Turtle Bay does the sort of things that make a chain restaurant seem attractive. Bright colours, clean tables, friendly (and far too attentive) staff and well-priced dishes that will see £20 cover three courses. It’s the reason I’ll visit Pizza Express. Nothing attention grabbing, just inexpensive food, located in a city centre and usually well placed for a pre-cinema dinner.

Reviews of their Brixton original restaurant have been uniformly of the AMAYZZZEEENG!! Kind, but this branch needs some work to get it right, until then you may well want to bogart this joint.

With creative cocktails to kick off and a menu full of unusual ideas, Zaika is certainly a cut above the average. It’s no more than you’d expect of a sibling of Tamarind of Mayfair of course and as a local it’s lovely.

Nik travels East (again) to sample squash, steak, and chocolate tort beneath a railway arch, at Jones & Sons residency at TripSpace Projects.

Lunchtime is a tough business, so Nik rolls up his sleeves and tackles pizza after pizza after pizza, at Pizza Rossa – the newest lunch venue to hit the City and possibly the only one you’ll ever need!

Another cow-and-crustacean offering…

Chef Andrew Jones needs to be famous and you need to eat his unshowy, fabulous food. London lunch of the year for me, hands down. Get it while you can.

Having arrived back from Scotland, it’s an about turn for Nik Speller as he heads out to the wilds of North Norfolk to explore the cosy retreat of Titchwell Manor.

New Year’s Eve, often one of the biggest and best annual anti-climaxes, is almost upon us, and you may still be wondering what to do. Step forward Antonio Mellino, the head chef at Italian restaurant Quattro Passi in Mayfair, who’s devised a seven course tasting menu to tempt you out to Monopoly’s bluest square on the last day of 2014.

It’s not cheap, considering the target market and how fast the experience is over, but London is like Pavlov’s dog when someone mentions lobster right now – the drool is like a tsunami. Certainly Fraq has done its homework and designed decor and menu to hit the spot for a cool crowd.