Top Fives: Restaurant makeovers

Here are five phoenixes risen from the ashes of previous restaurant incarnations - brighter, better and more burnished than before.

1. Nahm

Stefano Cavallini's cooking was the Italian business, but it's taken David Thompson's eye-opening twist on Thai classics to get the wellheeled to repeatedly dig deep - very deep - into their python-skin wallets. Visually, not a kick in the teeth away from the predecessor.
Halkin Hotel, Halkin Street SW1. Tel: 020 7333 1234. Tube: Hyde Park Corner

2. La Trompette

Totally transformed from its previous incarnation as the dingy, gloomy and stultifying La Dordogne, Nigel Platts-Martin - with talented chef Ollie Couillaud - has turned this site into the glamorous, classy and assured La Trompette.
5-7 Devonshire Road W4. Tel: 020 8747 1836. Tube: Turnham Green

3. Thyme

Despite being generally well received for its predominantly piscine cuisine, the lamented Moxon's has departed, leaving the innovative critics' favourite Thyme in its place. Money has not been lavished on this makeover...
14 Clapham Park Road SW4. Tel: 020 7627 2468. Tube: Clapham Common

4. Blandford Street

When the acclaimed Stephen Bull decamped to the country, he left this restaurant in the hands of Nicholas Lambert and Daniel Ward. The new decor is pleasant and undemanding and the restaurant, though not vegetarian, delivers some superb choices for non-meateaters.
5-7 Blandford Street W1. Tel: 020 7486 9696. Tube: Baker Street

5. One-Seven-Nine

Turning the joint upside down - the bar is now downstairs and restaurant up - has not been quite enough to dissipate the decor-from-hell that was inflicted by previous incumbent Conrad Gallagher. Damn fine cooking, though, from Stephen Black.
179 Shaftesbury Avenue W1. Tel: 020 7836 3111. Tube: Covent Garden