The best eats of 2005

REBIRTH

You know it's been a good year for new restaurants when a handful of the best are born-again with vitality and acumen. It puts the lust for novelty into perspective.
The Panjabi sisters, owners of VEERASWAMY, established in 1926 and the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in the UK, abandoned the stab at modern décor and reclaimed the comfort and grace of earlier times. Chef Gopal Kochak demonstrates the very fine results a modern sensibility can have on long-established traditions. His menu roams the sub-continent with sprightly steps.

Richard Corrigan had special reason to be thrilled to return to BENTLEY'S oyster bar and restaurant as co-owner. He had worked there when it was owned by Boddington's and looked like a provincial hotel. Now it sparkles and the ground-floor oyster bar, with Richard enthusiastically knifing open the natives, is one of the best places in town to while away an hour or three.

FRANCO'S has been an institution in Jermyn Street since 1946. Recently bought by the Hambro family, who also own nearby Wiltons, the hiring of southern Italian chef Francesco Mazzei and Jason Phillips to manage front-of-house turned a place that I used to think of as handy for a cappuccino into one of London's best Italian restaurants. Ask for the burrata cheese.

Rocco Forte Hotels spent £19 million refurbishing Brown's Hotel from which Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call in 1876. Little did he know of the havoc that would be wreaked by mobiles. Angelo Maresca, formerly maitre d' of The Savoy Grill and now working his charm on THE GRILL at Brown's, would know how, most diplomatically, to get them switched off. Saddle of lamb and other roasts have made a triumphant return on the trolley.

PIED A TERRE rose like a phoenix from a devastating fire after a closure of nearly a year. Chef Shane Osborn continues to cook to Michelin two-star standards. The set-price lunch menu is a delicious bargain. Perhaps the new décor will appeal to the Red Guide's inspectors more than it does to some of the customers.

PUTTING ON THE GLITZ

It has to be admitted; it is not only food that nourishes us. We like to see and be seen, strut our stuff. Never mind if Claudia Schiffer, Stella McCartney or whoever is rumoured to favour a place, it's far more important that we should feel glam.

At CHINA TANG every stop has been pulled out to cocoon customers in Hong Kong-style luxe et voluptè. The authentic Cantonese cooking is almost worth the price. I like lunchtime best. Last time a Robert Frost poem was being played in the ladies lavatory: "But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep ..." So true.

A cleverly designed interior and an energetic attempt to upgrade popular American cooking has made peoplewatching as well as eating a rewarding activity at AUTOMAT. I have to say I was very pleased when the manager
moved us from a tiny table at the back to a booth in the middle.

It doubtless also helps to be known to the staff at NOBU BERKELEY, where the arguably admirable no-bookings policy means you have an expensive wait in the bar unless your lustre gets you whisked upstairs to cries of " Irashaimase". Mark Edwards's menu is fab, the noise is deafening.

Nick Jones, owner of Soho House and The Electric Brasserie, to name but two of his enterprises, has transformed CECCONI'S from a dull spot to a dazzling one with help from gifted designer Isle Crawford. A black-and-white marble floor, emerald green upholstery, Venetian tapas, a central bar with Prosecco on tap; the joint is jumping.

GASTROPUBS ARE GO

As Egon Ronay recognised in his Guide to the Best Restaurants and Gastropubs 2006 (Egon Ronay Ltd, £14.99), the gastropub in Britain is a version of the bistro in France, but in terms of food served frequently superior. A kind of embracing, inspiring but also comforting, flexible menu has evolved that has spread to new ventures not necessarily housed in former pubs.