What’s in a name? British restaurants named after women
Published 06 March 2024

Part of the MW Eat group (Veeraswamy, Chutney Mary and the Masala Zone mini chain), this classy Belgravia grill restaurant tucked down a passage beside the Pantechnicon has been plying its trade since 2004. Swathes of polished dark wood and seductive lighting create a contemporary, luxurious feel to the generously spaced dining room, which is bookended by a smart bar area and an open-to-view kitchen with tandoor ovens and tawa grills in full view. Several notches above your average curry house, it continues to tease and satisfy, experimenting with herbs, spices and ketchups via a line-up of bijou grazing dishes. Smoky and spicy jumbo-sized ocean prawns, fired in the tandoor are succulent, fleshy and spiked with ginger and tomato, while seared scallops are pearly pucks of similar stature in puddles of fresh coriander and coconut sauce. Oysters, crumbed and grilled, sit plumply in coconut milk (from whole nuts cracked open in the kitchen) with ginger, turmeric and chilli. Meat receives similarly impressive treatment: a marinade of spices and cheese helps to point up a beautifully tender black-pepper chicken tikka (with chilli paneer, date and sesame), while subtle spicing gives heft to a pair of juicy tandoori lamb chops, accompanied by puffed-up naan bread, glistening with ghee and showered in truffle. For a short season, there could also be chicken biryani with wild garlic, cooked in its sealed pot and opened at table to wafts of herby, garlicky steam. A typical meal might kick off with crispy cabbage and noodle salad with nuts, pomegranate and grapes bound by a splash of balsamic vinegar, while desserts are given an Indian twist – perhaps a miniature lime tart sharing the plate with a blueberry compôte infused with anise and a wobbly limoncello jelly. Service, led by a gracious maître d’, is quick and efficient. Contemporary cocktails mingle with a carefully assembled, spice-friendly wine list including almost two dozen selections by the glass (from £11).

‘By far the best restaurant in Margate,' sums up many readers’ affection for Lee Coad and Charlotte Forsdike's tiny eatery with rooms – in fact, some are even happy to endure lengthy train rides for a taste of its friendly hospitality, reasonable prices and Rob Cooper’s dependable seafood cookery. All in all, it’s a crowd puller, expanding onto the pavement in fine weather and, in high summer, to a few tables across the road, where the daily changing blackboard is hiked from table to table, French bistro-style.

Expect intensely seasonal cooking built around regular supplies of ethically sourced fish. Every dish sings with flavour: a main course of monkfish, tomatoes and smoked cod’s cheeks in a rich, green-flecked sauce was an early summer revelation, while reporters continue to applaud the perfectly cooked skate enhanced by fabulous, meaty nuggets of ‘chorizo’ (made from fish offcuts rather than pork) in a rich sauce. To begin, you might consider mackerel with fennel and pickled gooseberries or something as straightforward as brown crab on toast – a seasonal treat. There’s always a vegetarian dish, while crowd-pleasing desserts include a popular flourless chocolate cake or fig-leaf posset with gooseberries and meringue.

The short wine list is packed with interest, offering classic fish-friendly and low-intervention tipples from England and coastal Europe. Angela’s gets regularly booked up, especially during the summer season; if you're out of luck, Dory's (their simpler, seafront sibling) is just a stroll away – and it holds back seats for walk-ins. 

Coffee and croissants for breakfast; croques, galettes, tartiflette and crêpes for lunch; baked Camembert, boeuf bourguignon and confit duck leg for supper – yes, this old-school bistro is Gallic to the core, a ‘real blast from the past'. Visitors also praise the moules frites, confit chicken terrine, garlicky king prawns and various classic bourgeois desserts ranging from cherry clafoutis to dark chocolate mousse with Chantilly cream. Friendly, welcoming staff add to the lively vibe, which is helped along with dinky carafes of Old World wine and bottles of Wignac ‘cidre rosé’.  There's an inviting boutique guesthouse next door, if you fancy lingering in Frome.

This admirable neighbourhood bistro offers astute, seasonal Anglo-French cooking (with a few modern global influences) at affordable prices – the prix-fixe lunch, in particular, offers exceptional value. It’s a low-key, bijou, warm-hearted kind of place, squeezed into the ground floor of a Georgian terrace not far from Pulteney Bridge, with a small private room overlooking the river at the back. Affable service has a quiet confidence that comes from knowing what they’re serving is good, from scallops with kimchi to onglet steak with Café de Paris butter. Our openers ranged from fried polenta on a bed of deeply flavoured wild garlic purée with tapenade and Parmesan to crisp buttermilk quail accompanied by kohlrabi coleslaw and pear ketchup. To follow, sea bream arrived with just-squeaky green beans dressed with a delicate lovage sauce, while a pork chop was served with apple, roast garlic and Calvados sauce. For dessert, poached rhubarb with whipped mascarpone and vanilla crumb brought things to a close. The mainly French wine list provides plenty of affordable drinking, but there are a few pricier options for those who want to push the boat out.

Camellia Panjabi was one of the first restaurateurs in London to showcase, in a modern idiom, the many-splendid iterations of Indian regional cooking. This is upscale food that shines with glittery excitement and regal flavours in a glamorous setting. On arrival, you are engulfed in a wave of attention; some might feel a touch overwhelmed, but for others it’s a magic carpet ride to the glory days of the Raj. The cavernous interior is glitzy, glossy, lavishly crammed with gilt, crystal, shimmering lights, framed colonial prints, large artworks and etched glass.

The food is equally polished: dabba gosht was a creamy, nutty lamb stew; baked crab balchao served in its baking dish was gently spiced and topped with crispy breadcrumbs. Other small plates might include baked venison samosa or scallops in Mangalorean sauce. There is an Indian barbecue selection offering the likes of tandoori Amritsan sea bass or Afghani chicken tikka, as well as roster of slow-cooked dishes that includes 'Parsi wedding' duck, Bengal lamb curry and a delicious nut-thickened Karwan fish curry made with halibut. The waiting staff are happy to convey any request to modify the spicing back to the kitchen.

Desserts are equally wide-ranging within the national compass: dark chocolate and Punjabi rum tart, cherry shrikhand or perfect Persian kulfi, elegantly moulded like citrus segments and served on a silvery plate. The Sunday brunch is also worth noting, as is the Pukka Bar lunch. 

Back in 1984, Sally Clarke MBE was one of the first chefs to introduce London's restaurant-goers to the now-fashionable notions of seasonality and traceability; she was also an early champion of organic produce. Little has changed in the intervening years. Her once-famous no-choice menu may have been replaced by a carte of daily changing dishes, but the cooking is still influenced by time spent at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in California.

Dining takes place in a light room dressed in neutral tones (green-grey walls, wicker chairs, black leather banquettes, polished wood flooring) with well-spaced, white-clothed tables and contemporary artwork. The atmosphere is quiet and refined, service courteous and attentive – more so if you are a regular.

There's a naturalistic quality to the menu and the kitchen puts a premium on execution rather than creativity – a delightful Cornish crab salad with tardivo radicchio, lemon mayonnaise and puntarelle plus a couple of rye toasts, say. To follow, our loin of Scottish fallow deer – roasted with thyme and apple and teamed with baked beetroot, cavolo nero and herbed lentils – was elegantly cooked, allowing the flavour to shine. We finished on a high note with a light yet rich dark chocolate and almond cake with crème fraîche.

The set menu is keenly priced for this exclusive neighbourhood and the wine list is a cracker, with quality bottles starting at £30.50 (for an own-label Verdicchio 2020) plus 30 by the glass or carafe. Also look out for mature vintages of Ridge Monte Bello from the Santa Cruz Mountains in Sally Clarke's beloved California.

Lee Skeet (formerly head chef at Hedone in London) started a supper club during lockdown to get back into cooking after a serious accident forced a four-year break from the kitchen. It was a big hit and he subsequently launched Cora – a buzzy, relaxed first-floor restaurant, named after his daughter and located above Milkwood in Pontcanna. You ring a bell to enter and are led up a workaday flight of stairs, past the kitchen, into a white-walled, wood-floored room with suburban views and just 10 covers per service. It’s simple rather than slick but there’s plenty of polish in the kitchen, where Skeet cooks a six-course no-choice menu based on excellent Welsh ingredients. Classically rooted excellence is evident throughout, with 'vibrant, technicolour flavours' in abundance and each dish 'leaving you hungry for more'. A summer inspection began with crisp, light-as-air Roquefort pommes soufflé and dainty, smoky morsels of torched mackerel sashimi topped with glistening dabs of rhubarb purée. Skeet excels at seafood – from a supersized, caramelised Orkney scallop paired with a feisty soy and ginger broth to Cornish spider crab teamed with juicy marinated tomatoes and tomato consommé dotted with emerald basil oil. To follow, a pearlescent slice of turbot came topped with a mosaic of Persian courgettes plus a mélange of peas, chives, pea shoots, sweet-sharp morsels of Granny Smith apple and a luxurious Crémant butter sauce. It’s not all seafood however – another highlight was meltingly tender rack of Abergavenny lamb brightened with plump cherries and enriched with a dark, assertive seaweed sauce. A dessert of yoghurt panna cotta with marinated strawberries, strawberry sorbet and pieces of meringue was nicely judged, delivering welcome lightness after such a substantial meal, while skull-shaped chocolates filled with smooth salted caramel provided a charming finale. The wine list is short but well-judged, avoiding the predictable and offering something for all palates, with prices hovering around the £30 mark.

Like Kitty Fisher’s on Shepherd Market, this Covent Garden beauty is named after a 19th-century courtesan – although it feels more 'decadent' with lush velvety fabrics, dark green tones and varnished woodwork creating an inviting backdrop for plates of comforting food with strong Anglo-European leanings. Scallops Rockefeller makes a good opener, likewise a riff on the ‘ham and cheese toastie’ theme, although you can also get fresh with a perfectly rounded salad of endives, walnuts, Stilton and pear. Follow on with Devon lamb cutlets partnered by carrots and buttered kale, a bowl of fish stew with croûtons or Creedy Carver duck accompanied by Swiss chard and quince.

If you’re hoping for at least one showstopper, look no further than the chips – ‘the best I’ve ever tasted,’ drooled one fan. Hot, crisp, fatty and deliriously moreish, they are cooked and pressed for 24 hours before being cut into Jenga-like oblongs and dunked in the deep-fryer. To conclude, a creamy bowl of ‘milk and cookies’ is the go-to option, although readers have also praised the chocolate crémeux with praline and the ginger cheesecake.

Given that Cora Pearl is a stone’s throw from the Royal Opera House and other West End attractions, the pre-theatre menu is a no-brainer, likewise the Sunday lunch offer. To drink, Bloody Marys seem to suit the mood, and there’s also a short list of European wines from £33.

Since relocating to this former Victorian banking hall not far from Market Square more than a decade ago, Delilah Fine Foods has cemented its reputation as a real asset for shoppers and a boon for foodies in Nottingham. Combining the virtues of a deli, café and all-purpose eatery under one roof, it allows customers to cosy up at the communal wooden bar or sit among the well-stocked aisles surrounded by shelves of comestibles. Fill up on breakfast until noon (think granola, sausage brioche rolls, big fry-ups and eggs every which way). After that, lunch brings a choice of platters, plus a swag-bag of global dishes ranging from bruschetta with wild mushrooms and cavolo nero to burgers with ‘posh pickle’ or lamb kofta with heritage carrots, bulgur wheat, chickpeas, spinach, pomegranate and tahini dressing. They even do fondues for two, as well as croques and deli-style sandwiches. If you crave something sweet, look no further than the splendid array of cakes, pastries, tray bakes and sweet breads. Drinks are all present and correct too, from single-origin coffees and loose-leaf teas to Old World wines and beers from Nottinghamshire breweries.

Margate is inundated with blow-ins from the London restaurant scene and beyond at the moment, but it was local talent that established the town as a serious food destination. And there are few better examples than Dory’s, the small, simple seafood eatery-cum-wine bar overlooking the beach, where a local, seasonal and sustainable commitment filters down from famous older sibling Angela’s, just round the corner. Ethical credentials pour forth from chalkboard menus and the drinks list (aperitifs run to a take on the Bloody Mary earthed up with garlic) and, as a no-cook set-up, it’s a model of its kind. Dishes are pre-made: the likes of soused paprika mussels are served cold, but brown crab piled high on toast (creamy with just a hint of chilli warmth) or smoked haddock and dill pie (with a fabulous pastry crust) are finished or reheated behind the bar. We also tried a bass fillet with kale, lentils and green sauce (superb), reignited our love affair with smoked prawns (first sampled at Angela's in the summer), and enjoyed an apple cake with caramel and crème fraîche. From a trio of wines by the glass chalked up on a board, we chose a skin-contact Rennersistas-Intergalactic from Burgenland, Austria – a brilliant match for the food; by contrast, the wine list proper favours some superb, forward-thinking English vineyards. The fact that everything is as it should be is down to a cracking front-of-house team. And while Dory's now takes bookings, the good news is that some space is reserved each day for walk-ins – a godsend in a town where the best restaurants can be booked up weeks in advance.

* The restaurant now offers fixed-price tasting menus rather than a selection of small plates.*

This site previously played host to sibling eatery the Little Chartroom and a few design tweaks set the two apart, with high tables and slightly ill-judged backless stools wringing a few more covers from the bright, compact room. Truly, the food is what sets Eleanore on its own path. Expect a frequently changing menu that refines and develops dishes from the chefs’ earlier outings, with Asian-inspired ingredients and techniques combining with local, seasonal additions. Its structure rewards sharing, and between three, 'one of each, please' is a likely request. In addition to obligatory Loch Fyne oysters, smaller plates may include a bowl of cured sea trout that takes a stellar core ingredient and treats it with delicacy, embellishing the faintly briny, meltingly tender flesh with a fresh, fruity shiso dressing. Those flatbreads, long a staple on the Prom, also make a return. In this instance, the deliciously charred, doughy breads contrast magnificently with one of two spreadables: a luxurious, smooth mackerel pâté, punctuated with a sweet celery pickle, or a romesco and 'nduja spread, brimming with spice and rich, roasted pepper. Mains veer between classical and creative – a cod option tends toward the latter. Wrapped in daikon, the fillet nestles alongside an intense prawn mousse that would sit happily in a siu mai dumpling, with a fish broth of staggering, savoury depth and umami richness rounding out the dish. It is a hugely ambitious, complex and delicious piece of cooking. Service is friendly, swift and knowledgeable throughout, with drinks guidance hitting the mark. Wines come from a concise list of around 50 bottles starting at £29, taking in predominantly Old World producers and offering around a dozen options by the glass.

Clare Lattin and Tom Hill, once of Ducksoup in Soho, have migrated to the sub-Dartmoor stretches of south Devon and pitched camp on the T-junction that more or less is Ashburton. It's a small room with an agreeable buzz and square tables (some for sharing) supplemented by wicker stools at the counter and window that are probably best reserved for younger, more resilient backsides. Just add a thrifty, serenely industrious kitchen, plus a wine-store (for retail) half-hidden behind a curtain, and a frequently changing menu that works within its own modest capacities to produce contemporary, Italian-inflected small plates and mains. The special of the day on our lunch visit in the long linger of late winter involved chunks of sublime red-rare hanger steak in a mound of roasted Tropea onion with salted ricotta, capers and oregano. Others were scarfing up the broad-ribboned pappardelle with a ragù of ox cheek and black olives, as well as marinated gurnard in an aromatic livery of golden raisins, almonds and saffron. Appetisers are a little more prosaic (a couple of splots of white Gorgonzola with lightly pickled pear; shaved pickled fennel in oregano and chilli) but there is good charcuterie, and even the minimal choice of two desserts will provoke agonies of indecision. The dark chocolate mousse with ginger and oat crumb looked the business, but altogether flawless was our blood-orange and pistachio tart with crème fraîche. Only a select few of the wines emerge from behind the curtain onto the list, but they are enterprising and interesting Italian regional stars: a tobaccoey, Merlot-based Gambellara, perhaps, or a skin-contact Sicilian from Grecanico-Inzolia. Aperitifs run to a take on the Bellini earthed up with rhubarb juice.

Located on a residential side street in Stoke Newington, this is the most perfect contemporary brunch spot in the Aussie London tradition. It's appealing inside and out with simple, light wood interiors, a counter stocked with expertly baked treats and a busy back garden filled with mismatched tables. Excellent coffee comes from Hasbean while the ever-evolving menu is far more creative than most, featuring top-notch suppliers such as Hodmedods and Flourish Produce. Think braised lamb shoulder with crushed chickpeas, spigarello and pickled cucumber salsa verde or something sweet such as French toast with Mairac apple, toasted hay cream and cobnut buckwheat crunch.

‘The equivalent of being wrapped in a big hug,’ writes an ardent fan, adding that 'we always walk in feeling happy, and come out feeling even happier!’ This warm-hearted spot has been flying the flag for ‘delicious feel-good’ bistro food since Dan Fancett opened the place in 2021, and it scores in departments: the menu is stuffed with extremely well-balanced and superbly executed dishes, while the superb front of house team exude good cheer and do a consistently great job.

A set menu is tweaked daily and served in its simplest form at lunch (two choices per course), with a few more options for dinner. It fits the bistro vibe, though the repertoire strays deliciously beyond predictability – from a bowl of local asparagus soup with smoked chalk stream trout to hand-rolled cavatelli with Parmesan emulsion, spring vegetables and basil pistou. In the evening, the kitchen ups its ambition a notch or two, so you might find ceviche of sea bream with chilli and blood orange followed by calf’s liver with pancetta or a thoroughly Gallic combo of French guinea fowl breast with young leeks, white asparagus (French, of course) and a morel/vin jaune sauce. Finish perhaps with dark chocolate and hazelnut tart with pistachio ice cream – we’re in bistro territory, remember – or a sublime panna cotta with ginger and rhubarb.

Restaurant manager Theo Armyras is an engaging enthusiast of all things drinkable and will steer you towards such delicious offerings as a Spanish rosado from Rioja’s family-owned Bodegas Perica (at £11.50 a glass). Selections by the 500ml carafe keep proceedings true to bistro-dom, although there's always plenty to explore – from minerally Chablis Premier Cru, Thomas Labille ‘Montmains’ 2020 to big hitters from Bordeaux and the Rhône Valley.

‘The epitome of a local restaurant,’ this long-serving, family-run bistro and coffee house is a rare commodity in touristy Windermere – no wonder bookings are essential for each of the two evening sittings. The simple dining room is divided into three small sections, although the tables – each properly set with cloths and a vase of flowers – are just far enough apart to ensure privacy and elbow room, while service from the owner herself and local teens is knowledgeable and well-paced without ever feeling rushed.

The rarely changing carte is supplemented by a short list of daily specials; when the cooking is ‘consistently enjoyable’, why mess with the formula? There are plenty of tried-and-tested ideas on show here, from a starter of potted salmon terrine with pink peppercorns, dill and cucumber pickle to heartily endorsed mains including lobster thermidor served with a pile of cheesy tagliatelle or ‘pig on a plate’ (pork belly and braised cheek with mash, homemade black pudding and crisp pancetta). It's not all so rich, however. Mussels come bobbing in a well-balanced leek, saffron and garlic sauce while linguine is laced with a jumble of springy palourde clams.

Given the generosity of the servings, you may need to pace yourself if you want to leave room for desserts such as the ever-popular sticky toffee pudding, as sweetly saturnine as treacle toffee on Bonfire night. Overall, this is ‘good, honest food’ backed up by a short wine list that serves its purpose.

At heart, tiny Giulia is a neighbourhood restaurant, one where Endris Kerbizi’s bold, assured Italian cooking draws back locals again and again. A passion for quality runs through every aspect of the place, and the menu embodies the capital's take on Italy – a pared-back aesthetic, a short, regularly changing repertoire and a light, contemporary touch. ‘Never had a duff dish,' just about sums it up.

Seared octopus with cauliflower, creamy potato and 'nduja sauce is a never-off-the-menu must-order, but in season the baked courgette flower filled with ricotta and served with a courgette salad is not to be missed. To follow, there’s plenty of love for the veal cotoletta alla milanese, while the roast lamb rack with braised shoulder, peas and asparagus is reckoned to be as good as anything in London. And if you're craving some handmade pasta, the seafood paccheri is a standout.

Focaccia and gelato (both made in-house) have been praised, while one fan insists that 'they have the best tiramisu I have ever tasted (and I’m Italian)’. However, we have a soft spot for the lemon tart with caramelised apricot. Giulia Quaglia heads the small front of house team, a ‘smiling, friendly presence’ who always finds time to chat and talk food. To drink, there are some classic cocktails and a short list of affordable all-Italian wines.

Despite the gushing water feature on Carlos Place, the Connaught remains a redoubt of hotel tradition, still at the centre of a turbulent West End. Its principal dining room has been under the aegis of Hélène Darroze for 14 years now, undergoing cosmetic surgery in 2019 to turn it from something that still felt like a gentlemen's club to a lighter, more appealing space with tan leather banquettes and subdued illumination. Numerous staff patrol the territory with impeccable precision, smart as soldiers and twice as friendly, contributing to the sense of occasion that the seasonally shifting menus promise. There is just enough variation to permit some choosing: pairs of options at some stages (though one always has a supplement), a sliding scale for the overall number of courses. Wine flights also ascend through the financial levels, from here on earth to ya-ya. If there was occasionally a feeling in the past that the fit wasn't quite comfortable – like those new shoes that pinch a little – the transformation in recent years has been remarkable. Darroze is at the top of her game, offering dishes that astonish with their complexity and stirring depth of flavour. Paimpol coco beans and smoked eel, seasoned with Nepalese timut pepper and bathed in clam consommé, was a magnificent opening statement on the 'Taste of Autumn' menu, followed by ceps in pasta cups with a snail, some guanciale and roasted cobnuts. A dish lid is whisked away to engulf the diner in the aromas of burnt hay, the basis of a foaming sauce for a piece of lobster tail, with two superb condiments – a sweet-and-sour gel and vivid green tarragon purée. The main event might be Rhug lamb dressed in ras el hanout with apricot and spelt. Less spectacular, but still good, was the breast of guinea fowl stuffed with duck liver and accompanied by braised Roscoff onion. A pre-dessert of peach with nasturtiums then paves the way for, perhaps, Mekonga chocolate in buckwheat tea or the signature baba, doused in one of Darroze's bespoke vintage Armagnacs, with raspberries and peppered crème fraîche. There has sometimes been a feeling that the grand hotels have lost a little ground in the rip-tide of contemporary cooking that has overtaken the capital. Not here. This is a kitchen in turbo-charge.

So tuned in to local tastes are restaurateurs Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim and David Gingell, they have three eateries within a mile or so of each other. First came Primeur (Newington Green, 2014), then Westerns Laundry (Drayton Park, 2017) and, in 2019, Jolene. It’s a lovely spot, especially when the glass doors are opened out onto the pavement facing the Green. Textured plaster walls, a zinc bar, candles and dried flowers create a simple but stylish look, while a warm greeting comes with an invitation to look at the menu written commendably legibly on a blackboard. On a hot day, when we visited, everyone was ordering the ajo blanco, a chilled cucumber and almond soup, garnished with tender broad beans, peas and courgettes, although classic French artichoke vinaigrette, and an Italian-style nectarine, tomato and pecorino salad also suited the weather. Pasta dominates, however. A tangle of tagliarini, firm to the tooth, comes with asparagus, new season's girolles and raw egg, while orzo is partnered by cuttlefish and clams. In colder months, you might find duck tortelloni or tagliatelle with pork ragù. Price-wise, the only £20+ dishes are a couple of main courses such as skate with brown butter and capers or roast chicken with pink fir potatoes and aïoli. Dessert is a choice between something cakey from the bakery counter (a financier, say) or caramelised bread and butter pudding with custard from the blackboard menu. Service is pally but professional. An A4 page of wines features interesting bottles from excellent producers (Alice Bouvot’s Muscat from Jura, for example) but expect to spend a minimum of £45 a bottle. If you enjoy the bread (we liked the focaccia) you can pick up a loaf here or at the group’s London-based Jolene bakeries.

An animated local institution, this simple set of rooms has been a bright light in Shepherd Market since 2014. The two-tiered interior (linked by a narrow staircase) has a rustic, thrown-together look with clumping wood furniture, while diversion from basic comfort levels comes in the form of a regularly changing menu that plays obsessively off the seasons. The unfussy, purposeful cooking is all about first-class ingredients and big, bold flavours – the tone set immediately with starters of grilled fennel, pickles and mustard vinaigrette, silky cod’s roe with radishes and crackers, and a tangle of fresh peas and pea shoots atop soft, rich Graceburn cheese spread thickly on toast. The flavour of the wood grill is introduced judiciously, applying the sparest of preparations to a Belted Galloway wing rib (advertised for two but more than enough for three), nicely charred, deliciously fatty, seriously pink inside, smeared with a melting tarragon and green peppercorn butter and served with new potatoes and a watercress salad. A punchy side of grilled cauliflower and XO sauce provides the perfect accompaniment. Look out, too, for the whole grilled lemon sole and the pork chop served with salsa verde, pickled raisins and chicory. Finish with 'queen bee' parfait, boozy strawberries and pistachio. Plus points for the engaged staff, the pavement tables shaded by an awning and large umbrellas, and the modest but modern wine list, which starts at a remarkable (given the location) £5 a glass, £15 a carafe and £30 a bottle, with plenty of options below the £45 mark.

The Sachdev family's neighbourhood restaurant can trace its roots in Ashton back to 1972, when an entirely vegetarian Indian restaurant must have seemed distinctly avant-garde to those only familiar with high-street curry houses. Since then, generations of cooks with roots in the regional cuisines of the Subcontinent have helped elevate Lily's to its current status, while a shop counter teeming with indigenous ingredients and sweetmeats is an indispensable part of the allure. The place is held in high esteem locally, and a confirmed regular applauds everything from the crisp vegetable samosas (with a good kick of chilli) and the masala dosa (with decent sambar and coconut chutney) to a substantial serving of delicious papdi chaat stirred through with sharp tamarind chutney. Among the main courses, the vegetable jaipuri (a Rajasthani dish) features a torrent of finely diced veg with cashews and grated paneer in a creamy tomato sauce. Top-notch accompaniments include various uttapam pancakes and Gujarati roti slippy with ghee. Rasgulla and gulab jamun feature on the dessert list, for the incorrigibly sweet of tooth; otherwise, tripti bhog is a mind-blowingly rich paneer-and-nut creation worth trying. There are enlivening spicy cocktails too.

Deptford High Street has a jewel in its midst; not a shiny blingy one, but a precious little gem called Marcella. 'The art of simplicity' is their mantra, and this sister to Peckham's Artusi is the sort of unpretentious local Italian joint you find yourself returning to again and again. There's an almost canteen-like sparsity to the interior, but a contemporary Scandi-inspired one, with blackboards revealing where the heart and soul of this place resides. It's a short menu, with trios of starters and mains, plus a couple of pasta dishes available in two sizes (Sicilian casarecce, the twisted one, with spicy 'nduja and mascarpone, say). The produce arriving in the kitchen is evidently sourced with due diligence, from the UK and Italy. In summer, you might find Grezzina courgettes braised in Parmesan broth with Risina beans, or grilled Sucrine lettuce matched with ricotta made from sheep's milk (plus potatoes and peas). Tender pork belly rocks up with Tropea onions and anchovy in a full-flavoured main course, while cod is paired with smoky aubergines and peppers. To finish, dark chocolate mousse gets a sweet kiss from salted caramel. The all-Italian wine list opens at £29, and includes helpfully concise tasting notes. 

Of all the multifarious eating and drinking opportunities in the heart of Soho, this ‘warmly welcoming’ little restaurant is one of the more compelling. Rita’s goes about its business with gusto, its popularity not surprising given the casual vibe, the warmth of the service and straight-to-the point modern American-style cooking. It’s not going to win any prizes for inventiveness – dishes tend to be simple assemblies built around seasonal British produce – but barbecued beef tartare with garlic, raw vegetables and lots of herbs, and a special of corn-crusted turbot served on a heap of courgettes and set in a puddle of herb butter – were good calls on a warm spring evening. Salt-fish taquitos have been praised, fried chicken parmigiana puts in an appearance, and flavours are ramped up with prime cuts and sharing steaks (order with ‘wrong way’ French fries). Desserts feature the likes of sunflower ice cream with caramel sundae, and the express lunch of, say, fried chicken roll, Caesar salad or eggplant panino is good value. Cocktails star alongside a European wine list stuffed with on-trend low intervention producers.

Whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth time at Rochelle Canteen, you can’t fail to feel a frisson when pressing the buzzer to gain admission. Is this the place? Is it open? But once inside the old building (formerly a school bike shed), seated in the glass-walled canteen or basking in the beautifully dappled light of the garden, you feel immediately at ease. The daily changing menu is a ‘celebration of all the things that we love most,' say owners Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold, while the venue's many regulars share their enthusiasm for Anglo-European cookery, classic and modern. Typically, that might mean faggots with carrots and green sauce, French onion soup, cod cheeks with anchovy and rosemary, crab tart with a nicely dressed little salad, or sweetbreads with radishes, bacon and mint. For afters, steamed marmalade pudding, cherry parfait and plum pavlova are puds of the ‘proper’ persuasion. In short, Rochelle is pretty much idyllic – especially at lunchtime and especially in the summer. Wines (from £35) are European, and predominantly French.