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A warm familial atmosphere with a gastro pub menu distinguishes The Duchess of Kent in Liverpool Road. Guests can chill out in the comfortable laid back setting enjoying the company of family and friends or a board game from the well-stocked games cupboard.

Whether it's traditional pub grub such as sausages and mash, fish and chips and fish cakes or something more expressive, the use of fresh ingredients is paramount here. You could begin the meal with grilled Portuguese sardines and tomatoes on toast, salmon saltimbocca with grilled aubergine or goat's cheese with beetroot and walnut salad. Then proceed with Hereford ribeye steak with skinny chips and peppercorn sauce, char grilled ratatouille brochettes with tomato and couscous salad or grilled leg of lamb steak with Puy lentils and tzatziki. A carefully compiled wine list gives the customer a wide variety of individual wines, typical of the region and its grape varieties, as well a range of beers, spirits and soft drinks.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

The Crown is yet another jewel in the Geronimo collection of pubs with style, traditional British food, worthy beers and an excellent wine list. Located only a short distance from Victoria Park it has something for everyone whether you are looking for a place where quiet meals for two are on the agenda, a group booking or just somewhere friendly where a few friends can gather for a few drinks and a yarn.

Lunch and dinner is served seven days a week with Saturday brunches that blow away any vestiges of the previous night's end of the working week feste, and Sunday lunches where that great British custom can be celebrated in a relaxed and timeless manner.

The Crown is a very outdoor sort of place too, with a beautiful roof terrace and beer garden. Two function rooms, the bright and airy Livestock Room and the more intimate Paper Room both have private balconies overlooking the Park and comfortably accommodate 25 people for a seated event. If it's something bigger you have in mind the entire first floor for you and 79 other people standing is yours, with its own private bar.

So really there's not much excuse for looking any further no matter what your requirements. 'Yes', you say, 'but what about the food and drink'. In the immortal words of the late Peter Sellers, "what indeed!" Let's start with with the wine list created by John Clevely, Master of Wine and driving force behind Geronimo pubs. What with warm hearted reds, cool elegant whites and a visit to most of the major wine producing areas in the world, there really is no contest. Nearly every one is available by the glass, and prices only occasionally stray across the £20 barrier, and frankly if you don't feel that £50 is a fair price for a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Reserve should you really be out?

And so to the rations which are perfectly straightforward, with two menus, lunch and dinner, and no messing about. In case you think that lunch in Victoria Park is not an event, let me assure you otherwise. Cured salmon with herb pancakes, shallot and capers make a good opening event, or perhaps a goat's cheese croustade, with leek, onion and pine nuts is more your way?

Time to spare, friends to meet? A sirloin steak with green peppercorn sauce and hand cut chips takes some beating, but a roasted pork fillet with horseradish mash and smoked black pudding is in the same league. The blessed burger is now respectable and there sure enough is a cheese and bacon burger with more hand cut chips. For the maritime-minded a pan fried seabass is served with risotto cake, baby pak choy and sweet chilli sauce.

Dinner is more of the same with additional dishes such as braised ox cheek, swede and cider, crispy salmon with wilted spinach, fondant potato and pea jus, and a chicken liver salad, pancetta and raspberry vinegar.

Desserts change daily and be on the lookout for some decent British cheeses.

Walk into The Crown and chances are you will feel instantly at home which, in the view of many is what a good pub is all about. Their Website will keep you up to date with special events, menu changes, and private hire possibilities.

Simply put, Hawksmoor is a carnivore's paradise. There are few restaurants where such meticulous care is taken with the quality and preparation of their meat.  Hawksmoor's supplier, The Ginger Pig, is widely known for the superb quality of their traditionally reared beef (and other meat) and it's all put to best possible use here - simply cooked on a real charcoal grill.

Starters of Tamworth ribs, those friendly happy porkers who make the supreme sacrifice that we might enjoy - at least the poor blighters do not have to endure the trials and tribulations of old age - or perhaps fresh Cornish oysters or dressed Dorset crab will set your taste buds for the feast that is to come.

They boast there is no cut of meat they cannot produce for their customers, even if some need a little notice, but off the shelf there is bone-in sirloin, rib-eye and fillet. They also have bigger steaks to share including bone-in prime rib, porterhouse and Chateaubriand. Side dishes include chips (with béarnaise sauce, a must), macaroni cheese and lighter options such as a baby gem salad or creamed spinach.

Some say they also serve some of the best cocktails in London, so for those wanting to indulge in a pre/post dinner drink, have a leisurely read through their list which is made up of forgotten concoctions from lots of long out of print cocktail books.

The thing about the Hawksmoor is the reliability. There are no false claims, no culinary bravado, if they say they can do something it means just that. How refreshing in an age of mediocrity and excuses. Everything else about this rock solid watering hole and restaurant is of the same calibre. Go there with confidence and keen anticipation.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

The Osteria Spiga is a welcome addition to West Hampstead's vibrant restaurant scene. Located on Broadhurst Gardens, just a stone's throw from West Hampstead Tube Station and a short walk from the O2 Centre, this Italian restaurant offers a range of specialities for the discerning diner in a smart contemporary setting.

The Osteria's à la carte begins with small bites of wild mushrooms tossed with garlic and herbs and meat balls with scarmoza cheese in a rich tomato sauce, followed by starters of fried goat's cheese with roasted mixed peppers, spinach and aged balsamic sauce; and smoked salmon with cucumber and fennel salad, mascarpone and chives. A wood-platter of Italian cured meats and cold cuts with artichokes, sundried tomatoes and grilled smoked mozzarella is a more substantial affair.
 
The pasta selection offers linguine with half lobster meat, cherry tomatoes and chilli, enhanced with brandy, homemade ravioli filled with roast veal and tossed in butter and sage and pappardelle with cherry tomatoes and aubergine enriched with mozzarella.
 
For the main course, you could select roasted chicken breast in a mushroom and cream sauce, served with mashed potato; pan-fried calf's liver with sultanas and toasted pine kernels in Marsala wine sauce garnished with sautéed fresh spinach or Grissini crusted rack of lamb, garlic and rosemary sauce with potato gratin. A set menu is also available for lunch and dinner.
 
After a long walk on Hampstead Heath, just a short drive from Osteria Spiga, why not reward yourself with delicious desserts of vanilla pannacotta with mango coulis, chocolate torte with fresh strawberries or crème brûlée with Irish cream and forest fruits which will satisfy even the sweetest tooth. There's also a selection of ice creams and sorbets as well as a cheeseboard with Italian and English cheeses.
 
The Italian dominated wine list offers a variety of flavourful whites and fruity reds from regions such as Umbria, Abruzzo and Toscana as well as sprinkling of wines from France and Australia.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

The Fish and Grill in Putney follows its namesake in Croydon with chef owner Malcolm John continuing to do what he does best. Freshly prepared seafood with a choice of grilled steaks is served in a laid back cozy ambience with dark wood furniture and leather upholstery, perfect for an enjoyable evening with family and friends. Al fresco dining on the terrace can accommodate up to 30 guests. The Fish and Grill is a 7-minute walk from Putney Rail Station.

Diners are greeted by a fresh fish bar showcasing a wide ranging selection sourced from the South Coast and Cornwall. Rare-bred meats and the free-range poultry offer delicious alternatives for lunch or dinner. The meal could open with starters of salt cod fritters served with crushed pea aioli, Dorset crab with mayonnaise, whitebait with aioli or Carlingford oysters. The potted fish selection offers smoked mackerel with toast and breakfast radish, curried shrimps with gem lettuce and Cornish gurnard with citrus, toast and Waldorf salad.

Alternatives to fish and seafood starters include a Natoora Italian charcuterie board and English asparagus with soft boiled duck egg and hollandaise as well as salads beetroot with goat?s curd, pickled walnut and wild mushrooms and endive with honey and grain mustard.

After the appetizing beginning to the meal you could follow up with mains of grilled Cornish lobster, pan roast skate with capers and samphire, whole grilled crab with garlic chilli and ginger butter, beer battered haddock with pea purée and pea ravioli with mint butter and aged parmesan. The grilled selection includes a succulent Aberdeen Angus fillet steak on the bone, veal chop with lemon and marjoram, Southdown lamb cutlets and Chateaubriand for two with roasted bone marrow, all served with triple cooked chips and béarnaise or pepper sauce.

If you feel like going with the set menu then you could dine on starters of squid tempura with tartar sauce, leek and potato soup with smoked fish or salad of watercress, with endives, brae-burn apple, beetroot and grain mustard. For mains try aged rump steak with dripping chips, whole grilled Cornish plaice with clams and monks beard or house burger made with hand diced Angus beef, blue cheese or cheddar and bacon or jerk seasoning.

A children's menu offers the little ones dishes such as grilled maize fed chicken with mash potato and cooking juices, fish fingers with tartar sauce and green beans or broccoli and tomato, basil and mozzarella fettuccine.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

The East Hill is located in Wandsworth on Alma Road SW18 in the heart of an area known as the Tonsleys. The pub is approximately 200 yards from Wandsworth Town railway station, which serves the main line into central London as well as direct to Twickenham.

Hidden in a residential street and looking more like a modern country residence than a pub, the environment is clean, bright and permeated by elegance, all made comfortable by the presence of big woven carpets, wall benches and old-style leather couches.

The East Hill is a gastropub in every sense of that description; customers have the option of lounging out and enjoying the atmosphere of the bar with a glass of wine or the specially selected beers on offer. A small conference/private dining room is also available, which seats up to fifteen guests, while, shaded from the sun or warmed by heat lamps, the outside patio can be utilized by drinkers and diners alike.

The menu ranges from homemade burgers, seared salmon on warm potato salad to rib eye steaks and broad bean and pea risotto. There is also a great choice of bar bites including a whole baked camembert and homemade scotch eggs. Fish lovers will enjoy Fridays at the East Hill with an extra fishy menu and specials.

While Sundays are the day to relax at the East Hill, why not start with a perfectly mixed Bloody Mary, enjoy a great roast lunch and stick around for the ever popular quiz on Sunday evenings?

Beers and wines are far from disappointing: you could opt for a Tea, San Miguel, Bitburger, Twickenham Scrum Down, Doombar, Aspall on draught, or Tiger, Sol, Konig Ludwig Weiss and Baltica (Russia) in bottles. The real attraction as far as the drinks go, however, is the wine, arranged on a list 30 vineyards long. Whites and reds are grouped according to dryness and flavour, and they have been selected with extreme care and knowledge.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

In trendy Shoreditch, Viet Grill offers a delicious selection of Vietnamese cuisine in a French colonial-style setting. A 3-minute walk from Hoxton Rail Station, Viet Grill London features a sleek, contemporary dining room.
 
Exotic and eclectic, the Viet Grill menu offers starters such as Vietnamese tamarind soup, grilled Red Sea prawns and charcoal grilled beef fillet served with fermented soy dip, and salad of lobster and pomelo or lotus stem with shrimps. For the main course at Viet Grill restaurant, enjoy Dong Du lamb curry, cognac 'Luc Lac shaking beef,' wok seared with whole garlic, cloves and black pepper or banana leaf-roasted mackerel, marinated in saffron, galangal and lemongrass.

A selection of traditional Vietnamese pho dishes and noodle or rice bowls, as well as an express lunch menu are also available. Desserts like banana fritter and coconut ice cream bring the meal to a delightful end. Refresh the palate with traditional sake, beer, spirits or wine from Viet Grill Shoreditch.

To gain further information, just visit their extremely comprehensive Website.

The White Swan in Fetter Lane between the City of London and Holborn is one of those transformations that works, it is instantly recognisable by its flavour, and its formidable ambience that casts a spell from the moment you enter. Converted from a former pub to what is popularly called a gastropub, offering modern British food, the transition is almost unbelievable, with smart wooden floors that resist the temptation to be chic, plenty of high quality woodwork in the detail, well ventilated when required and a light airy lofty dining room with floor to ceiling windows.

A ground floor pub pays homage to the traditional element and fresh flowers add a touch of that extra mile feeling. Free parking is available in Fetter Lane after 6.30pm Monday-Friday, after 1.30 on Saturdays and all day Sunday. Three NCPs are all within easy distance.

Even in these days of financial gloom people still eat lunch, and the White Swan is near enough to the City to be handy for those looking for style coupled with value. The magic number is six, so plenty of choices through all three courses and side dishes with a typical midday meal of rabbit terrine, prunes, figs, pickled girolles and hazelnut dressing followed by whole roasted lemon sole, clams, tomato, samphire and Jersey Royal potatoes, perhaps with some hand cut chips, peas and bacon or braised radishes to accompany.

This being essentially a City pub there is a highly worthy cheese board from Britain and France, and a choice of tempting desserts that includes milk chocolate ganache with cinnamon and raspberry doughnuts, or Eton Mess.

The evening menu follows much the same modern British direction, in the dishes, such as fine tart of mackerel, baby onions, black olive tapenade and balsamic accompanied by pan fried skirt steak, braised cheek, artichoke barigoule and bone marrow before ending with peanut butter parfait with Kirsch cherries.
 
Some dining room dishes are singled out for inclusion in an attractive bar menu, which also offers such sound brasserie numbers as fine tart of mackerel served with baby onions, black olive tapenade and balsamic, and Spanish olives followed by Atlantic cod and organic salmon fishcake with greens and tarragon butter sauce. An interesting list of homemade ice creams speaks for itself.

Fine food and wine evenings are a regular feature, though it has to be said that every evening has its merits. The menu has the feel of having been honed on the basis of what customers want rather than the other way round and whilst this is always a welcome sign the ailing economy seems to be lending it even more emphasis.

The White Swan is well able to cope with the demands of private events any day or night of the week. Spread over three floors it can be hired as a whole, for 150 people, with a 3am licence available at weekends, or piecemeal to suit smaller parties from 20 to 100. Dj nights are speciality.

Weddings as an item have changed for the better, and The White Swan will be more than happy to look after the arrangements for your reception at Fetter Lane. A maximum of 52 can eat a sit-down meal, or 24 for a seated buffet. A standing reception for 150 guests is a doddle, and if by any chance you are getting married at Islington Town Hall you are only a mere 15 minutes from the action.

For further details of this excellent and attractive pub and dining room a quick click on their Website should answer all your queries.

Belgo Clapham caters for both the diner and the drinker with this bar/restaurant concept from the company that brought us the three other Belgos, Noord, Centraal and Kingsway.

With a warm and welcoming atmosphere, you can enjoy a drink and snacks at the bar area or the outside seating area, and relax with an entertaining, people-watching view of the hustle and bustle of Clapham life going by right in front of your eyes. You might even see the traditional 'man on the omnibus'.

Situated on Clapham High Street, Belgo Clapham incorporates striking and individual interior design with leather banquette seating, intimate booths and oak furniture to create a stylish and comfortable bar atmosphere.

Waiters are on hand if needed to help you choose the right beers, making suggestions from the various white, black and fruit beers available, as well as a large selection of wines and other drinks. Drawn from one of the largest suppliers of Belgian beers in this country you can see why when you view the menu, so take your time to look through your drinks menu and don't hesitate to ask the bartender or a waiter for their suggestions and help.

In the kitchens the chefs are at work preparing dishes, such as their famous mussels, and other range of superb seafood, vegetarian or meat dishes. Starters of king prawns pan fried in garlic, chilli, ginger and herb butter or salmon fishcakes served with baby spinach and lime hollandaise make excellent beginnings, leading on to main courses of char grilled 10oz rib eye steak with frites, caramelised onions and garlic butter or peppercorn sauce. Other tasty options include their famed rotisserie chicken, spit roasted chicken basted in Belgian blonde beer and apple juice served with wild mushroom and cream.

There's a great choice for those with a sweet tooth with their amazing desserts featuring Belgian dark chocolate cheesecake on a baked biscuit base with dark chocolate sauce, homemade strawberry pavlova, crème brûlée with a tuile biscuit, and of course the renowned bread and butter pudding with brioche, orange confit, dark Belgian chocolate and Mandarin Napoleon liqueur.

The mussel platter comes to table accompanied by crisp golden frites, while moules blanches cooked in Belgo Wit beer arrives with shallots, smoked bacon and parsley with frites.

Do keep an eye out for their special deals, such as the famous 'Beat the Clock', where you pay the price at the time shown on your food order when ordering from their BTC menu, i.e., 6pm is £6. The 'Express Lunch' is a set lunch menu where you can choose between a bowl of marinière mussels served with frites, grilled goats' cheese salad, pork and leek sausages, or salmon fillet, leek mash and mustard sauce.

They also have 'Kids Eat Free', which entitles 1 child to eat free from the 'mini menu', a 2-course meal served with frites or mash, that includes dishes such as rotisserie chicken, pork and leek sausages, mussels or cod goujons, rounded off with Belgo's homemade ice-cream, per 1 adult ordering a main course from the à la carte menu.

For reservations and party bookings call them from 12 noon onwards, or visit their Website to learn more about Belgo Restaurants.