Putting old style on the map

Just a little request: we have taken time to prepare you this lovely food, so...' I looked sideways with hard, 'I dare you' eyes. I knew what was coming.

'Please switch off your mobile.' This polite but firm order annoyed me - I was only in a sandwich bar for God's sake, albeit an esoteric, awardwinning one. But the serene man at Carrie Awaze in Covent Garden had a point.

Had he not asked, I would have eaten while on the phone, reading the paper and behaving like the archetypal busy urbanite who bolts their food.

Moya and Guru run their unique sandwich bar as they would their own home and accordingly they expect you to behave like a guest. Alone and silent, which is much more healthy and calming, I ate my Bertie Wooster: smoked trout, horseradish, lettuce and cress.

The Atlas, sitting in the shadow of Earl's Court, won't pull you up on your table manners, but it will make you, the customer, feel welcome and wanted. The menu is rustic, warming, hearty, tempting and, yes, great value. Five of us drank three bottles of pleasant Sicilian red, we all left content and the bill came in at under £150.

This is a gastropub in the old style, when they came with mandatory decor of mismatched salvage furniture, a big bowl of lemons and chillis in the open kitchen and a blackboard menu.

No surprise to know that George Manners, the owner of this pub group (which includes the Fox And Hounds, Swan and Cleveland Arms) used to cook at the gastro lodestar, The Eagle.

The waiter, on his firstever shift, did not know anything about the menu, and was nervous: he showed us a bottle of water as if it was a wine. This was adorable, not annoying.

We ordered almost the whole menu, and pulled out plums. You won't find an earthier and more satisfying dish than the goat's cheese bruschetta: good tangy cheese and a generous pile of mixed sautéed mushrooms with bite and flavour came on a piece of sourish bread which was drenched in a mellow olive oil. It came on a scorching earthenware dish so it stayed hot. I loved it.

Other starters were sardines - three big ones, were scorched on the outside and gently steamed inside to retain freshness, moistness and meatiness. They sat (which I don't think fish with their bones should, for practicality's sake) on a salad, with a generous variety of leaves and savoury goodies.