ES Pub & Bar of the Year!

THE WINNING PUB:
The Morgan Arms
43 Morgan Street, E3. Tel: 020-8980 6389
In the 38 years of the Evening Standard Pub & Bar of the Year competition, Bow has never been home to a winning pub. But pubs - at the centre of the communities they serve - often reflect the changing fortunes of London's urban villages, and Bow is clearly enjoying yet another renaissance now that it has best pub in town as part of its social fabric.

A couple of years ago, The Morgan Arms was a workaday boozer. Then, in 2003, Tanya Stafford and Kelvin Sturman refurbished it and created an outside terrace - dragging this place up by its cockney bootstraps and transforming it into the all-drinking, alldining extravaganza it is today.

We're talking about decent ales (Timothy Taylor's Landlord is a regular on tap), a good wine list of New and Old World offerings, and seriously high-quality Modern British fare delivered to your table at lightning speed by amiable and experienced staff.

You can't book a table so just turn up and take your chance; the clientele are an appreciative crowd of enthusiastic nouveau cockneys who are fortunate enough to live close by. If it's seriously good food, excellent drinks and top-flight service in a pubby atmosphere you're after, go to Bow.

THE WINNING BAR:
The Crazy Bear
26-28 Whitfield Street, W1. Tel: 020 7631 0088
Old Oxfordians might be familiar with The Crazy Bear near Stadhampton - a rather grand pub-cum-brasserie where undergraduates would often meet with their benefactors to discuss bursary limitations.

The Crazy Bear concept, like many of its former drinking students, has now graduated to London and its new sibling took up residence in Whitfield Street early last summer.

A much-lauded menu of pan-Asian cuisine is offered in the ground-floor restaurant, but it's the new basement bar that is responsible for the latest buzz around town.

A glistening Murano chandelier dominates the ground-floor entrance hall and you descend a wide, spiral staircase into this drop-dead-gorgeous, visually stimulating bar with cowhide stools, boxwood pillars and sexy, red-padded booths. Martinis are perfectly made - they use ingredients such as lychee, mint and basil leaves, and are appropriately priced at £7.50. A snack-and-sharing menu - satay, dim sum, tempura and the like - is provided via the restaurant kitchen.

Those who find this place too expensive for a casual encounter should treat this bar as it deserves and save it for a special occasion. Be warned, though: getting in isn't easy. Booking ahead, even for drinks, is essential.

THE JUDGES' VERDICTS
Chairman Al Murray - aka The Pub Landlord - led our panel of judges that included TV presenters Alice Beer and Annabel Croft, ITN newscaster Katie Derham, Mark Sargeant, head chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, and myself. We visited the five finalists in each category and then reconvened to report our findings. Close runners-up were The Gun in Coldharbour, The Pig's Ear in Chelsea, Schochu in Charlotte Street, Bistroteque in Hackney, The Castle in Camberwell, and The Fox in the City.