It isn’t easy to fill venues on the industrial stretch of Bethnal Green road where Beach Blanket Babylon has hunkered down. Brick Lane’s melee bristles five minutes away. Commercial Road’s pencil moustache and cupcake brigade posture to the right. But despite the relative quiet on our Friday night visit, the punters seemed still to be loving it.

In a TV commercial a few years back a grumpy old lady bitterly complained that her local bank branch had been turned into ‘a trendy wine bar’. Well here around Threadneedle Street there’s hardly a bank branch left that isn’t now a restaurant or bar and while Mint Leaf may be the only ‘Indian’ it is rather trendy.

This imposing Victorian pub is cavernous and it is not until you walk through the entrance that you get a feel for the scale of the place. With good quality, well cooked dishes at reasonable prices, The Britannia is certainly worth visiting.

A short canal-side walk past the bustling bars and eateries left our abstention seeming ill founded as, in the middle of the after-work crowd, we spotted our destination, Massis. A curiously subdued venue set amid towering hives of industry the food here is simple, tasty and a wonderful conduit for easy bonhomie among friends.

There are a couple of things everyone should have local to them, a good curry house and a relaxed bar/restaurant. Until recently Wandsworth residents had The Chutney to satisfy the former, but since the demise of Dittos Bar & Restaurant nothing has come along to replace the latter. Now there’s Steam to give Wandsworth some puff.

Two foraging carnivores have modestly gentrified Clerkenwell’s ‘Coach & Horses’ into gastropub territory. However rather than tick box diners expectant of Michelin frippery alongside a beer garden / sprog storage pen, it now draws genuinely hungry foodies craving good value, hearty quality.

The Italians know what food is for – it’s for lunch – a meal that can often stretch on until it becomes dinner. The best Italian food is found, unsurprisingly in Italy, but in about the same time it takes for a budget airline to deposit you, cantankerous and queasy from your in-flight ‘snack’, at Pisa airport you could be at Nonna’s in Sheffield.

Through sculptures, lighting and curious sounds, the otherwise derelict top tiers of a Peckham car park have been transformed into polished decay and dreamy decadence.’Bold Tendencies’, is the third summer showcase from the local but far-reaching, ‘Hannah Barry’ gallery.

Quilon, awarded the Wine Spectator magazine’s 2009 Restaurant Wine List Award of Excellence, is set in Buckingham Gate, A spacious, uncluttered, stylish restaurant well-deserving its Michelin star

Step into this new drinking and dining venue in the heart of Chelsea and you’re immediately welcomed by an old-English-gentleman themed interior, decked out with stuffed animal heads and Robert Dighton drawings of Georgian aristocrats. Plus save 50% this month!