Critics' choice

Richard Vines|Jay Rayner|Nicholas Lander|Fay Maschler

10 April 2012

Lahore Kebab House
2-10 Umberston Street, E1. Meal for two, £50
This is my favourite London restaurant. I've been going for 15 years and never tire of the spicy Pakistani food, particularly the lamb chops. The place is brighter and more spacious these days, but the prices are still low. The queues make me think that people don't realise you can book. Don't tell anybody. (020 7481 9737; lahore-kebabhouse.com)

Barshu
28 Frith Street, W1. Meal for two, £70
I first moved to China in 1982 as an editorial adviser to China Daily and discovered Sichuan food. I never expected to find such authenticity in London. I go here regularly, order a few dishes, often the dry-fried string beans and twice-cooked pork, drink some beers and watch Soho go by. Sometimes, when I'm on my way to review a fancy restaurant, I pass Barshu wistfully. (020 7287 8822; bar-shu.co.uk)

Bistrot Bruno Loubet
86-88 Clerkenwell Road, EC1. Meal for two, £70
I live in the Barbican and am delighted to count this as my local restaurant. It's unpretentious and inexpensive, but Loubet is one of the finest chefs in London and there's always something new to try. I'm counting the days to 1 August, when Hare Royale can go back on the menu, but until then, the boudin blanc and the sea trout will keep me happy.(020 7324 4455; bistrotbrunoloubet.com)

L'Anima 1 Snowden Street, Broadgate West, EC2. Meal for two, £100
It's great to have an Italian restaurant of this quality in the City. Francesco Mazzei's dishes are light and fresh - try any of the pasta dishes, or the fritto misto - while the dining room is so cool, I feel I'm getting a makeover just stepping inside. It's a shame the bathroom mirrors make me look fat. (020 7422 7000; lanima.co.uk)

Galvin La Chapelle 35 Spital Square, E1. Meal for two, £100
I've been visiting Galvin La Chapelle since it opened. It's a beautiful room and I admire what the Galvin brothers are doing in terms of food and service. It's from the heart, not formulaic. It's great to eat oysters sitting at the bar, or the beef in the main restaurant.
(020 7299 0400; galvinrestaurants.com)

OUT OF TOWN
Suda 6-6/1 Soi 14, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok. Meal for two, £10
This open-air restaurant off Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road is nothing to look at and the fact I keep going back when there's no air-conditioning shows how much I must love the place. It's a family business run by women serving street food to local office workers and tourists.(00 66 2 229 4518/4664)

THE BEARDY BON VIVEUR
Jay Rayner has reviewed around 750 restaurants for The Observer over the past 12 years. He lives in Brixton.

La Petite Maison 53-54 Brook's Mews, W1. Meal for two, £150
Raphael Duntoye's take on Provençal cooking is pitch perfect. It costs, but the whole black leg chicken to share is so good it's hard to begrudge it. (020 7495 4774; lpmlondon.co.uk)

Bentley's 11-15 Swallow Street, W1. Meal for two, £110
The rebirth of restaurants with bars you can eat at was, arguably, launched by Richard Corrigan when he took over this site in 2005. It's perfect for straight-up seafood - oysters on the half shell, langoustines with mayo - or classics like fish pie done right. (020 7734 4756; bentleys.org)

Four Seasons 23 Wardour Street, W1. Meal for two, £45
The great food writer and cook Simon Hopkinson once told me that the Chinese are the best in the world at roasting duck. If anywhere proves it, it's this place, an offshoot of the mothership in Bayswater. I sometimes sneak off by myself for a half of their impeccable bird. Unbeatable.
(020 7287 9995; fs-restaurants.co.uk)

New Tayyabs 83-89 Fieldgate Street, E1. Meal for two, £35
London has seen a proliferation of Pakistani restaurants recently but this is still the best. Some people complain about the brusque service and the sense that you must not linger, but it's worth it for the best tandoori lamb chops in town, and a dry meat curry that lingers on the breath and in the heart for days afterwards.
(020 7247 9543; tayyabs.co.uk)

Polpetto Upstairs at The French House, 49 Dean Street, W1. Meal for two, £70
Russell Norman's effortlessly cool restaurants demonstrate how to execute a great idea. At Polpetto, perched above the bustle of Soho, it's a changing menu of small plates of earthy Italian food for sharing. The fully inked, bed-headed staff add to the appeal. (020 7734 1969; polpetto.co.uk)

OUT OF TOWN
The Sportsman Seasalter, Kent. Tasting menu, £140
With minimum fuss, chef Stephen Harris has created something remarkable: a pub that has stayed true to its origins while knocking out world-beating food. People come from all over the globe for his tasting menu and rightly so: his cured Serrano-style ham is a wonder, as is his braised brill fillet with a smoked herring roe sauce and his jasmine tea junket with rosehip syrup. Go there. (01227 273 370; thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk)

THE UNDERCOVER CONNOISSEUR
In his 21 years of anonymity reviewing restaurants around the world for his Financial Times column, Nicholas Lander has written about more than 1,000. He lives in North London.

Caravan 11-13 Exmouth Market, EC1. Breakfast for two, £25
Great coffee, roasted on site, is just the first of its attractions. What Chris Ammerman and Miles Kirby have also established is a menu as exciting at breakfast (try the grilled coconut bread, strawberries and lemon curd cream cheese) as at lunch and dinner. (020 7833 8115; caravanonexmouth.co.uk)

Chez Bruce 2 Bellevue Road, SW17. Meal for two, £90
Bruce Poole's restaurant is a magnet for food and wine lovers. Seasonal ingredients are cooked with precision; the wine list is chosen with great care; even the staff seem to be having fun.
(020 8672 0114; chezbruce.co.uk)

Dinner Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, SW1. Meal for two, £120
Getting a reservation is hard but Dinner will make anyone lucky enough to secure a table smile. The excitement of relishing dishes from a bygone era - try the roast marrowbone, the turbot with cockle ketchup, and the lemon pudding - is the major attraction but so is the relaxed setting. Will more hoteliers please follow suit! (020 7201 3833; dinnerbyheston.com)

Four Seasons 12 Gerrard Street, W1. Meal for two, £45
What this restaurant lacks in décor, it makes up for in its cooking of roast duck, which many agree [including Jay Rayner] is the best in the world. Great pre- or post-cinema or theatre, or for self-employed restaurant writers, such as myself, looking to entertain. Order a side of the bok choi with garlic. (020 7494 0870; fs-restaurants.co.uk)

Hunan 51 Pimlico Road, SW1. Set menu dinner, £85.60
Chef Peng and his son Michael run this distinctive Chinese restaurant. From the basement comes a set dinner of 18 small but spicy dishes, while Michael patrols the dining room with one of the capital's most scrupulously chosen and keenly priced wine lists. (020 7730 5712; hunanlondon.com)

OUT OF TOWN
Zuni Café 1658 Market Street, San Francisco. Meal for two, $100
The interior of this triangular building on Market Street is bathed in sunshine, and from the kitchen comes the freshest California cooking: oysters, crisp pizza, stunning salads and their signature roast chicken. Always my first and last stop from the airport. (00 1 415 552 2522; zunicafe.com)

THE GRANDE DAME
The Standard's critic Fay Maschler has been dining out professionally since 1972, when she 'won' the job in a competition, and has since cooked up a impressive 5,000 reviews. She lives in Mayfair.

Riva 169 Church Road, SW13. Meal for two, £100
'Go where you're known best,' said Clement Freud wisely. The luxury of not ordering, of having dishes and wines chosen by consummate restaurateur Andrea Riva - mainly a service for regulars - is worth every penny spent on the Northern Italian food. Seasonality dictates the choices, restraint the cooking processes. (020 8748 0434)

Phoenix Palace 5 Glentworth Street, NW1. Meal for two, £60
Cooking is my pastime, but I draw the line at trying to emulate an authentic Cantonese menu. This carnival of a dining hall always hums with business, including a reassuring quotient of Asian customers. Get down and dirty with spicy crab and steamed buns. (020 7486 3515; phoenixpalace.co.uk)

Semplice 9/10 Blenheim Street, W1. Meal for two, £100
Alumni of Locanda Locatelli, chef Marco and manager Giovanni are a proud double act in this small gilded cage off New Bond Street. When white truffles are sighted it is here I go. Risotto Milanese is a fixture on the menu - with good reason. Semplice explains why Italian restaurants are part of our psyche. (020 7495 1509; ristorantesemplice.com)

Corrigan's Mayfair 28 Upper Grosvenor Street, W1. Meal for two, £110
Richard Corrigan is one of the bonniest people in this gregarious biz; I admire his attitude to cooking and his irrepressible generosity. If Jay hadn't bagged Bentley's I would have chosen its bar but Mayfair, especially when the game season is in full flight, is also ace. (020 7499 9943; corrigansmayfair.com)

Namaaste Kitchen 64 Parkway, NW1. Meal for two, £50
Going out for an Indian has been enhanced by this recent opening. Whether you are in a Gujarati snack mood or feeling nostalgic about a Keralan holiday, there is something to oblige and staff are notably amiable. (020 7485 5977; namaastekitchen.co.uk)

OUT OF TOWN
L'Arpège 84 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris. Tasting menu, 500
You pay an arm and a leg to eat at Alain Passard's jolly restaurant but every sou is worth it to experience what a chef who pursues the essential goodness of ingredients rather than seeking to distort them for effect can do. Even a radish is a revelation. (alain-passard.com)

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