Masala Zone Soho is a relative newcomer to the multi coloured scene of Indian cooking. Owned by Masala World, who also own Amaya, Veeraswamy and Chutney Mary, three of London's top Indian restaurants, they aim to bring informal and real Indian food to London at sensible prices, and not before time.

They serve tasty Indian street snacks, together with more conventional offerings. The atmosphere is terrific, very laidback and authentic. They also do vegetarian food, to which the Indian approach is always such a success thanks to its historic foundation in the sub-continent, which is prepared in a separate kitchen manned by Brahmins - a nice touch.

The décor is striking enough before you get anywhere near the food with each Masala Zone restaurant showcasing a different form of Indian artwork. The Soho restaurant features walls painted by tribal artists from West India. Welcome to another world where the genuine taste of India helps to subtly fortify you for return to the one you've just left.

Starters of spiced mash cake with yoghurt and chutney (aloo tikki chaat), vie with chana dabalroti, a tangy chickpea curry, lotus root with hunks of toasted bread, a famous sindhi dish.

Indian street food is world famous and you are most likely in for some exceedingly pleasant surprises as you scan the menu. Perhaps the adage "you are what you eat" will flit through your mind as you note the sparing use of oil, the fresh ingredients and the thalis that offer a balanced combination of nutrition, flavours, textures and colours. A gujarati thali on its stainless steel platter will offer gujarati vegetarian canapés, vegetables, dals, chapattis, rice, salads and pickles. Thalis specially designed for diabetics are available, another thoughtful gesture.

The grand thali, the equivalent of a two course meal, is for the very hungry, and the regular version caters well for the less-challenged. Look also for curry and rice plates that embrace some of the great Indian classics, such as rogan josh, prawn malai, and butter chicken, as well as Indian grills enabling an eat light approach, with chicken tikka, lamb seekh kebab, and prawns.

Indian desserts are notable for their seductive powers with homemade ice cream (kulfi), gulab jamun, falooda (a fun Indian sundae) and various sorbets and ice creams.

Drinks include several versions of lassi, the frothy yoghurt whip, a wide range of juices, Indian squash, and wine list chosen with Indian food in mind, starting at £13.05 a bottle with nothing more than £19.25. Indian and European beers are also available, but cooking this good demands, shall we say, something a touch more sophisticated. No reservations required. Find out more about this user friendly small group on their Website.

Masala Zone Bayswater is a relative newcomer to the multi coloured scene of Indian cooking. Owned by Masala World, who also own Amaya, Veeraswamy and Chutney Mary, three of London's top Indian restaurants, they aim to bring informal and real Indian food to London at sensible prices, and not before time.

They serve tasty Indian street snacks, together with more conventional offerings. The atmosphere is terrific, very laidback and authentic. They also do vegetarian food, to which the Indian approach is always such a success thanks to its historic foundation in the sub-continent, which is prepared in a separate kitchen manned by Brahmins - a nice touch.

The décor is striking enough before you get anywhere near the food with each Masala Zone restaurant featuring a different form of Indian art. Masala Zone Bayswater features bold, vibrant and exotic pop art collages of firecracker labels from the fire cracker town of Sivakasi in South India. This welcomes you to another world where the genuine taste of India helps to subtly fortify you for return to the one you've just left.

Starters of spiced mash cake with yoghurt and chutney (aloo tikki chaat), vie with chana dabalroti, a tangy chickpea curry, lotus root with hunks of toasted bread, a famous sindhi dish.

Indian street food is world famous and you are most likely in for some exceedingly pleasant surprises as you scan the menu. Perhaps the adage "you are what you eat" will flit through your mind as you note the sparing use of oil, the fresh ingredients and the thalis that offer a balanced combination of nutrition, flavours, textures and colours. A gujarati thali on its stainless steel platter will offer gujarati vegetarian canapés, vegetables, dals, chapattis, rice, salads and pickles.

The grand thali, the equivalent of a two course meal, is for the very hungry, and the regular version caters well for the less-challenged. Look also for curry and rice plates that embrace some of the great Indian classics, such as rogan josh, prawn malai, and butter chicken, as well as Indian grills enabling an eat light approach, with chicken tikka, lamb seekh kebab, and prawns.

Indian desserts are notable for their seductive powers with homemade ice cream (kulfi), gulab jamun, falooda (a fun Indian sundae) and various sorbets and ice creams.

Drinks include several versions of lassi, the frothy yoghurt whip, a wide range of juices, Indian squash, and wine list chosen with Indian food in mind, starting at £13.05 a bottle with nothing more than £19.25. Indian and European beers are also available, but cooking this good demands, shall we say, something a touch more sophisticated. No reservations required. Find out more about this user friendly small group on their Website.

Kitted out in a lavish mix of red and gold colour schemes, Nikita's exudes rustic sophistication with colourful wall art, ancient photographs, delicate lanterns and candle lights. The décor manages to be Russian style retro and appealing at the same time while for diners the lure of flavoursome food and the legendary Russian love for entertaining is a combination that's irresistible.

The menu is a traditional one, with borsch soup or fillets of marinated herrings, followed by golubci, minced meat, rice and herbs wrapped in a cabbage leaf topped with tomato sauce and sour cream, or tender strips of pan-fried beef flamed with pepper vodka. Vishni krem is the Russian cousin of crème brûlée and is prepared using black cherries and cream and spiked with cherry vodka.

At the weekend you can experience Nikita's true party spirit as the place really gets into full swing with foot-tapping music.

It is rare that you come across somewhere that strikes you as an absolute gem, combining many fine qualities such as a fantastic position overlooking the Thames with a wonderful view of Wandsworth Bridge and excellent design with exemplary standards of food and reasonable prices.

I am amazed that few people have yet discovered The Fish Place, though it does take quite a feat of ingenuity to find it at the moment as it is rather hidden away on the south bank in Battersea near to the heliport, the new Hotel Verta and the Prices Candle shop, but persevere as the search will yield a most worthwhile result.

Both the manager Artan and the chef Gilles have impeccable pedigrees encompassing some years at the late lamented, but superb, Cafe du Jardin in the former's case and a spell at Le Caprice for the latter.

The shortish, but extremely tempting, menu produces beautifully presented and thoroughly delicious dishes, ranging from pan fried prawns with baby leaf, crispy bacon and puy lentil vinaigrette to Dorset crab tortellini with roasted cauliflower puree and basil to start, both proved to be perfect choices, though we liked the sound of grilled Devon scallops with truffle mashed potatoes, artichoke and chicken jus.

They bravely specialise in fish and seafood, though from slightly more distant waters than those outside the windows, and char grilled fillet of wild sea bass with saffron risotto, green beans, artichoke and fish sauce and pan fried fillet of haddock with baby leeks, herb mashed potato, brown shrimps and beurre blanc were a fresh as one could hope for, perfect pictures on a plate tasting as wonderful as they sounded.

We thought that desserts would be beyond us until we saw what they offered and all resistance melted away at the thought of Grand Marnier soufflé and chocolate fondant with hazelnut ice cream.

They offer an excellent value menu at lunchtime and I predict that if the critics can be dragged away from their cosy little niches in Central London then they will be as bowled over as we were.

Masala Zone Covent Garden is a relative newcomer to the multi coloured scene of Indian cooking. Owned by Masala World, who also own Amaya, Veeraswamy and Chutney Mary, three of London's top Indian restaurants, they aim to bring informal and real Indian food to London at sensible prices, and not before time.

They serve tasty Indian street snacks, together with more conventional offerings. The atmosphere is terrific, very laidback and authentic. They also do vegetarian food, to which the Indian approach is always such a success thanks to its historic foundation in the sub-continent, which is prepared in a separate kitchen manned by Brahmins - a nice touch.

The décor is striking enough before you get anywhere near the food with each Masala Zone restaurant showcasing a different type of Indian art. The Covent Garden restaurant has several hundred vibrant puppets from Rajasthan suspended from the ceilings. This welcomes you to another world where the genuine taste of India helps to subtly fortify you for return to the one you've just left.

Starters of spiced mash cake with yoghurt and chutney (aloo tikki chaat), vie with chana dabalroti, a tangy chickpea curry, lotus root with hunks of toasted bread, a famous sindhi dish.

Indian street food is world famous and you are most likely in for some exceedingly pleasant surprises as you scan the menu. Perhaps the adage "you are what you eat" will flit through your mind as you note the sparing use of oil, the fresh ingredients and the thalis that offer a balanced combination of nutrition, flavours, textures and colours. A gujarati thali on its stainless steel platter will offer gujarati vegetarian canapés, vegetables, dals, chapattis, rice, salads and pickles. Thalis specially designed for diabetics are available, another thoughtful gesture.

The grand thali, the equivalent of a two course meal, is for the very hungry, and the regular version caters well for the less-challenged. Look also for curry and rice plates that embrace some of the great Indian classics, such as rogan josh, prawn malai, and butter chicken, as well as Indian grills enabling an eat light approach, with chicken tikka, lamb seekh kebab, and prawns.

Indian desserts are notable for their seductive powers with homemade ice cream (kulfi), gulab jamun, falooda (a fun Indian sundae) and various sorbets and ice creams.

Drinks include several versions of lassi, the frothy yoghurt whip, a wide range of juices, Indian squash, and wine list chosen with Indian food in mind, starting at £13.05 a bottle with nothing more than £19.25. Indian and European beers are also available, but cooking this good demands, shall we say, something a touch more sophisticated. No reservations required. Find out more about this user friendly small group on their Website.

Moti Mahal, the chic Indian restaurant on Great Queen Street, is celebrating India's gastronomic roots with cooking that resurrects time-honoured dishes from rural India. The menu is a culinary narrative highlighting long-forgotten recipes from along the Grand Trunk Road, which weaves its way through many cities and villages in India. At the controls at Moti Mahal is Anirudh Arora, formerly sous chef of Benares.

The Grand Trunk Road menu features gucchi aur koftey, a diverse and richly flavoured dish from Lucknow that uses jumbo morels, simmered in saffron yoghurt sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. The clamp grill or thattee, a traditional method of grilling may be an ancient technique, but here at Moti Mahal it makes a welcome appearance; expect to find delicately fragranced whole chicken seasoned with star anise and ginger, sandwiched between two clamps and then grilled.

It is not until somebody seeking out real Indian cooking has been to a restaurant like Moti Mahal, that the full range of Indian cuisine can even begin to be appreciated, with not a bottle of Kingfisher in sight, a wine list that would do credit to a French restaurant, and a choice of single malts that would impress all but the most demanding aficionado of that wonderful spirit. The décor, like everything else is glamorous to the maximum conducive with good taste.

As OK magazine reported,'Moti's got the lot'. Nobody could put it better.

Dark wood furniture offsets white walls for an elegant contemporary setting at Little Sicily Bar and Restaurant on Rupert Street, in the heart of the West End. Relax and unwind with pre and post theatre two and three course menus alongside an extensive à la carte selection.
 
The kitchen team's creations include an assortment of appetizers, pasta, meat and seafood dishes, with an emphasis on fresh seasonal ingredients put together simply in order to enhance their natural flavours. A meal here could begin with Parma ham and melon, Angus beef carpaccio or Canadian lobster ravioli. Then move on to your choice of pasta or risotto, alternatively choose from the extensive seafood and meat dishes which include pan fried calves liver, lamb cutlets marinated in olive oil, grilled sea bass fillets or pan fried tiger prawns in pomodoro sauce. To finish, consider dessert of tiramisu, profiterole or Italian cheesecake. The chilled out downstairs bar offers the finest wines, spirits, cocktails and beers, while those looking for a more luxurious experience can head for the champagne bar.

An outstandingly good Spanish restaurant in the heart of Cheshire offering authentic cuisine in homely, attractive surroundings; behind the traditional exterior of a house in Stockport Road, Marple, there beats a rather unexpected heart. With the interior belying the look of the outside and providing the setting for a genuine Spanish wine and tapas bar with restaurant attached.

Heather and Felix started Murillo's in 1994 after a long and successful career catering in the south of England. Their move to Marple fulfilled a lifelong ambition, a restaurant with an additional tapas bar similar to those in Felix's adopted town of Madrid. As time passed, they realised their clients preferred a more relaxed, less formal atmosphere, so Murillo's Restaurant became Murillo's Spanish Restaurant and Marple Tapas Wine Bar in 1999 - hence their success since. A regular customer famously once said of Simon, Heather and Felix's son, who runs the busy kitchen of Murillo's, "It is the fortunate diner who arrives at Murillo's on the nights that chef Simon Soleto is making his lobster paella".