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Mojo is a slick and modern café style restaurant on Hackney's Lauriston Road. Here you'll find a pleasing combination of comfortable surroundings, friendly staff and tasty, affordable food, in fact everything you could want from your local eatery. Mojo's opens mid morning for a relaxed brunch before the busy lunchtime crowd arrives and reopens at 6pm for the evening shift. The menu is a simple one with a good selection of salads, pasta and risotto based dishes and classic casseroles, all priced under the £10 mark. This is also a very popular place to come an enjoy a decent Sunday lunch on those days when you just can't be bothered to cook one yourself.

Reviewed by Linda Buttle

Oriental exoticism and efficiency come together remarkably in this former Docklands warehouse, now housing China Palace, next to the Excel exhibition centre. Liberal use of wood and stone in the décor create a strikingly simple ambience while the exposed brick walls, golden dragons and traditional paintings lend the right touch. It's easy to get comfortable because the excellent service and delicious Chinese food only add to the feeling of completeness.

Food holds a very special place in the life of the Chinese, because it is appreciated for more than its basic functions and China Palace creates a similar buzz around their amazing range of dishes such as shredded steak with asparagus in black pepper sauce, deep fried eel with honey sauce and fresh baked lobster with spicy Szechuan sauce. Dim sum, that perennial favourite is honoured with a menu of its own. Private dining rooms with karaoke systems add to the festive element of any party.

Indulge in some authentic Thai cuisine at Nakhon Thai, a smart and upscale restaurant featuring delicious Oriental fare prepared from the freshest of ingredients. At any of their three locations, you will find a friendly atmosphere and a sense of anticipation that you're about to enjoy a good meal. The lively restaurants feature Buddha statues in their decor, with elegant dining rooms and cheerful wait staff.

From their menu, the appetiser of char grilled king scallops with a red chilli and lime sauce is appealing while the crispy soft shell crab in a pepper sauce, sprinkled with flaked garlic is another interesting choice. Move on to stir fried chicken with cashew nuts and dried chillies or a southern Thailand speciality of slowly braised lamb in a mild spicy potato curry. Dessert includes a tropical dish of deep fried sliced banana served with vanilla ice cream and honey. The drinks list at Nakhon Thai offers an excellent selection, with a balance of New and Old World wines as well as some interesting cocktails.

Pizza Express remains a hugely popular bedrock of casual eating. Its popularity is testimony to the fact that across the country, they have restaurants where you will always be guaranteed a good nosh, with children's tastes being well catered for.

Pizza Express has gone even more Roman, and following the success of that particular example of listening to their public have introduced Romana pizzas, including the scorching Etna and the hearty Siciliana.

These pizzas are now thinner, bigger and crispier, and if that sounds like a marketing line, it is. However, unlike many such lines, this one is true, and their quality is always consistent, though cleverly they have still managed to retain a homemade feel to their pizzas.

As an alternative to pizza, try their pollo pesto - cavatappi pasta with torn chicken breast, mushrooms, red onions and mozzarella in a creamy gruyere, parmesan and pesto sauce and finished with grana padano - or the niçoise salad with mixed leaves, yellowfin tuna, free range egg, green beans, potatoes and tomatoes with olives, anchovies, capers and house dressing.

Many of the big chains have come a long way, and Pizza Express is certainly amongst them. One of the first to be quoted on the Stock Exchange - in 1993 - Pizza Express is not a franchise operation and retains tight control through its own staff.

Their wine list - though short - contains some surprisingly good offerings, especially their intense Australian Chardonnay, and a big, full-bodied Merlot from Cusumano, Sicilia.

The decor at LMNT is a Shrine to extravagance, with a riot of influences including ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek. Try to imagine divinely embellished alcoves, raised opera boxes, Sphinx fireplaces, a Huge Greek-effect mask dominating one wall and a gigantic classical urn that you can dine in. Strangely enough the eccentric mix of decor, opera music and European menu works, and the restaurant provides warm and relaxed surroundings for a rather different restaurant experience.

Having been open only since 2001, LMNT has now established itself well amongst its locals and followers from further a field. This is largely down to the efforts of Head Chef Slavko Bogdanovic who has reorganised and restyled the menu using strong flavours and bold contrasts. He has also taken into account the location and demands of the customer when pricing the menu and has come up with a winning combination of quality food at exceptional prices, starters are all £2.95 and main course £7.95.

Starters could include: grilled mackerel with sweet potatoes and lime pickle; chicken liver parfait tomato and chilli jam; cured salmon with cous cous, citrus vinaigrette or roast tomato tart

red onion, rocket and basil oil. Whilst main might offer a choice of breast of free range chicken with lentils, chorizo & artichoke veloute, or baked fillet of sea bass, green olives & lemon grass dressing or tagliatelle gamberoni, artichokes, red peppers & prawns.

Definitely different, great fun to visit, and decent interesting food; who could ask for more?