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West Wickham's High Street is home to Topolino Italian Restaurant, which has been serving delicious Italian food for nearly twenty years. A small and cosy family run establishment, it's the ideal place to visit for a cheerful celebration with friends and colleagues or a quick pizza. Locals and visitors alike have found many things to love about this little gem and fresh food ranks high on the list. Pleasing décor and friendly service add to the charm of this place.

Typical starters could include mussels sautéed with brandy, cream, tomato and chilli, followed by a risotto brimming with shellfish, squid and prawns or veal escalope saltimbocca topped with parma ham, sage and cooked in white wine and butter. Specials such as spaghetti meatballs and baked avocado and crab make the visit worthwhile although it is the desserts such as Tuscan lemon tart that complete the picture. The wines listed are predominantly Italian and the house whites and reds offer good value.

Patrons of the Indian cooking now have an added option to their list of restaurants in the town of West Wickham. At Jinaan's Calcutta Indian Restaurant a carved white façade, imitating traditional restaurants in India, opens into a cosy interior that has a relaxed and informal ambiance.

Using quality ingredients, a brigade of qualified chefs bring to table freshly prepared to order dishes from the menu that include king prawn butterfly, spinach and potato kebab and salmon tandoori amongst starters. Typical main courses such as dupiaza chicken, which comes with an extra dash of onions, and spinach lamb curry, are dishes that pair up well with Indian breads and rice. Vegetarian are delighted as they enjoy the luxury to choose between paneer makhani, cottage cheese cooked in a mild creamy curry, and a flavoursome mixed vegetable assortment.

A well travelled wine list is a credit to the restaurant.

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.

Prima Donnas is situated just off West Wickham High Street in Kent and is popular among local residents and business clientele. It was established in nineteen-ninety-five by Marino Voutsa and Patrick Murphy and their dream of creating an exciting and dynamic Mediterranean style restaurant has since come alive. The kitchen serves French, Italian, Spanish and Greek cuisines.

Fresh fish is always available, direct from the market and popular dishes like t-bone of veal, surf and turf, paella, black pasta with seafood, Dover sole, skate wings and many other dishes are served.