Food for summer loving

Quick! There's a bargain to be had at South in Shoreditch.

South in Shoreditch got universally good reviews when it opened recently - we liked the no-nonsense traditional French cooking and relaxed atmosphere. Reasonable prices, too - and you don't get more reasonable than their current offer: a twocourse light lunch for £5. You could, for instance, have a tomato and onion salad followed by a salad of grilled chicken, cos lettuce, parmesan, anchovies and croutons. The regular menu and prix fixe - £12.95 for three courses - are running concurrently.

South, 128 Curtain Road EC2. Tel: 020 7729 4452. Tube: Old Street

The clenched expressions say it all: school holiday time. Increasingly, London restaurants are wising up to this fact by putting on child-friendly initiatives, such as the striking Rocket Riverside in Putney. Pizza playdough, games and toys and an open-plan environment all help with the toddler-taming, as does a menu with children's main courses at £4 a pop. Choices feature the usual childpleasers: fish and chips, sausages and mash, a selection of pizzas and extravagant sundaes. They're also quite happy to make small portions of anything from the main menu. Rocket Riverside, Brewhouse Street SW15. Tel: 020 8789 7875. Tube: Putney Bridge

Quirinale, the Westminster restaurant that manages to make a basement as light and welcoming as a penthouse, has a delectable new summer menu that includes home-made basil and ricotta gnocchi, grilled red mullet and - for those who don't like warm weather to get in the way of a good carnivorous feed - roast saddle of rabbit stuffed with spinach and apricot, rosemary scented jus and girolles. And the below-ground location will come in particularly useful when our eccentric climate relapses into dampness. Quirinale, 1 Great Peter Street SW1. Tel: 020 7222 7080. Tube: Westminster