There’s a trend to big up Sichuan food right now. It’s all about having the guts to eat tripe, as well as the testosterone taste buds to take on fearsome amounts of chilli and the mouth-numbing effects of the Sichuan pepper itself. What helps the trend is that some of the better Sichuan restaurants are cheap and cheerful places that appeal to the post-backpacking, job-in-New-Media, type of person. What’s missing though is somewhere a bit posher, and located a bit more centrally, somewhere that we older chaps can take the good lady wife. The Empress fits that bill nicely.

Volupte is an unusual venue. The restaurant and show area is in the basement of the building, its bold decor appears mismatched and incomplete in places, yet somehow coming together to create the impression of an era long since past. It is a place that should be experienced, whether for cocktails or other drinks, an evening meal with entertainment, or afternoon tea on a Saturday.

Service at Sauterelle was exceptionally good, mixed with a little theatre which was somehow right for the surroundings and the excellent food of head chef Robin Gill. This is a remarkably good restaurant and definitely one to visit.

The Narrow is amazingly well situated, set as it is, next to the lock that leads into Limehouse Basin, it has excellent views from the bend in the river, towards central London to the west and Docklands to the East. The Narrow are serving some very good food at reasonable prices, its excellent riverside views it is a great place for lunch or an evening meal.

Invited to inspect a row of bottles on a shelf right behind me I couldn’t do it, not without imitating Lynda Blair in The Exorcist and doing a full 360 with my head. So the wife picked one. It’s a novel idea, but I think I still prefer seeing a wine list.

We had heard good things about Whites, since head chef Stuart Dove, took the helm last year. It is a remarkably good restaurant and we ate perhaps the best food we have had outside central London for some months. We would certainly recommend it to anyone who can travel to Steyning and could see it becoming a destination restaurant.

As we reported after attending Caponata’s launch in early December its owners have created a cool contemporary venue. Two restaurants in one it offers a wide choice to its customers, with some very interesting dishes on the menus it is unsurprising that it is gaining popularity.

Football and fine dining – f-words that fit like fist and fur ball. So when, in the newly-opened Bistro K – plush, South Kensington deluxe – Anita Pati sees a giant sports telly slap bang in the wall, it comes as no surprise that the bar’s owner also owns the Olympique Lyonnais football team.

With an express pre and post theatre menu for £9.95 including some wine, all bases are covered here. It’s not the spot for a romantic dinner a deux, but for honest, flavour packed, well-priced Italian food I can’t think of anywhere that competes in London right now. Rush in and waddle out.

Charlotte Street is second only to Soho for the number of Italian eateries in and around it, many long-established and semi-legendary. Mennula is a new kid on the block, squeezed by the surrounding buildings, but delivering cooking that is already flexing its muscles and threatening to kick sand in the faces of the local competition