Meghna of Hampstead

Just like Meghna river falls into the bay of Bengal, Meghna restaurant falls into the stream of eating establishments flowing through Heath street in Hampstead. It is a smallish, cosy place, done up in classical décor of low lighting and long starched table cloths. Meghna specialises in grilling varieties of marinated meats and representative Indian favourites such as butter chicken, lamb Jalfrezi and Balti king prawn. The atmosphere is very relaxed and the prices reasonable. It's a good place to wind down at the end of the day, or take someone on a low key rendezvous.

Big in Japan - Sakenohana

A great selection of sakes and free seats can be found in Sakenohana near Green Park. One can guess from the name that the cuisine is japanese - sushi, donburi, rice and noodles. The portions aren't large, however they are quite filling. After a 10 piece sushi platter and beef and smoked eel donburi, served with pickles and miso, we felt absolutely full. The minimalistic, business orientated design, spanning over two floors leaves little in way of cosyness. Great place for a business meeting where you want something more than eating to get done. Bad place for a first date.

Apsley and Lanesborough

The old glamour or Lanesborough Hotel - the Ming dynasty vases, the heavy wooden chairs, not to mention the oak panelled library bar - is very well complemented by a slightly more modern looking Apsley Restaurant. The best thing about Apsley is its star chef Heinz Back, who bears no relation to the Heinz mayonnaise clan. The great thing about restaurants that have just one Michelin star is that they try harder! The bread was still warm, we got a complementary starter ensemble with Italian Prosecco on the side. The Italian staff where extra Mediterranean macho with heavy accents that added to the ambience. We had some signature Heinz dishes like Jerusalem artichoke purée with lobster and liquorice and mains of veal with wild mushrooms and roasted pigeon royal. I usually take sweet desserts but this time I attempted a savoury cheese selection. It was a good choice indeed as I was given some unusual Italian cheeses.

Loved the Apsley, loved the food, loved the bar and the cocktails. A must see for those lacking fear of aged, white, upper class males with bejewelled companions.

Notting Hill Beach Blanket

For the curious out there Beach Blanket Babylon or BBB is the longest running cultural satire musical of all times, born and bred in San Francisco. It's namesake in Notting Hill embraces the theme of pop culture on a chic, kitschy, opulent level. There is a lot to say about the design, but I will refrain from over verbosity and just state that it is indeed worth seeing. There is a lounge bar and a restaurant and the food is ... yes obviously overpriced but not bad in its essence. The gazpacho was very decent and the goats cheese tart had good strong flavours. The chicken was unmemorable but well cooked while seared tuna on chickpea purée, was indeed a marvellous idea, albeit of varying success as I would need a specialist to locate that purée on the premises of my plate. They should have said chickpea jus and left it at that. I liked that dessert and had space for it which was first. It was some sort of chocolate concoction that went down well will coffee.

Everybody must visit Beach Blanket Babylon, it is an exiting place, just don't come too hungry or too tight.

Asia De Cuba

St Martin's Lane hotel houses an unusually well designed (for a hotel) fusion restaurant. When one thinks of fusion its usually amongst various Asian cuisines. Asia de Cuba takes this to a different level as you can guess from the name the dishes such as for example "Crab croquetas, jicama, mango, green apple and mirin infused slaw, roasted red pepper remoulade, chili ponzu dipping sauce". This very dish no matter how exiting it sounds tasted like crab and avocado salad with thousand islands sauce. No matter how intent I was on really liking Asia de Cuba I couldn't help but feel that the dishes, despite being quite nice, fell short of tasting as complicated and interesting as the descriptions promised. Nonetheless it is an interesting place to take a new acquaintance, has an great cocktails list and an intimate hotel bar next door. In addition it specialises in sharing platters so you do get to try a bit of everything without looking like you're playing William the Conqueror over your neighbors' plates.