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hand picked restaurants

Alan Yau, creator of some high profile restaurants like Hakkasan and Yauatcha, now brings the characteristic communal style dining to London a la Wagamama. The first Busaba Eathai opened in Soho and two more outlets followed, and the interior of dark wood and decorative lanterns notch up the style factor, making it more than just an average café-style dining experience.

Eating here is mostly a one course affair and on a cold winter evening try the tom yam talay, prawn, squid and baby clams with vermicelli noodle in a spicy sour soup, and for the light eaters it could be a wing bean salad with toasted coconut, shallot and lime leaf. If the crowds are anything to go by, it means that Busaba Eathai must be doing several things right and curries must be one of them, like the aromatic geng gari gai with chicken, new potato and cucumber relish. A steaming hot cup of ginger and honey tea helps you finish the meal on a satisfying note.

Ichi-Riki is owned and run by Junko Swindley and her husband Paul; it is most unusual to find a lady sushi chef, but she learnt at her father's restaurant in Osaka, mainly by watching the other chefs at work, until they took pity on her enthusiasm and helped her. It is only a tiny basement, but extremely popular, particularly at lunchtime. The quality of the sushi is excellent and you can watch the food being prepared; other hot dishes are equally good, as always the familiar tuna and salmon, however you can find sea urchin and octopus also. They provide exceedingly good value with their sushi set menus, running from £8.50 (Vegetarian) to £15.90, including a bowl of miso soup. It is included in the Round Up section of the 2003 Good Food Guide.

This stylish and contemporary restaurant lives up to its tagline bringing together 'style and substance' without making it clichéd. Located in Buckingham Palace Road, B Bar and Restaurant primarily combines Modern European, British and a little more than a smattering of African cuisine for the right level of interest. The eclectic décor does give more than a hint of what might be expected from the kitchen, right from the giraffe prints on the furniture to the numerous artefacts and framed prints on the walls.

Start with traditional South African beef biltong salad with a quail egg, herbed croutons and parmesan cheese dressing. Move on to a main course of braised springbok in port wine with gnocchi, button onions, pancetta and baby carrots and end with a delightful honeycomb ice cream with an apple tartlet. The wine list has more than a hundred options with over forty available by the glass, featuring both old and new world producers.

In 2003 Mint Leaf Restaurant opened its doors in London's Haymarket, in the fashionable part of Mayfair, and has never looked back. Under the admirable leadership of Head Chef Ajay Chopra, who has adapted to changes in the fast moving world of Indian culinary fashion, Mint Leaf has been able to not only maintain its market share but to increase in popularity and respect.

The growth of Indian cuisine in Britain has been remarkable and more recently there has been a trend that has had to accomplish the difficult task of re-establishing the authentic Indian taste against a background of increased elegance, at the same time responding to the modern development that is inevitable and desirable.

The meeting of that challenge is very much what Mint Leaf is about. With its spectacularly long bar, stocked with over 500 spirits, your choice of cocktails is almost limitless, and should the need for some light food at the same time come into focus a word in the right ear will take care of your wishes.

Established in 1985, one of the earliest Japanese restaurants in London, Mitsukoshi is a place where you can enjoy the full range of Japanese cuisine all year round, from kaiseki course meals, shabu-shabu and sukiyaki, to sushi, so popular worldwide now as a healthy cuisine.

They also have a separate sushi bar, which is obviously much cheaper than the main restaurant; in fact it is a little difficult to give an Average Cost per Head as it can vary so much, but the figure provided is for a full meal. The decor is quite simple and the atmosphere relaxing, service is fairly formal but friendly, very similar to what you would find in Japan.

Certain things are never meant to change. Take the 'quality first' catchphrase of Balls Brothers for instance; after trading in fine wines for over 150 years, this motto still hold true. Now with a chain of bar and restaurants across London, each possessing a unique note of distinction in terms of décor and location, all share a common love for classic British food and a good choice of wines.

Menus do vary slightly from one restaurant to another, so you could spot a group of friends in Carey Lane bonding over a British grazing platter of fish fingers with chunky tomato sauce, minty lamb meatballs, Londoner cocktail sausages and potato wedges with sour cream and chives. Head to Hay's Galleria for warm chicken livers, chorizo and spinach salad, followed by smoked salmon muffin, free range poached egg and hollandaise sauce, and strawberry and vanilla parfait with summer berry coulis.

There is another draw to Balls Brother, their exciting wine dinners and tastings, and quiz, swing and jazz nights are but a few of them.

A contemporary style Chinese restaurant tucked away in Monck Street, Made in China is a no frills establishment where guests can expect to dine on their favourite dishes with little to distract them, while relaxing in a pleasant ambience.

Clientele stepping into Made in China for a meal can look forward to prawn and squid cakes, sesame prawn toast, spare ribs with salt and pepper, smoked chicken, crispy seaweed and mince chicken lettuce wrap, for a start. The largesse continues with main course options like Singapore noodles, king prawn fried rice, steamed black cod with black bean sauce, shredded chicken with jelly fish, deep fried oysters, duck with crispy yam, sweet and sour pork or stir fried asparagus and crushed garlic. The restaurant offers an all-day dim sum menu, with steamed, fried and grilled dim sums with fillings of chicken, scallop, squid, prawn, pork, beef and quail eggs, in addition to char sui buns, chicken buns and vegetable dumplings.