-Italian venue with a menu that’s oddly divided into six different character traits: ‘subtle’ for example, might mean celeriac cacio e pepe – a dish that has deservedly become something of a signature. The sauce is every bit as creamy, cheesy and peppery as you’d want, but it comes locked in an embrace with a pile of celeriac shavings that are delicately sweet and beautifully al dente. Dainty, dazzling stuff indeed.

£12

You know that a vegan dish is special when you recommend it to a load of chest-beating City alphas with rib-eyes on speed dial and they all love it. That’s the deal with this salad at The Ned’s ‘California kitchen’. The coconut is fresh, chewy and served in long, lavish curls amid a tumble of green papaya, palm hearts, technicolour veg and zingy herbs with a fragrant Asian-style dressing. Your mouth AND body will thank you for it.  

£11

This dish looks a bit like a Jackson Pollock sandwiched into a brioche bun: the squirts and drips of fiery gochujang mayo; the Asian slaw splurging out; the crisply bubbled batter coating the buttermilk-bathed thigh meat... For those who think that gourmet fried chicken, like Pollock, is still somehow counter-culture, this is a work of art – and tastewise, it’s also priceless. Just don’t go dressed in your date-night finery, as your favourite duds will also be mercilessly Pollocked as you try to eat the bastard with dignity. In fact, did we say date? Scratch that – this is food that should be kept strictly between mates.

£7

Picture a cheesy cube with the chew-and-bounce of a ’mallow and you’re halfway there. To make this brilliant little snack, the chefs at Peruvian hotspot Chicama (the Chelsea sibling to Pachamama) soak tapioca pearls in milk, then stir in a heap of full-flavoured parmesan. Next, they press it in a tray, wait for it to set, cut it into ’mallow-shaped cubes, dust it with tapioca flour and deep-fry it. Because, let’s face it, everything tastes better deep-fried. The crisp-edged, chewy-in-the-middle cubes are pretty damn delicious on their own, but also come with blobs of ocopa (a faintly cheesy sauce spiked with fruity amarillo chillies and even blended fresh marigolds). This is tapioca, but not as you know it.

£10

It’s easy to see why this dish has amassed a cult following in London – and why it was one of the culinary calling cards that the owners of Trullo decided to include on the menu at their second restaurant, Padella. Wide, thin strips of light and stretchy pappardelle – rolled that same day, just before opening – are tossed with a delectably garlicky ragù that has been simmered for eight hours to make the beef melt-in-the-mouth wonderful. A light coating of freshly grated parmesan, and it’s ready to be devoured (after its Instagram photocall, obvs). A slow-cooked scene-stealer that will keep you coming back for more. 

£9

This one-time special is now a regular feature of Uchi’s menu, thanks to its pure deliciousness and veggie-friendly credentials. Comprising a mixture of crunchy fried peppers, shredded carrots cooked with sesame seeds, meaty shiitake mushrooms, lightly battered broccoli and a lick of mayo, all wrapped in super-healthy violet-hued black rice and a strip of salty nori, it’s a brilliantly orchestrated jumble of textures and flavours – it's also a technicolour dose of your five-a-day that’s as pretty as the Pinterest-worthy dining room in which you eat it. Meat-eaters: don’t miss out. Vegans: they’ll be kind enough to make you a batch without the mayo.

£22

Pies, pies, glorious pies! If you’re after something fancier than your average Pukka, then head down to this opulent Holborn brasserie, which has a dedicated ‘pie room’ in one corner of the restaurant. Different fillings abound and the pastry is always perfect, although nothing beats the curried mutton version – tender meat, with a flavourful curry sauce and some tiny cubes of mango adding a little hit of sweetness. Pie addicts take note: there’s a hatch for takeaways if you want to prolong the pleasure at home.

£8.50

All the food at Xu – a smart Taiwanese joint from the peeps behind cult hit Bao – is ace, although this little dazzler is the tops. Tiny jewels of smoked eel lie hidden within the cold soupy base. Floating on its surface are disks of crimson chilli oil, like blooming algae on a Martian pond, and there’s even an elegant coil of dried soy daikon on top. You’ll journey through salt and sweet, soot and tang… even the faintest hint of coriander-stalk soap. Enjoy the ride.

£6/£14 (half/whole)

Think cauliflower is ‘basic’? Think again: it’s been the brassica of choice at hip restaurants for a while now. For this stellar dish from Haggerston barbecue hangout Berber & Q, they parboil an entire head of cauliflower, then slather it in an incredible 20-ingredient Levantine butter, before sticking it on the griddle for flame-grilling (basting with more butter the whole time, obvs). It’s then topped off with molasses, parsley, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and rose petals. Taste it and weep with joy.

£5

Haute cuisine in Hackney? It may sound unlikely, but Cornerstone is breaking the grungy mould thanks to Tom Brown – a chef who knows how to give ozone-fresh seafood a proper high-end workout. Consider a pair of pickled oysters, each soft, squidgy mollusc anointed with a blob of mild horseradish crème fraîche, minuscule cubes of diced celery and oh-so-tiny sprigs of dill. All sitting in pool of pickling juice heavily laced with dill oil that reminded us of the magical, vivid green elixir consumed by Elphaba’s mum in ‘Wicked’.

£4.50 

‘Have you had the coconut cream pie yet?’ That’s how most conversations about Jacob the Angel go. The jewel of the menu at this teeny Neal’s Yard coffee shop (from the people behind The Barbary and The Palomar), it’s a mini pastry case with a thick creamy coconut-studded custard filling (the texture is reminiscent of tinned rice pud). To top it off? An elegant swirl of not-too-sweet Italian meringue. Pudding perfection.

£7.90

A whopping great restaurant outside a shopping centre in Stratford, Sichuan Grand lives up to its name on both counts and there are dishes on its vast menu that linger long in the memory. Like the shredded jellyfish. Pale gold and cut into shimmering ribbons, it’s faintly crunchy but also gelatinous, like gnawing the end of a chicken bone. It’s also refreshingly chilled and served with a black vinegar dressing that makes the whole thing delicately sharp but also fiercely garlicky. You’ll look at the scary blobs washed up on the beach in a whole new light once you’ve tasted this remarkable dish.  

£8.50

If you’re after some serious small-plates fun, bag a spot at Sabor’s ground-floor Counter, where all-round flawless tapas is the name of the game. There’s no shortage of winners, although their lovely-looking tartaleta (a fluted case of thin pastry filled with fragrant fruit) is right up there: ours came packed with rhubarb (poached with orange, vanilla and star anise) plus creamy, booze-laced mascarpone, but the kitchen also rings the seasonal changes with combos such as peach and nectarine. Whatever the fruit, this tartaleta is sigh-inducing perfection.

£5 

Chef Jason Boxer made his name at St Leonards and Brunswick House, but he’s now flying solo at Orasay – a smart-casual, feelgood restaurant on Ladbroke Grove. Named (loosely) after the Hebridean island of Orsay, it specialises in seafood – although the star turn as far as we’re concerned is a dessert with zero piscine connections. Imagine a small metal cup, its chilly sides glistening with beads of condensation, containing a shower of chewy, crunchy toasted popcorn over a dollop of sweet-salt brown-bread ice cream. Not exactly the elixir of life, but close. In a word, sublime.

£9

Kiln rocks. And what this hugely successful sibling to Smoking Goat is especially great at is creating new dishes with stripped-back, edgy, Thai-inspired flavours, but without coconut cream. This fragrant, fiery curry is no exception: made ‘dry’ (more of a stir-fry, really), it uses the freshest day-boat fish (no more than eight hours from ocean to plate), three kinds of rare chilli – one of the few things they import – and a punchy curry paste, bashed by hand every day in a pestle and mortar. The clean, bright flavours are phenomenal: you’ll want to lean across the counter and kiss the chef.

£7.50 (starter) / £13.00 (main)

Something of a Southwark icon, the brilliant Tardis-like Baltic has been going strong since 2001, serving gutsy regional food from the Eastern European countries bordering the Baltic Sea. There’s some terrific stuff on offer here, but we’d single out the fat, juicy pelmeni dumplings – actually more like slithery ravioli, packed with pork and veal, piled on the plate and strewn with chopped green chives and crispy, crunchy fried onion flakes. If you’re an absolute dumpling addict, head to Baltic’s bar, where they serve sharing boards loaded with pelmeni, pierogi and kopytka – perfect with a carafe of house vodka. 

£4 for one, £10 for three

After a stint at Dalston’s Pamela bar, Club Mexicana has now set up shop in London's first vegan pub, The Spread Eagle. It’s all plant-based, colourful, zingy, and spicy stuff. Our top pick is its beer-battered 'tofish' taco. An odd name, but it tells you all you need to know: the ‘to’ is tofu masquerading as ‘fish’, which is dished up with pickled cabbage and sour cream. 

Also available at Club Mexicana’s pitches at Dinerama in Shoreditch and Netil Market in London Fields. 

£6

So simple. So stunning. We’re talking about a snack here – a combination of olives, labneh, chickpeas and homemade dukkah, to be precise. At Lilliputian Popolo, the olives are given the ‘pane’ treatment (dusted in flour, rolled in egg and a coating of fine breadcrumbs) and then deep-fried. You bite into the crunchy shell and lo! – there’s a jewel of shiny, purplish kalamata inside. It’s a premium olive – gutsy, briny and brilliant.

£8

London’s first vegan ‘chicken shop’ (yes, you heard right) is all about ‘meaty’ wheat gluten (aka seitan), whether you order peppery popcorn-style nuggets, battered strips or their standout Temple deluxe ‘burger’ – seared to medium-rare and served with cheese, tangy sauce, plenty of lettuce, fake bacon (‘facon’) and thick-cut pickle in a soft brioche bun. There’s no indoor seating and no booze here – but who cares. You can also chomp the ‘deluxe’ burger at Temple’s second shrine to seitan in Camden.

£6

In case you don’t know, purin gyunyu is a delicate Japanese milk pudding rather like a panna cotta-lite. Jidori’s Covent Garden branch has it down to a fine art, perhaps serving the pud topped with an impossibly delicate scoop of cherry granita and some sneaky, fresh cherries hiding between the layers – a truly delicious combination of flavour and texture. Depending on the time of year you might also find a rhubarb and elderflower riff.

£9

It may not rival Le Gavroche for sheer class, but this simple stripped-back restaurant has one dish that can give the two-Michelin-starred grandee a run for its money. We’re talking about its retro pain perdu – a huge brick of French toast that’s spongy in the middle but with a crisp, caramelised, burnt-sugar edge. That would be beautiful enough in its own right, but Hatched has also gilded its glorious dessert with generous shards of honeycomb and a scoop of velvety vanilla ice cream. Guard this one jealously.

£6.50

Billed as a ‘pie deli’, this relaxed mini chain serves up its wares to all-comers, from King’s Cross creatives to footie fans en route to the Emirates Stadium. Obviously, everyone eats the pies, but our top tip for premiership stardom is the madras veggie scotch egg – a rich and warmly spiced offering made from chickpeas and beetroot that tastes a little like kedgeree. Despite the meaty connotations, they’re pretty hot on veggie, vegan and gluten-free stuff at Piebury – right down to a GF toffee apple pie and chocolate brownie.

£20

Not one for the squeamish, this big-boned Sichuan restaurant on Caledonian Road deals in the kind of authentic Chinese regional specialities that might make novices wince  But be brave and you’ll reap rich rewards – like the hot and spicy frogs’ legs, served in a ‘dry pot’ kept warm over a tealight. In the mix, you’ll find meaty morsels jumbled up with four different kinds of red and green chilli, plus scallions and fronds of green coriander tossed in for good measure. Like most of the dishes served here, it’s ginormous and ferociously fiery, but underpinned by hints of smoke and salt.  

£8.50

It’s from the team behind 10 Cases, so you can expect Parsons’ fantastically friendly staff to know their wines – although this cleverly designed restaurant is really about stunning seafood. If you don’t believe us, try their sea trout tartare: two oval mounds of thick-cut, tangerine-hued fish so fresh it’s almost sweet, layered with a tooth-suckingly tart bloody mary jelly and a few snip-snips of micro-herbs, all surrounded by randomly sized blobs of silky mayo. You see, it’s all about passion rather than pedantic precision here.

£5

After just one bite of this delicious morsel you’ll be a convert to the tao of Bao. The milk bun is so soft and pillowy it’s like eating a cloud (we imagine), while inside there’s impossibly tender slow-cooked pork, plus a sweet, sticky sauce and crunchy deep-fried shallots. If your companion offers to share, just say no. After all, now that you’re here, the aim of the game is to fill up on as much of the menu as possible in order to avoid navigating that queue again any time soon.

£5

A fiery, smoky twist on an old-fashioned Brit chophouse that swaps the grill for a tandoor and adds a surfeit of Indo-Punjabi spices, TCH brings turn-of-the-century Bombay to Covent Garden. The menu scores a lot of sizzling savoury hits, although it saves its best till last, with a glittering prize of a pud. Dense as a brick, yet silky and smooth, Tandoor’s malted kulfi has an intense flavour – like sucking the inside of a Malteser after you’ve nibbled off all the chocolate. It’s delicious on its own, but there’s more: chunks of caramelised banana and, finally, some fragments of salted peanuts for contrast and crunch. A sinful, indecent and swoonworthy delight.

£8

Think of Brigadiers as Hoppers for people with money, because this Indian barbecue restaurant has all the calling cards of its high-stepping owners, the Sethi family. Food-wise, the fish paos are best in class (imagine fish-finger sliders), but even these crunchy stars are outshone by the dinky Indo-Chinese lettuce wraps – piled high with tender morsels of fragrant chicken, then smothered in a warm, tangy sauce, crispy onions, a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Fusion perfection.

£12 (vegetarian) / £14 (beef)

The logo for this deliciously atmospheric Soho outpost of Istanbul’s celebrated Yeni Lokanta suggests a flower-shaped cluster of aubergines, and the purple-skinned delicacy appears in various guises on the menu, most notably in the signature manti, a parcel-like dumpling that comes sitting in a pool of goat’s yoghurt with porcini mushrooms. Veggie and beef versions are available on the menu and the restaurant has been known to serve a taster of this dish as a freebie amuse-bouche. We’re also fans of Yeni’s crunchy snow pea, green apple and mint salad with blobs of yoghurt and chilli jam. 

£6.50

Keep your coat on when visiting this laidback eatery in Tooting’s chilly Broadway Market, even though Sea Garden’s pimped-up seafood classics are guaranteed to warm your cockles. For real star quality, however, we defer to the palate-cooling, raw organic honey panna cotta – a wobbling bobby-dazzler complete with shards of honeycomb, the odd sliver of charred orange, beads of orange jelly and a shot of homemade yuzu orange liquor on the side. Note - Sea Garden is cash only, although they do take bookings.

£35

It’s a long, long way from spaghetti and meatballs, but you can indulge your deepest ‘Lady and the Tramp’ fantasies by ordering this Asian ode to Italian trattoria richness at ritzy Park Chinois. Its ‘carbonara’ is a surprise package involving slippery Inaniwa udon noodles, a rich orange-yolked egg (cooked at 65 degrees), umami-packed sea urchin and pancetta, with adornments courtesy of pansies and nori dust. Perfect for the restaurant’s slinky, jazzy, Shanghai boudoir glitz. 

£9

So you think you know bone marrow. You’ve tried it under onions at Hawksmoor, in mash at Pitt Cue, on pizza at Homeslice (and don’t even get us started on St John). But until you’ve had it at this funky Sri Lankan street food specialist, you haven’t lived. Here, the calf bones (like tiny canoes, cut lengthways) come smothered in a terrific dry curry sauce, making every mouthful a heavenly mix of fat and spice. Make no bones about it: this upstart starter aims to upstage the main-event hoppers – try saying that after a couple of sherbets.

£22.50

The signature dish at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, and no doubt one that will join the likes of ‘snail porridge’ and ‘bacon and egg ice cream’ as shorthand for the zany chef’s legacy. Lord, is it good! A beautiful orb with a shiny ‘skin’ of thin, sharp mandarin jelly encasing some of the lightest, creamiest chicken liver parfait known to man – a triumph of flavour, texture and vision that fills us with childish glee.

£7.50

The folks at this Thai barbecue dive on muso mecca Denmark Street play fast and loose with their menu, which is a fusion interpretation of northern Thai cuisine (and none the worse for it). Seeing its signature starter on the menu, you’d be forgiven for wanting to pass: pongy fish sauce with fried chicken? But trust in the Goat: the fish sauce is caramelised (which removes some of its in-your-face odour while retaining its pungent complexity) and amped up with garlic; the chicken wings are covered in a deliciously crisp rice-flour batter that refuses to turn to mush under its cloak of sauce. You’ll lick the plate clean.

£6 

‘The codfish fritter is so nice, it’s like a high-five from Jesus Christ,’ says the wacky slogan on Fish, Wings & Tings’ website – and we’re not about to argue with that. In fact, we reckon these little beauties are brilliant – doughy and golden with a creamy ginger and lime aïoli for dipping. Locally renowned as one of the dreamiest sites on Brixton’s rumbustious market, FW&T has a communal vibe with its battered, bright-orange tables, effervescent service and reggae tunes – so slam down a Trinidadian beer, a fruity rum punch or a can of Ting (the Caribbean’s favourite fizzy grapefruit drink). 

£5

Uber-chef Alain Ducasse’s pristine industrial-chic Café in King’s Cross’s Coal Drops Yard may be renowned for its exclusive single-origin coffees, but we also adore its intense hot chocolate, served in beautiful bespoke glassware. Made with a selection of dark varieties and milk from Normandy, it will give you a taste for the overall standard of chocolate on offer here. If you’re craving an extended cocoa fix, you can head next door to Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse, a boutique selling a range of desirable confections, all crafted at his workshop in a cobbled Parisian courtyard. 

£6

An achingly stylish, handsomely garbed Burmese star now holed up in an airy site on the eastern fringes of Shoreditch, Lahpet touts a highly distinctive cross-breed of Thai and Indian cuisine that’s very much its own. Various crunchy, zingy and fiery salads are among the pack-leaders, but they’re just edged out by the parathas: buttery, charred round the edges and fat with a filling of spiced yellow peas, these classics have all the carb-on-carb comfort of a south Indian masala dosa – and then some.

£6

Low-lit, inviting and simply brilliant, Santo Remedio’s new pitch on Borough’s Tooley Street finds its Mexican kitchen on sparkling form – just take a gooey bite of the classic quesadilla and you’ll be in heaven. The foundation for this beauty, a blue corn tortilla, is filled with chihuahua cheese, folded and fried – health freaks look away now – and each mouthful yields a blob of chewy, salty queso that creates pale, stringy strips when you pull it apart. All that’s needed is a dollop of salsa verde for added sharpness and vibrancy – plus a house margarita on the rocks and some Latin grooves in the air.

£8

Anything connected to Yotam Ottolenghi gets our vote, and this warmer, buzzier offshoot of Soho’s Nopi is no exception. True to form, Rovi’s eclectic small-plates menu is an absolute blast, although our favourite bobby dazzler comes from the list of nibbles (served with or without drinks). Billed as a ‘lobster crumpet’, this moreish snack is essentially two pieces of extremely posh sesame prawn toast with a mind-blowingly good dip – a sweet, tangy, liquid kaleidoscope that swings from peppery chilli heat via flashes of kumquat fruitiness to the fragrance of spring onion and coriander. It’s the dip of your dreams. 

£9

Hand-crafted pasta is king at this sleek Covent Garden Joint, and passers-by can watch as the virtuoso chefs fashion all manner of sheets, ribbons and parcels in the front window of the restaurant. Inside, the best perches are at the gleaming marble bar, while the pick of the pastas has to be the poetically named ‘silk handkerchiefs’ – delicate, soft, glistening rectangles of fazzoletti dressed with walnut butter, sprinkled with nuggets of crunchy walnut and topped with a gorgeously golden confit egg yolk. It’s officially the restaurant’s most ’grammed dish. And, unofficially, it’s got to be one of London’s too.

£6.80

Brains, aorta, intestines, pig’s blood, ‘beef fat red oil’… welcome to the deliciously grisly world of Shu Xiang Ge, a Szechuan hotpot haven for DIY chilli heads with strong stomachs. Special nine-compartment pots are built into each table for dipping and dunking, but while waiting for your chosen unmentionables to cook through, it’s worth slurping up a plate of exceptional dan dan noodles – soft, supple hand-pulled strands with heat coursing through them and a topping of meaty mince, plus some pak choy greens to soak up the fire.

£7.50

Originally a part-time pan-Balkan pop-up, this spruced-up joint is now one of SE15’s shining stars – a hugely atmospheric and genuine feast for the senses, complete with flickering oil lights, loud ethnic folk music and a fired-up open kitchen pumping out enticing smoky aromas. ‘Eastern Mediterranean charcoal-grilled goodness’ is the promise and this place delivers in spades. The small-plates menu is packed with strong, sunny flavours – don’t miss the fat courgette and feta fritters, served with crunchy radishes, kohlrabi and cucumber plus a bowl of thin, garlicky tahini-based tarator sauce for dipping.

£7/£12 (small/large)

There’s so much to love about this neighbourhood Italian on Peckham’s boho-bourgeois Bellenden Road. It manages to serve genuinely excellent food while remaining astonishingly affordable and resolutely down to earth; it also serves daily pasta specials whose homemade strands are so fresh that you risk getting all emotional after your first bite. These ever-changing dishes have simple garnishes that let the quality of the carbs do the talking: from spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli, or linguine with anchovies and capers, to seasonal thrills such as fresh heritage tomatoes and basil. Best of all, a ‘small’ but generous portion costs just £7.

£14.50

One of London’s most highly regarded Italian chefs, Giorgio Locatelli displays a deep connection to his home country’s food and drink at this Michelin-starred labour-of-love flagship. His homemade pastas are regularly touted as top shouts on the menu, but we’ve also been memorably impressed by his salad of breaded calf’s foot, which comes dressed with all sorts of seasonal ingredients from samphire to red onions and peppers. Although the dining room is polished and impeccably dressed (just like the clientele), it’s also welcoming and accessible, rather than elitist – so relax and soak up the pleasurable vibes.

£9.80

Although we still love Barrafina’s plump, gooey version of the humble tortilla de patatas, the roster of droolworthy dishes served at the Drury Lane outpost deserves a huge shout out, too. The loudest holler goes to the Galician-style empanada, whose rich flaky pastry gives way to intensely savoury, tender-as-anything, ink-soaked cuttlefish – it’s a must-order. The gloriously messy street-food-style crab bun and market specials such as dark-red salt-baked prawns so big they have to be seen to be believed, can also get a whoop-whoop.

£5.50

Meraki takes the sun-drenched flavours of the Aegean islands and serves them up to businessmen in a Fitzrovia, with the help of solicitous Mediterranean staff and a menu of luxurious contemporary Greek dishes. Among its array of cold mezze brought to the table on a lovely wooden tray is one stellar kopanisti. Put simply (and that’s the way it is), this is an insanely good dip of barrel-aged feta, served with chilli pitta crispbreads and sprinkled with a little red ‘secret’ dust that tastes a bit like dukkah, but more seductively sour. The ideal accompaniment? Some sweet, deep-red fleshy Florina peppers. Glorious.

£12

Here’s a funny thing about venison. It’s so naturally lean (being from wild, free-roaming deer) that if you used it to make a burger on its own, it might be too dense and bland. Step forward, Highland cattle. These bovine beauties contribute the ‘moo’ part of the double-headed ‘veni-moo’, which comprises one lean, top-notch venison patty and one fashioned from juicy, fatty beef. Melted cheese, sweetly caramelised onions and a creamy béarnaise sauce add more gourmet flourishes, although the soft bun is reassuringly old-school American. This is burger brilliance at its best.

£9.50

Just like pide (pronounced like ‘bidet’), lahmacun is a kind of Turkish pizza. What makes it different is the fact that you add veg or salad and roll it up like a hot wrap. The version at this stylish modern Turkish outfit balances a crisp base and beautifully spiced meat with a zingy, crunchy DIY salad filling of parsley, red onion, baby gem and pickled cauliflower. It’s a ‘pizza wrap’, and then some.

£6.75 for two

You may have to hang around for an hour or so before bagging a seat at this taco joint from the Hart brothers (Barrafina et al), but good things come to those who wait. In particular, hold out for the signature ‘al pastór’ taco – a jumble of 24-hour marinated pork shoulder, caramelised pineapple, guacamole taquero, white onion and coriander, all loaded into native corn tortillas made in house each day. 

£6.50

Considering that pork is rarely eaten by most of India’s population, this dish is a bit of an in-joke – but also a perfect representation of Brit-Asian fusion. A take on the classic bacon buttie, Dishoom’s version comprises freshly made naan encasing sugar-cured, cold-smoked, grilled back bacon, a slick of chilli-tomato jam, yoghurt and sprigs of coriander. The Indian components add freshness to an otherwise heavy breakfast standby, while the slightly charred naan is a great pairing with the smoky slices of pork. To drink, a builder’s brew just won’t do – opt for a glass of the house chai instead.

£1 each (minimum order four skewers)

The bold flavours and unpolished interiors of this popular Camberwell canteen really bring out the backpacker in us – and supper on a shoestring is every self-respecting traveller’s speciality. Cue Silk Road’s lamb skewers, based on a recipe hailing from the far north-western Chinese territory of Xinjiang. These fatty, salty cubes of cumin-and-chilli-crusted lamb are unfeasibly moreish; at £1 a pop, they’re also excellent value. The minimum order is four, but believe us, this is a blessing. In fact, we defy you to order only four…

From £1.95

Many of Tooting’s numerous South Indian restaurants proudly offer a selection of dosas, but none can rival those served at Dosa n Chutny. Despite being hand-crafted to order, each of these huge, savoury-sour pancakes is eerily perfect: uniformly round, paper-thin and crisp. Made from a batter of ground rice flour and black lentil flour, they come with various veg-based fillings, fresh coconut chutney or sambar (a thin, spicy lentil ‘soup’).

£4.50

For decades, this East End institution has been serving up this signature Jewish snack to a happy, hungry crowd. It couldn’t be simpler: a big chunk of just-cooked juicy salt beef sitting on a fresh plain beigel, optionally spiked with some eye-wateringly strong mustard – all for a smidgen over £4 (add an extra 20p for pickles). No tables or standing on ceremony, just a pure, perfect salt beef beigel. Best of all, this gem of a place is open 24 hours a day: be prepared to queue whatever the hour, but rest assured it’s well worth the wait.

£15.75

Few dishes evoke a notion of Empire as much as this one, brought to the UK by colonials returning from Raj-era India. In Queen Victoria’s time, kedgeree would be served in the morning, so it follows that you should enjoy it in the grand, clattering dining room of The Wolseley, arguably the capital’s ultimate breakfast venue. As it happens, this version, a heap of creamy curried rice punctuated by generous chunks of smoked haddock and topped with a runny-yolked poached egg, is so rich and buttery, that it would do very nicely for brunch or even an early supper. 

£9

‘Going underground’ at Neil Rankin’s smoky, greasy and downright thrilling barbecue joint reaps rich rewards, especially if you order the strangely alluring aged cheeseburger tacos. The hand-pressed ‘shells’ are made with corn ground on site and they’re loaded up with rough-cut meat, crispy provolone cheese, dollops of chipotle sour cream and green sauce. We reckon they knock most orthodox burgers out of the park.

£5.25

It’s the ultimate Brit pub snack: deep-fried whitebait. Only this time, the folks at hip Battersea kebab joint Bababoom have given it an all-the-rage Middle Eastern twist, coating these oily little fish with dukkah (an exotic ‘dry dip’) – something they were inspired to do while on a trip to Turkey. There’s no precise recipe for dukkah – it’s the kind of thing mothers argue about – but the one made at Bababoom is banging. It uses crushed toasted hazelnuts and sesame seeds (for crunch), aleppo chilli (for heat), dried mint and sumac (for aroma), plus cumin, coriander and fennel seeds (for more aroma, of the spice trail variety). Smothered on to the fish and deep-fried, the results are dangerously addictive.

£7

It’s not a cake and it looks almost too pretty to eat, but this evocatively named dessert is totally extraordinary: in essence, it comprises umeshu (plum wine) poured over two ‘drops’ of translucent agar jelly garlanded with cherry blossom and gold flake, creating an otherworldly confection that simply begs to photographed. We’d urge you to sample it too – the effect is almost transcendental. As for the rest, Sakagura is smart and swish, with Japanese food that’s fit for healthy and wealthy appetites.

£13.50

The decor’s more silk than souk, but there’s no arguing with the Anglo-Indian culinary mash-up on offer at this streetwise Covent Garden sibling of Westminster’s patrician Cinnamon Club. Foodwise, star billing must go to its spirit-lifting take on shepherd’s pie – a dish of cardamom-infused lamb rogan josh topped with buttery mashed potato. No pub lunch or ‘meal for one’ ever provided such comforting warmth and spicy satisfaction.

£17

Flying across the globe, picking up titbits here and there, this Sparrow is a busy bird with a taste for adventurous curiosities. The printed menu and specials board are stuffed with imaginative hits, so sticking an unembellished curry into the mix might seem like a high-risk strategy. However, Sparrow’s rich, nutty beef massaman – made with beef cheeks and served with Taiwanese steamed rice – is as good as anything eaten while schlepping through the Thai countryside.

£8.40 (£7 takeaway)

What Pablo Escobar was to the cocaine trade, Dominique Ansel is to the art of patisserie: his trademarked Cronut is as addictive as crack and promises its own sugary high. For his first London bakery, the chef unveiled a vast menu of beautifully presented sugar-laden treats – including some London-only signatures such as the curiously named ‘banoffee paella’. Taste it and you’ll put aside any gripes about its supposed Britishness: this is a banoffee pie built upside-down in a paella pan (caramelised bananas, then dulce de leche cream, then cookie crumbs). At the very last minute, it’s flipped on to plates for the customer – to prevent the very British fear of ‘soggy bottoms’.

£14.90

Don’t be fooled by the dull decor and hotel lounge muzak: this Korean barbecue restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue is the real deal. When the food is this good, the uninspiring setting actually makes the whole experience more charming – and chief among Olle’s charms is meat cooked in traditional Korean style, on a grill built into your dining table. K-BBQ virgins needn’t panic, because Olle’s helpful and welcoming staff do the actual barbecuing, leaving you free to sit back and enjoy the show. Everything is cooked to perfection, but the absolute highlight is the beef bulgogi (literally ‘fire meat’). Its tender, caramelised flesh is so good, you’ll want to eat it straight off the grill with chopsticks.

From £10

It’s Pancake Day all year round at this bubbly outfit on Flat Iron Square, which specialises in flipping perfect buttermilk beauties with a just hint of sourness. All kinds and variants are up for grabs here – although we’re sold on the Instagram-ready ‘Dutch babies’. These yorkshire-pudding lookalikes are baked in the oven, served up in a heavy black frying pan and dotted with fruity or savoury accoutrements: goat’s cheese, parmesan and cheddar, or apples with almond flakes and ice-cream. 

£5.50

We’d put almost everything that leaves the kitchen of this stylish Indian small-plates joint on our ‘best dish’ list if we could, but decorum prevents us. However, here’s the headline: dinner here wouldn’t be complete without a nibble on one of their delicious savoury ‘doughnuts’. A crunchy, golden sphere whose coating is made from crisp-fried vermicelli threads, it yields to a melt-in-the-mouth centre of intricately spiced minced venison – the balance of texture and flavour is spot-on, especially with the accompanying fruity sauce. Trust a restaurant called Gunpowder to deliver a flavour bomb like this one.

£13.50

After a bowl of this potent garlicky soup, you’ve more chance of a three-way with Alexander Skarsgård and Brad Pitt than of pulling a real vampire. It doesn’t stop us, though – there’s something hypnotically appealing about the addition of crunchy garlic chips and caramelised black-garlic oil to Shoryu’s umami-rich broth laden with barbecued pork belly, vegetables and a nitamago egg. Just make sure your other half orders the same thing, or you’ll get it in the neck later on.

£6.50

London drizzle – pfffft! It gets properly cold up in the peaks of the Peruvian Andes, so despite us associating the country with sunshine and sours, it also has an abundance of comfort-food staples for chillier days. This is Casita Andina’s take on one of them: a canoe of sweet and starchy steamed corn transporting a rich, chilli-fired cargo of pulled-pork adobo, with a tomato salsa garnish to lift all that lovely stodge. As a dish, it’s a bit of a Benedict Cumberbatch: not traditionally good-looking, but with an army of blindly adoring fans. Once you get a taste for it, you’ll return, rain or shine.

£5

If you’re one of the surprisingly large number of people who just can’t seem to cope with coconut in any form, then you should probably look away now. Because what’s magical about the calamari-with-a-twist at this stylish Vietnamese street-food joint is that the golden-battered crust is distinctly nutty, with delicate candy notes giving the tender squid inside a whole extra dimension. Factor in the house-made sweet-chilli-and-herb sauce, served in its own dinky bottle, and the result is quite glorious.

£5.50

Salt Yard’s frilly-edged courgette flowers are jammed with monte enebro (a salty goat’s cheese with ‘blue’ notes) before they’re tempura-battered, deep-fried, and drizzled with blossom honey. Versions of this dish are widely available elsewhere, but we still think that the ones served at Salt Yard (and its younger, sexier siblings Dehesa, Ember Yard and Opera Tavern) are worth seeking out for their perfect balance of creamy and crispy, sweet and salt undertones.

£11.90

Koya’s springy wheat noodles are made on the premises every day, and have remained consistently excellent since the place opened in 2010. Our favourite dish has to be the vegan ‘walnut miso’ udon: a ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ combination of intense nuttiness, in which sweet-salty red and white misos are mixed with walnut purée. Dissolve a small spoonful of the powerful paste mixture into the soup for each mouthful. Toppings might include seasonal mushrooms or hispi cabbage. Tip: it’s even better if you add a slow-cooked ‘onsen tamago’ (literally ‘hot-spring egg’) into the mix, though of course it then becomes veggie, not vegan.

(Part of a set £67 menu)

If you could eat principles, this dish would already be off to a good start. The folks from eco hotspot Cub take whey from Neal’s Yard Dairy (where it’s a by-product of cheese-making destined for the drain), reduce and season it until it’s stupidly moreish, then serve it with whatever chubby root is in surplus that month. On top: wafer-thin slices of apple (again, whatever needs some love). Sustainable and delicious.

£7.95 for four

Chefs have been sending out peerless Punjabi grills at this chronically busy restaurant for over 40 years, and despite the crowds, their quality never falters. Go at the weekend or for lunch to avoid the longest queues; once you get a table, make sure that a plate of these smoky, sticky, spicy, gingery, charred and fiery beauties is the first thing you order. Tayyabs’ lamb chops have legendary status – when some geezer tried to send a lamb chop into space back in 2014, and it was recognised as coming from Tayyabs, the video went viral (and fans duly mourned ‘the one that got away’).

£7

Not content with making his own cheese, Kappacasein’s owner Bill Oglethorpe set about creating the daddy of all toasted sandwiches, for which queues form outside the Dairy’s stall on the corner of Stoney Street. Poilâne sourdough bread is covered with a mixture of 60 percent Montgomery cheddar, then, depending on the season, either Ogleshield (Oglethorpe’s sweet, nutty, alpine number) or his equally delicious London raclette, with 15 percent comté and 10 percent Bermondsey Hard Pressed (another Kappacasein invention) for good measure. Chopped leeks, and up to three kinds of spring onion are added for extra oomph.

From £9.60pp (depending on fillings)

You know those indecisive diners whose FOFE (Fear of Food Envy) prompts them to ask, ‘Shall we order these two dishes and share?’ Well, this futuristic hotpot canteen has an innovative answer for anyone who demands swapsies at half time. Commitment-phobes can get together and order a ‘half and half’: a large pot filled with two types of broth. That’s the easy part: the umm-ers and aah-ers then need to pick from dozens of fillings sailing past them on the kaiten (seafood is our top tip). Dip, cook, eat and repeat – think of it as a fun form of decision-making therapy.

£8.50

Yes, yes – that joke. Again. A deep-fried breaded chicken dish with the initials KFC. But the Keralan fried chicken at this teeny Indian with a Brit twist (formerly a hip Brixton pop-up) is no laughing matter. Served with pickled mooli and a dinky pot of mild curry-leaf mayo, it’s just the armadillo that a perfect KFC should be: crunchy on the outside (but without a trace of grease), mouth-wateringly soft and juicy in the middle.

£8.60 per skewer

Roka still impresses with its mastery of the Japanese-style robata grill – so grab a ringside seat by the knotty-grained-wood counter overlooking the action at this capacious high-decibel rendezvous. The culinary pyrotechnics cover everything from lamb cutlets with Korean spices to sea bream with miso and red onion, but we’re suckers for the inch-thick skewered scallops – each one given a sweet, peppery lift with dainty shiso cress and wasabi cream. Shochu cocktails and rare sakes are the drinks of choice.

£15.50

Okay, so you think butter chicken is merely a high street curry-house staple made with that boring old bird – a ubiquitous protein that’s much better breaded and deep-fried. Wrong. At Chai Ki, they steep the thigh meat overnight in a tandoori marinade, before simmering it in a sauce where they’ve dialled up the heat and the depth, adding crispy spinach, melon seeds and miso (for extra umami, aka ‘mmm’-factor). We think it’s the best butter chicken you will ever eat – in your life.

£7

The chaps at Pizza East, perhaps sensing an approaching zeitgeist, wisely got on board the salted caramel bandwagon back in 2009. Their launch menu included this pud, and it’s still as popular as ever – both at the original restaurant in Shoreditch and at its younger siblings, Pizza East Portobello and Pizza East Kentish Town. The pastry base is plain, and a good thing too: the filling is so rich that it’ll make your eyes roll into the back of your head – especially if you finish each mouthful with a little of the accompanying crème fraîche. Share it with a loved one. Or not.

£8.95 each

We’ve encountered similar versions of this dish, but none as tender or as explosively flavoursome as the one at Japanese restaurant Dinings. A lightly blowtorched piece of fatty beef lies on perfect rice, which is then topped with salty-sharp cubes of ponzu (citrus) jelly that melt on the tongue. Overarching this luxurious mouthful is a dab of truffle ‘salsa’. Insanely good and worth every penny.

£6.50 (£4.50 during ‘happy hour’)

It’s all about roll-your-sleeves-up DIY at this branch of Kintan – a bargain-basement Japanese eatery specialising in yakiniku, which is like Korean BBQ, involving a smoky thick-ridged grill built into each table. The fully illustrated medley ranges from USDA kalbi short-rib to duck breast and tiger prawns, but we’re sold on the pre-marinated spicy pork: you can order soy and sesame oil for dipping, but you won’t need them – this baby is best enjoyed ‘naked’. Wipe-clean menus are splashed with red-sticker deals, while daily ‘happy hours’ just keep rolling on – so you’re quids in from the start.

£3.95

At Herman ze German, sausages are everything they should be: fat, juicy and made with the highest quality ingredients – they’re actually imported from a German butcher called Fritz, don’t you know? Choose from chilli beef, classic bratwurst (minced pork and veal), or our favourite – the bockwurst (made with smoked pork). With its delicate flavour, springy texture and plenty of ‘knack’ when you bite into it, this beauty needs nothing more than ketchup and mustard – though the optional free topping of crispy onions and a dollop of sauerkraut (50p) or curry-tomato sauce (£1) are jolly nice, too.

£7.50

The menu at this dinky little offshoot of Exmouth Market’s acclaimed Moro changes all the time, but this dish has been there – more often than not – since day one. Morito does bright, bold things with the kinds of vegetables you once told your mother you’d never eat. The beetroot here is prepared like Iranian borani, the sweetness of the crushed root offset by a splash of red wine vinegar and a daring amount of garlic, then layered with chopped walnuts, a sprinkling of black sesame seeds, sprigs of fresh dill and morsels of crumbly, salty feta. Grab a piece of flatbread and get dipping.

£4.30 for three

When ordering dim sum, it’s important to consider a balance of textures: after all, that’s what Cantonese cooking is all about. So, once you’ve chosen the slithery, sticky and doughy items (cheung fun, steamed dumplings and buns), make sure you ask for this delightful creation. Tiny pieces of mixed dried meats nestle at the epicentre of a deep-fried dumpling made from slightly sweet puréed yam. It’s light and crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside. You get three per plate, and they’re fairly rich, so you’re usually happy to let someone else try one. But not two. Oh no.

£14

Dean Street Townhouse is one of those Soho restaurants that attracts self-important media types, all big watches and loud voices. But the menu manages to ground most people with its line-up of old-fashioned British classics. One signature plate is particularly brave, having been traduced to a mockery by generations of school caterers… yes, mince and spuds. The version here is piquant, properly browned, full-flavoured, wonderful in texture, and tastes of, well, childhood. Order this dish if you want to show someone what everyday British food was like in decades past – it’s sure to receive a big nod of approval. 

£5.90

The menu varies from day to day and from visit to visit, but ajo blanco is usually a mainstay at this congenial Soho tapas bar. One of the restaurant’s many tiny, but thrilling dishes, this Andalusian white soup is made from almonds with a hint of garlic (ajo), and here it comes topped with walnuts, dill and beetroot. The portion is barely enough to fill an eggcup, but its flavours will transport you right back to Seville. Scoop it on to the restaurant’s excellent bread and pair it with a glass of bone-dry sherry.

£4.95

The dishes served at the original Rasa in Stoke Newington (opened in 1994) champion not just the vegetarian cuisine of Kerala in south India, but specifically the food of one caste, the Nairs. They’ve had a few thousand years to refine their cooking, adding influences from far and wide along the way – including British brassicas. If the very thought of cooked cabbage makes you queasy, you’ve never tried thoran – this side dish of thinly sliced leaves, stir-fried with coconut, mustard seeds, potatoes, lentils and spices, elevates the humble savoy to a proper delicacy.

£8 for three

Ask people to name just one dish from this modern Chinese teahouse and most would plump for the macarons displayed in rainbow shades in the patisserie – they’re the most attention-grabbing and photo-friendly. However, it pays to delve deeper into the menu. Yauatcha’s executive head chef, Tong Chee Hwee, is highly innovative, as demonstrated in dishes such as the venison puffs (popular at both the Soho and City branches). Egg-glazed and garnished with sesame seeds, they look like char siu puffs with crumbly, samosa-shaped layered pastry, but bite into them and you get a very different, intense but sweet flavour. Life-affirmingly good.

£8

Truth be told, if you were to pinpoint the main reason for choosing to dine at Chiltern Firehouse, it wouldn’t be a single dish – despite superchef Nuno Mendes’ wizardry in the kitchen. No, the food at this glamorous, clubby hotspot is undeservedly upstaged by its A-lister clientele. Happily, anything you order will do its damnedest to divert your attention from whoever might be sitting at the surrounding tables. The crab ‘donuts’ are a case in point: the airy dough is stuffed with lightly dressed white crab meat and sprinkled with intensely fishy coral ‘dust’, with wasabi and chopped egg as surprising additions. They’re like posh popcorn for your shameless rubbernecking.

From £20 for five pieces

At Yashin, individual seasonings are paired with each piece of flesh to bring out the essential flavours of seafood or meat; some are also lightly blowtorched to create contrasting textures and smoky grace notes. Each meticulously crafted morsel has its own merits, whether yellowtail with black pepper or torched fatty tuna with a dollop of fresh wasabi. Consistently supple, well-formed rice completes the formula for Yashin’s perfect nigiri. A real treat.

£6.50

A croqueta is a croqueta is a croqueta, right? Wrong. Wrinkled Spanish abuelitas will tell you sternly that while the little buggers are a cinch to gobble up, they’re a fiddle to make – and they can end up a stodgy disaster in the wrong hands. For granny-approved croquetas in London, Caravan’s Bankside branch is a safe bet: here, they’re served piping hot with the requisite crunchy coating to counterpoint their creamy filling – béchamel sauce stirred with melted San Simón (smoked Spanish cheese) and studded with proper chunks of jamón ibérico. A real treat. The accompanying saffron mayo is a nice touch, but one best concealed from the purists.