Artesian

Located within the shadow of "Aunty" it would be surprising if the Langham Hotel was not as British as the BBC, and then some. Our primary concern is that particular aspect of the hotel encapsulated in the bar and restaurant called Artesian, the deeply glamorous room at The Langham, designed by David Collins and offering all day eating on a scale that is as truly British as the rest of the hotel, the entrance to which always reminds me strongly of a well-known stately home near Oxford.

Artesian offers the menu that you are always looking for, and never find, a creative, well thought through, all day menu takes bar food out of the ordinary and into the gourmet. Every dish has been designed to complement the cocktail menu.

Star performers are the sharing platters for two - antipasto, meze, Chinese and gourmet - chic sandwiches - an Italian BLT; hot fillet steak with portobello mushrooms; lobster open club - perfect salads like blue fin tuna with soy-mirin dressing or chargrilled chicken Caesar with cashew nuts; and delectable dishes - eggs Florentine, gourmet bento boxes; French onion soup or a regional cheeseboard to share - and the best Tiger prawn and vegetable tempura in town  - there really is something for everyone at this haute cuisine bar food menu.

Try Artesian grazing for something a little different. The classic selection offers sesame pork and rice noodle, seaweed salmon fillet, marinated duck breast and cashew, ginger cream brûlée or the signature selection with tempura king prawn, beef and horseradish cream, breaded chicken and spring onion, with Thai coconut rice.

Not to be missed is Artesian's speciality: the decadent Sweet Rum Platter...enough to soften the hardest heart, after all, rum is Artesian's signature spirit ? a carpaccio of the thinnest organic pineapple, doused in rum, with home-made coconut ice cream, a home-made rum muffin, and an exquisite raspberry Ladurée macaroon, gently eased down with a shot of either 1990 Demerara or 1997 Artesian rum from Panama.

Service and setting in Artesian are, as one might expect of such surroundings, of a one with the aura and décor of this splendid room.