The 'hood comes good

One of the interesting things about judging this year's London Restaurant Awards was the surprisingly fierce debate that broke out when discussing the Local Restaurant of the Year category.

Neighbourhood restaurants go from strength to strength and in these credit-crunchy days they are likely to play a bigger role in our plans. It may be basic economics but when you factor in the cost of travel to and from dinner in the West End, the hassle involved, and the fact that local restaurants usually offer keenly priced meals, neighbourhood restaurants hold key cards.

There's also an in-built quality control mechanism: a genuine neighbourhood restaurant is doomed without repeat business. Because it has a defined catchment area, a local lives or dies on its reputation: that may take years to build up but only a couple of bad meals to lose.

Good neighbourhood restaurants survive by staying in step with their clientele; locals need to be able to get a table, the menu needs plenty on it that appeals and the place needs to feel comfortable. Something that is just as crucial when it comes to describing the dishes as it is for the chairs.

When a neighbourhood restaurant has proved itself, the locals feel proprietorial and only when the locals are happy do they become true regulars. Of course, if you don't have a good neighbourhood restaurant of your own, then there is always the strategy of visiting one on someone else's patch. Take a place like Lemonia in NW1. This certainly qualifies as a local restaurant and whenever you visit there will be lots of local people dining, but it could never keep so exceptionally busy if it had to rely solely on customers from Primrose Hill. As Mr Michelin would have it, you can say of Lemonia that, "il faut un détour".

It seems a strange concept but there's nothing to stop you seeking out another borough's neighbourhood restaurants. You may have to justify this to yourself by rebranding them as "destination" restaurants and you may incur that dreaded taxi bill, but it won't be so traumatic as a visit to the West End.

Genuine local restaurants come with the reassurance of a decent reputation. Fortunately, the values that have enabled them to prosper as a local restaurant may be identical to the ones that define your perfect venue. Like many restaurants that have been quietly going about their business for years, even the best local must do without the constant press coverage afforded to new and fashionable cutting-edge restaurants, because, as the reasoning goes, it's only a "local" place. But that lack of coverage means the chefs are under less pressure to turn out fashionable food. The menu may keep its old favourites providing that they are the dishes the all-important locals want.

Here are a few choice local restaurants that have managed to draw in, and more importantly retain, a local following. They represent a variety of different cuisines and they are spread out across London. If one of them is local to you, then you will certainly know about it already. For the rest of us they are restaurants that may have slipped off our radar.

These places are worth the journey: you can expect reliable food and a welcome absence of frills and excesses. Now it's just a question of tracking them down and enjoying some very decent food at prices that are unlikely to break the bank.

Market - 45 Parkway, NW1 (020 7267 9700) £25pp ex-drinks.

Market won the Local Restaurant of the Year category at the 2008 London Restaurant Awards. It's a small restaurant with a good feel to it and "basic" décor. The food is honest and in the best British tradition — that's to say the "Gospel according to St John" — look out for delicacies like a rather good chicken and mushroom pie; Gloucester Old Spot pork belly with lentils; or mutton cutlets with potato cakes and caper sauce. Good food at agreeable prices.

Lemonia - 89 Regent's Park Road, NW1 (020 7586 7454) £20pp ex-drinks.

Lemonia opened its doors in 1979 and has continued to fly the flag for Greek Cypriot food ever since. No local restaurant has survived so long and been so successful (it's always busy and that includes the sibling restaurant Limani which is just across the road). The food is reliable, varied mezze, standard grills and main courses. The only downside can be the atmosphere, which can be loud and lively.

Enoteca Turi - 28 Putney High Street, SW15 (020 8785 4449) £25 ex-drinks.

Giuseppe Turi's first love is wine, but like all Italians he rather sensibly sees food and wine as two chapters of the same story. This restaurant has a fascinating Italian wine list strong on regionals and the menu changes regularly to feature less familiar dishes — rabbit wrapped in speck with potatoes and prunes; or papardelle served with a ragu made from duck. A charming local.

Ransome's Dock - 35-37 Parkgate Road, SW11 (020 7223 1611) £27pp ex-drinks.

Ransome's Dock is an old-established restaurant that has become something of local hero. For a start, the Dock is a resolutely British restaurant and much is made of the provenance of the ingredients used. Thus you'll find "Label Anglais" chickens and shorthorn beef. There's a genuine family-run feel to the place and an extensive wine list that will please the pickiest toper.

Sam's Brasserie - 11 Barley Mow Passage, W4 (020 8987 0555) £22pp ex-drinks.

Sam's Brasserie won the "60 under £60" category at the London Restaurant Awards. As the name implies this gong goes to a restaurant where two can eat well for £60. Despite being a relative newcomer Sam's has slipped seamlessly into Chiswick life whether for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or just a drink. The food is broadly Modern British, pleasingly unfussy, and the service is slick.

Penk's - 79 Salusbury Road, NW6 (020 7604 4484) £25 ex-drinks.

Penk's is an old-established family-run bistro and embodies all that is best about such places. A recent sideways expansion of the premises has doubled the number of seats but by West End standards this is still a small restaurant. The menu is bistro food, French classics and simple cooking — blanquette of pork in cider; crispy roast duck à l'Orange. A forgiving wine list, good service, a friendly place.

Patio - 5 Goldhawk Road, W12 (020 7843 5194) £18pp ex-drinks.

Patio can be a very lively place. Presided over by ex-opera singer Eva Michalik and her husband Kaz this restaurant has been dishing out OK Polish food and a tidal wave of vodka for decades. Among a loyal local following it is known as the venue of choice for any and all celebrations. There is an à la carte but the set menu is better value and de rigueur.

Brula Bistro - 43 Crown Road, Twickenham, Middlesex (020 8892 0602) £18pp ex-drinks.

Nearly a decade ago two friends — Lawrence Hartley and Bruce Duckett — combined parts of their Christian names and opened an eponymous bistro. Their strategy was to offer very simple, somewhat old-fashioned French food at rock bottom prices. It worked. Brula serves potage du jour, steak frites or coquilles St Jacques. A gently priced wine list and friendly service complete the picture.

Upstairs - 89b Acre Lane, SW2 (020 7733 8855), £25pp ex-drinks.

Upstairs is a tiny restaurant and a relative newcomer. It's also something of a well-kept secret with the entrance hidden away and diners required to ring a bell for entry. The menu, the staff and the attitudes are all very French. The cooking is good and there is usually something on the short menu that appeals — a chicken liver and foie gras parfait, a chunk of halibut cooked with morels and asparagus. Simple wine list, slick service.

The Lobster Pot - 3 Kennington Lane, SE11 (020 7582 5556) £28pp ex-drinks.

Hervé Regent's eccentric little restaurant is a tad more expensive than most local eateries, but that is because he runs a temple to fish. Fresh fish from Billingsgate is cooked simply and accurately. There are fancier French classic dishes but this place is best when you're eating simple things like skate with beurre noisette. The décor will make you blink, as will the soundtrack of mournful Breton foghorns.

* Charles Campion's 2009 London Restaurant Guide is published on 10 September by Profile Books, £8.99

OUR WRITERS' CHOICES

Cigala - 54 Lamb's Conduit Street, WC1 (020 7405 1717, www.cigala.co.uk)

Cigala is one of those restaurants that seems right at any time of life. In the luxurious BC years (Before Children) we popped in for paella and good Spanish white wine after work, dragging political contacts along to WC1. No one complained. We've taken babies and mothers-in-law for Sunday tapas and they are always unfazed by numbers or age ranges. The menu has no shocks, just all the dishes you associate with hot evenings in Spain: soft pulpo alla Gallega with paprika: sizzling prawns and garlic and as many patatas bravas as your children can eat while leaving room for turrones, the chocolate nougat confection which keeps Spain's dentists in business. You need a lot of paper napkins to survive this feast but there is always laid-back atmosphere and something memorable on the menu.

Anne McElvoy

Trinity - 4 The Polygon, SW4 (020 7622 1199, www.trinityrestaurant.co.uk)

Trinity looks cripplingly expensive yet it doesn't have to be. We locals know better than to be put off by a starched tablecloth and minimal interior so we flock there for sensibly priced set menus and outstanding fresh food. I recently spent a languid afternoon gazing out on Clapham Common while enjoying lunch with five friends. For three courses, including treats such as duck egg, summer truffles and black bream, we each paid £20. The cost of wine nudged up our bill but for more austere types several bottles are served in carafes. The set Sunday lunches — with Yorkshire puddings the size of a football — are renowned. And it's a short waddle home.

Sophia Money-Coutts

Arancia - 52 Southwark Park Rd, SE16 (020 7394 1751, www.arancia-london.co.uk)

A good local restaurant should chug along happily, keeping up the good work while you're away — trying out the latest trendy eaterie or on holiday — ready to welcome you with open arms and familiar dishes on your return. And so it is with Arancia, to which I returned after an extended break last week and found nothing had changed. The rustic, honest Italian cooking — exemplified by a starter of beautifully creamy mozarrella with rocket and aged Balsamic — was, as ever, on song. The menu changes weekly to reflect locally-sourced, seasonal produce so I ordered the lamb stew with summer vegetables. With starters at under £5, mains for £10 or less and a sensible wine list, Arancia is great value for money.

Deborah Collcutt

The Anglesea - 35 Wingate Road, W6 (020 8749 1291)

I've always loved The Anglesea, my local gastropub at the end of one of west London's prettiest streets. In winter there's a blazing log fire and you can sit in the tatty old leather chesterfield reading the papers with a drink before supper. There are heaters so you can eat outdoors too, even when it's cold. The Anglesea feels almost nicer when it's quiet, say on a mid-week lunchtime. The food is straight-forward, affordable and the menu, scrawled on a blackboard, changes twice daily. My favourites are things like country terrine with toast and homemade chutney (£7.50) or a pint of prawns with aioli (£8.95) or the roast-beef sandwich with horseradish (£7). You can order single oysters (£2) and decent French wines by the glass (a chilled Gamay is £4.95).

Katie Law