Go native! Where food tastes like home

Everyone knows the best tapas bar is the one where Spanish diners go. If dishes are good enough for the people who invented them, you'll be sure they're cooked properly. With such a diversity of London restaurants, it makes sense to follow advice from the communities that brought these cuisines here, so London Lite brings you tips from those in the know.

JAPANESE
SAKURA
9 Hanover Street, W1 (020 7629 2961) Average price of dinner for two, with wine, £60
Regulars say it's just like being in Japan: screens here show sumo wrestling and Japanese news. The service is notoriously gruff but the sushi and sashimi are exemplary. Saoko Imai, 35, of Highgate, says: "Compared to other Japanese restaurants it's more authentic. It's good Japanese cuisine and there aren't too many tourists as it's off the beaten track."
Alternatives: Akasuka, 265 Eversholt Street, NW1. Jin Kichi, 73 Heath Street, NW3. Taro, 61 Brewer Street, W1

SPANISH
COSTA DORADA
47-55 Hanway Street, W1 (020 7631 5117)
Average price of dinner for two, with wine, £70
Costa Dorada is a big draw for Spaniards as the place to watch live flamenco dancing, with excellent Spanish wines list and authentic tapas - and it's licensed until 3am.
Try fabada asturiana (butter bean and chorizo stew, £4.25) and pulpo a la Gallega (Galician style octopus, £6.50) with a bottle of Loriñón Reserva Rioja, £27.50.
Islington Flamenco teacher Angela Alonso, 30, says: "When a Spaniard celebrates they want Spanish music, food and Flamenco so they come here."
Alternatives: Solea, 773 Fulham Road, SW6. Galicia on Portobello Road, W10

LEBANESE
TARBOUSH
143 Edgware Road, W2 (020 7706 9793) Average price of dinner for two, with wine, £60
Before the smoking ban, odours wafting through Tarboush were part shisha pipes, part grilled meats; you can still order the fruity tobacco to enjoy outside. To eat, try the set menu, £19.95, of crudités, flat bread and hot and cold meze followed by charcoal-grilled lamb and chicken with rice. Large groups of Lebanese enjoy the live music and belly dancer on Friday and Saturday nights.
Student Sarah Marzouk, 23, says: " Edgware Road is a little piece of Beirut in London. Getting a juice or shisha pipe is the equivalent to going to the pub."
Alternatives: Fairuz, 3 Blandford Street, W1. Beirut Express, 112-114 Edgware Road, W2. Ranoush, 43 Edgware Road, W2

ITALIAN
OSTERIA BASILICO
29 Kensington Park Road, W11 (020 7727 9957) Average price of dinner for two, with wine, £70
Open since 1992, Osteria Basilicio has a large following of Notting Hill locals as well as Italians in London. People come for the flame-cooked pizzas as much as for the à la carte menu, including veal paillard with fennel and radicchio (£13.50), Milanese style, and homemade filled pastas.
Alberto Nardelli, 27, says: "It has a buzz to it that makes it very similar to a trattoria in Italy. It serves simple and rich Italian dishes. All their dishes are fabulously reminiscent of back home, especially with the wine."
Alternatives: La Rocchetta, 40 Clerkenwell Green, EC1. Bar Italia, 22 Frith Street, W1.

TURKISH
SOMINE
444 Kingsland Road, E8 (020 7254 2145). Average price of dinner for two, no wine, £15
Come in the morning to Dalston's Turkish cafeteria for stove-baked gozleme bread with cheese or spinach - and queues stretching out the door. In the evenings enjoy stews like mevsim kizartma - fried aubergine, mushrooms, tomatoes, potato and courgette - with rice and bread, all for £5. Student Cefa Karabag, 29, says: "Even the British who I work with cycle to Somine during break time to get gozleme.
If you work in the area you pop in but you don't spend hours in there."
Alternatives: Gallipoli, 102 Upper Street, N1. Ozer, 5 Langham Place, W1. Tas, various branches, including 72 Borough High Street, SE1

ISRAELI
SOLLY'S
148A Golders Green Road, NW11 (020 8455 2121) Average price of dinner for two with wine, £60
The interior is an odd mix of Israeli kitsch and conference room style, and the food here is often described in terms of quantity rather than quality. Not that it's bad, just that it's piled as high as sandcastles on Tel Aviv beach. But here in the Jewish heartland of Golders Green it is the place for those who keep kosher to get grilled lamb and chicken kebabs, steaks, chops or fish with homemade pitta bread, tabouleh, houmous and hot pickled chillis.
The set menu, £22, includes starters falafels and kibbeh (minced lamb and pine kernals), a mixed grill and fresh mint tea with baklava.
Hannah Lyons, 25, says: "I'm vegetarian so I love the falafel, tahini and doughy pitta, baked on open stoves."
Alternatives: Reuben's, 79 Baker Street, W1. Harry Morgan's, 31 St John's Wood High Street, NW8

PAKISTANI
LAHORE
218 Commercial Road, E1 (020 7791 0112) Average price of a meal for two with wine, £30
One of London's best Pakistani kebab houses and open 365 days a year, Lahore serves honest, unpretentious food at jaw-droppingly low prices. No written menu and the bill may not be itemised, but who cares when you're getting a generous meal full of goodies for around a tenner?
Order mixed starters of kebabs and spicy sausage, then go for the spicy and delicious roti bread, and remember if you want to drink, you'll have to bring your own booze.
Shweta Aggarwal, 30, a bangra dance teacher, says: "Lots of Asians go to Lahore because it serves authentic Pakistani food."
Alternatives: Bombay Palace, 50 Connaught Street, W2. Madhus, 39 South Street, Southall UB1

THAI
101 THAI KITCHEN
352 King Street, W6 (020 8746 6888) Average price of a meal for two with wine, £40
Thai people like eating at this unassuming café-style joint because the food is not only as strong and spicy as it is back in Asia, but very good value too.
Based on cuisine from the northeast provinces, 101 Thai Kitchen's fare is not watered down in the manner that often leads to complaints about Thai outlets in the West. The menu includes sticky rice, papaya salad, and tom yum (hot and sour) soup. Particularly good is the poh tak (mixed seafood soup food, with chilli and lemongrass), £3.50, and the sok lek ped (grilled duck), £6.50.
Tuki Swasey, 26, says: "Eating is very much a social thing in Thailand, so it needs to be good, cheap and quick. But if I want something a little more upmarket, I go to posh chain Patara."
Alternatives: Mangosteen, 23 Ganton Street, W1, Thai Rice, 303 Portobello Road, W10

PERSIAN
HAFEZ
5 Hereford Road, W2 (020 7229 9398) Average price of a meal for two with wine, £30
Lunch here is for Iranian entrepreneurs talking business over food. Although how much they're cutting deals and how much they're just sitting in Hafez's tranquil forecourt is unclear.
Makhsos - charcoal-grilled lamb served with fluffy rice with saffron and a pat of butter - is the best thing on the menu, £12. The restaurant also offers a regular selection of stews.
Shervin Moghaddam, 31, says: "It's really authentic. It doesn't pretend to be a posh restaurant with linen tablecloths - they just have great food. I go there with the Iranian kids I grew up with around south London and we reminisce.
"In other Iranian cafés we watch the Iran football team on satellite TV. Everyone goes crazy doing chants - the atmosphere can be electric."
Alternatives: Galleria Restaurant, 17 New Cavendish Street, W1. Mahdi, 217 King Street, W6