Kensington Place

The huge glass frontage of this chic Kensington restaurant means it's a place to see and be seen in. The fashion conscious clientele all vie for attention making this a noisy and vibrant setting rather than your cosy or romantic atmosphere.

With Henry Vigar at the helm, the kitchen is in tune with the seasons and is keen on keeping things fresh and interesting. Having worked with Michelin starred establishments like La Noisette and The Greenhouse, Henry brings a wealth of culinary experience to bear and his penchant for using modern European cooking techniques with British ingredients is evident on the menu.

The secret at Kensington Place seems to be that it is always buzzing, the cuisine never fails to excite interest, and the standards are amazingly consistent - plus, for a fashionable restaurant in London - the prices are perfectly acceptable.

The chef certainly makes his mark, and the daily changing menu features unusual combinations like marinated beef with white radish, green mango and pickled mushrooms, or cured salmon with baby watercress and tomato and truffle dressing. Main courses of salt marsh lamb rump with labne, broad beans, wild garlic and potato gnocchi is a subtle success, and so is a fish pie of smoked haddock, mussels and potato mousseline.

If you'd like to try something different there's octopus sopressata with smoked paprika and shallot tempura on the carte, but for the others there are classics like confit pork belly with lentils, apple compote and beetroot salad.

The wine list is well chosen, and their mark-ups are quite sensible, so no problem in choosing a good wine to accompany what should be a superb meal, their Tin Pot New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is to be highly recommended, a really fruity example.

The desserts are another delight but perhaps best of all is the 'crunchie', a blend of chocolate fondant, ganache and honey comb, though the passion fruit curd with lime leaf foam, mango, coconut sorbet and chilli oil may prove irresistible.

It is a pleasure to discover that the standards are as high as ever, and the value for money provided by their two and three course set price menu - especially for such a popular place - was amazing, for lunch and dinner, £16.50 for two courses and £19.50 for three.

Why not have a look at their Website to view everything from menus to their wine list, and then you might find them so tempting that you will understand the continued success of Kensington Place?