Andy Mossack tucks into Levantine fare at The Lebanese Bakery in London’s Covent Garden.

Wandering around a buzzing Shoreditch on a Friday night, it’s easy to miss Iron Bloom, thinking that it’s just of many identikit bars that are pumping out music. In fact, it’s a restaurant with a wide-ranging cocktail menu, as you’d expect from the guys behind the Looking Glass Cocktail Club, but the quality of the food is surprising.

Last time I reviewed the Caxton Grill at St. Ermin’s Hotel it was under the sublime stewardship of Professional Master Chef finalist Adam Handling. So, with Mr Handling departing to open his own restaurant empire under the Frog moniker, I thought it was a good opportunity to see how the Caxton Grill has developed under new head chef Alex Boyd.

What will drive traffic to Sarona, by far the least showy of the many new Israeli restaurants to open in London in the past year?  For those who know the vibrant dining scene in Tel Aviv, world’s most exciting culinary destination, it’s the credentials of chef Aviv Lavi.

Eating at a Galvin brothers establishment is always an event.  It’s nearly 15 years since the Michelin-starred chefs who earned their plaudits cooking in London’s best hotel kitchens turned their attention to their own highly eclectic restaurants. 

While east London has its fair share of trendy hot spots, Hackney and London Fields, in particular, is still a bit of a mixed bag. The well-heeled gentry set shares their park picnic spaces with the rental crowd and local HA tenants.

Hampstead’s Rosslyn Hill has long been a magnet for trendy cafes and restaurants. Affluent local residents enjoy a local evening bite and a weekend hangout while tourists visiting Hampstead’s quaint narrow lanes and heath seek pit stops to re-energise.

One of the greatest culinary injustices of our times has been Spanish cuisine’s permanent “bridesmaid” relationship to its French equivalent.  Oh sure, we all get along with tapas and foodies know only too well the major influences of three-star Iberian  chefs such as Ferran Adria, Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter Elena, the Roca brothers and Eneko Atxa.

Who are the guests selling out the lounge of the Savoy – a much grander room than the name “Thames Foyer” suggests – with their demand for a £65 afternoon blow-out?