Top five recent openings

Fay Maschler surveys the latest arrivals on the London restaurant scene. She visits Nobu's newest expensive but glamorous establishment, and experiences sensation overload at Gordon Ramsay's Maze...

NOBU BERKELEY
15 Berkeley Street, W1 (020-7290 9222). Mon-Sun £150
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Surroundings at Nobu Park Lane have always seemed to me a bit David Brent and the phone is not answered after 5pm when you ring to book. At this new outpost there is a no-bookings policy (except for parties of six) and a glamorous downstairs bar in which to wait and spend money. Upstairs designer David Collins has fashioned a Magic Kingdom with flattering lighting. Wood-fired ovens deliver novel dishes, as does the hibachi table with its built-in grills. Money no object, order Wagyu beef seared before your very eyes.

SAM'S BRASSERIE
11 Barley Mow Passage, W4 (020-8987 0555). Mon-Sun £90
***
Sam Harrison has worked as manager of Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstowand before that in Sydney for two years. The impeccable manners of an old Etonian coupled with an Aussie-flavoured understanding of easy-going eating out is a winning formula and his former boss Rick Stein has had the good sense to invest in it. Rufus Wickham who has worked with Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place is head chef. The modern menu that mostly roams Western Europe also puts garam masala with roasted plaice. Very Stein.

INDIAN ZING
236 King Street, W6 (020-8748 5959). Mon-Sun £54
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Chef/proprietor Manoj Vasaikar previously made a popular success of a small short-lived restaurant in Putney called Just India. Locals appreciated the authentic cooking and modest prices. The same virtues apply at his second own-venture which has rather more serious decor and the air of being here to stay. Manoj, who has cooked at Veeraswamy (in the same group as Amaya), sees the way Indian food is going - designer plates and an emphasis on lightness - but doesn't lose sight and flavour of what we all like about going out for an Indian.

THE PUMPHOUSE
1 New River Avenue, N8 (020-8340 0400). Mon-Sun £74
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The boondocks of North London are well served by the two Mosaica restaurants - in Wood Green and Tottenham. Now, one of the owners, John Mountain, has brought his enthusiasm for good cooking and affable service to Hornsey and converted a former hydraulic pumping station into a dramatic lofty bar and restaurant encased in the building's original white tiling, now mellowed and foxed with age. The simplicity of the menu is agreeably deceptive since dishes are prepared with skill and care in the open kitchen. I dare say evenings get noisy.

MAZE
10-13 Grosvenor Square W1 (020-7107 0000). Mon-Sun £120
****
Price rises were inevitable at this latest Gordon Ramsay enterprise. That's the way he does things, but what you pay is still a steal for the talents of head chef Jason Atherton. The restaurant's title reflects the long and winding road that you can take through a menu of small dishes - the waiters suggest six per person plus dessert. Each dish displays originality and perspicacity but if you fear sensation overload, there is also a three-course menu of normal-size dishes. The concept puts a sometimes unbearable strain on service.