1. Maene
Cuisine: Modern British
Location: Spitalfields (7-9 Fashion Street, E1 6PX)
Get into Maene via buzzer at a very unassuming doorway of what looks like an office block, and then up in a lift. It consists of huge windows, high ceilings, exposed brick-work and low blue banquettes give Maene an informally elegant, relaxed feel, which is very much reflected in the quietly confident menu.
2. KOL
Cuisine: High-end Mexican
Location: Marylebone (9 Seymour Street, W1H 7BA)
KOL was launched in May 2020. But then, well, Covid, had the lovely restaurant closed until October. The menu is prepared by an industrious team in an open kitchen, contains Mexican staples you might think you know: tostadas, tortillas, tacos; but these are masterful, exalted expressions of familiar dishes, containing things like langoustine, sea buckthorn and smoked chilli, or grilled octopus with bone marrow, potato and seaweed macha.
3. Galvin Bar & Grill
Cuisine: British
Location: Bloomsbury (1-8 Russell Square, WC1B 5BE)
This is certainly a contemporary twist on a classic British grill, the latest restaurant from the revered, Michelin-starred Galvin brothers, Chris and Jeff, sits in a room of high-ceilinged splendour within the imposing Kimpton Fitzroy London hotel, overlooking Russell Square. You’ll get rock oysters, then a subtle duck liver parfait with peanuts and lemon caramel, and a splendid tomato salad with toasted seeds, shallots, black olives and goat’s cheese.
4. Paradise
Cuisine: Contemporary Sri Lankan
Location: Soho (61 Rupert Street, W1D 7PW)
This restaurant takes over the tiny site that was once Russell Norman’s Spuntino. It lets you know in advance that this is food with a “fiery island accent”. Lower down on the menu there’s another polite warning that says… “Some of our dishes are very spicy.” True, there’s some serious heat on the menu – the stir-fried devilled prawns, malu-miris chilli capsicum with chilli, murunga and burnt lime, or the slow-braised hogget shoulder roll with fermented chilli
5. Luca
Cuisine: Modern Italian
Location: Clerkenwell (88 St John Street, EC1M 4EH)
The restaurant, with its airy, expansive dining room, perfectly judged lighting and terracotta-red and olive-green leather banquettes feels effortlessly grown-up, but still has a youthful energy. It is a lively bar area with all-important conspiratorial booths, making it a place to be, even five years since it opened. Parmesan fries, the antipasti, the primi, the taglierini, and others are part of the thrill. Here, newcomers are told to come hungry enough to eat well.