Anita Pati

Charlotte's Bistro Chiswick

I’d forgotten how tasty hake can be when cooked correctly, this was firm and swimming in a charming pink, porky oil offset by a paste of serious-minded olive. The best were the salt baked potatoes – three little saggy bags of potato fluff in those jackets you only got at Guy Fawkes parties when you were a kid – the sorts of potatoes that you dug out from under the bonfire with crackly skins

So

So, what can I tell you about So? It’s a Japanese fusion restaurant hidden in the snaking back alleys near Piccadilly Circus, almost entirely frequented by Japanese people the night we visited and pretty impressive. 

A French stuffing from Reflets de France

I’ll be honest. I’m reviewing this new Ocado range because at the moment I’m on the famine side of feast or famine – the downside to being freelance – and since the “feasts” have in truth been famines, it seemed the only real feast I’d ever get was the offer of some French picnic goodies. Bread, cheese and jam. How easily I am bought. 

Cantina Del Ponte

“What’s the point of sitting inside at a restaurant whose USP is the view of Tower Bridge?” I whisper, menacingly, to a quivering S at Cantina del Ponte. S, who arrived at the Italian restaurant ten minutes before me, has happily plonked herself inside on a summer’s night when I wanted to sit on its lavender and olive-planted terrace.

Making mustard with Tracklements

Anita Pati finds there's more to mustard making than you might think. She heads out into the fields and factory with Tracklement's main Man Guy Tullberg and brings back a recipe for Sausage and Spiced Honey Mustard rolls.

Kentish Canteen

Honey bees at Regent's Park and The Restaurant at St Paul's Cathedral

I can’t concentrate on the lovely hexagonal honey frames that beekeeper Toby Mason is showing us because I’m terrified I’ve left the zip open on my protective bee mask. There’s a lot of buzzing going on. Perhaps a few critters are making a beeline for somewhere they’ll never escape.

The Commonwealth Club Kitchen

The Commonwealth Club by Trafalgar Square has always exuded an impossibly glamorous mystique. Its parade of international flags brightening the stucco-ed pillars, its jetset moniker and my visions of dallying diplomats, have always made it a bit of an exotic draw. Now, on the first Saturday of every month, its restaurant, the Commonwealth Kitchen, will be hosting music and reader events.

Simon Hopkinson and Tom Rains at the Montpellier Chapter

Simon Hopkinson, founder and co-owner of Bibendum restaurant in London, is currently supporting head chef Tom Rains at the 74-cover Montpellier Chapter Restaurant in Cheltenham which showcases “simple, seasonal and classic British dishes”.
Rains says the two get together and brainstorm frequently, swapping books and recipes but all with the aim of producing “straightforward cooking, done well"

The Henry Root

Right wing nutcase? A legend in wet fish? A lifelong fan of Thatcher? Henry Root was all of these and now he's a gastropub too. Anita Pati goes to see what the old man is cooking up in Chelsea.

Trullo

Hurray, Trullo! Some nine months after it opened, I have finally been! Brushing past it on my way to Highbury & Islington tube, this esteemed neighbourhood restaurant, in my own neighbourhood, has been rammed happy every time I pass.

An-Tea Establishment Afternoon Tea at the Met Bar

The Met Bar at the Metropolitan Hotel on Old Park Lane, London, has decided to rebel against royal revelries and serve an “an-tea establishment afternoon tea” to clash with the royal wedding, until 8 May.

Tamarind spring menu

Alfred Prasad continues to deliver the goodies at his subterranean Indian Mayfair restaurant. Until the end of April, diners can have three courses for £19.50 or £29.50 with wine £29.50

Trullo

Hurray, Trullo! Some nine months after it opened, I have finally been! Brushing past it on my way to Highbury & Islington tube, this esteemed neighbourhood restaurant, in my own neighbourhood, has been rammed happy every time I pass. It’s been impossible to book, I had to wait over a month for a two-hour window and that only at 7pm on a Monday evening but I pounced on it. This place is in high demand.

1 Lombard Street

Hackney hackles all a quiver, Anita Pati finds she has to choke back her class warrior gut feelings as she guiltily spoons some rather fine scallops into her mouth. Sometimes, she has to admit, posh food is really rather nice and that most bankers are from Essex anyway.

Blacks private members club, 67 Dean Street, Soho

My first taste of the exclusive Soho private members club Blacks was when a snooty man with a stuck up nose said snottily that I was ringing the wrong doorbell to get in. So exclusive are these PMCs that it’s impossible to find them. In fact, the entrance was in the cellar. But once in, what a charming bar that welcomed us its with blazing hearth.

Eight course Menu Legumes tasting menu at Roussillon

Losing its Michelin star this year will not deter Roussillon, say the staff of the genteel French Chelsea restaurant. They’re hoping fresh blood and head chef Dan Gill will win it back. The twelve-year-old menu is apparently a stalwart with vegephiles and it’s certainly rare to find such a thing in restaurants.

Inamo St James London

Anita Pati finds that ordering her meal off a touch screen is a touch odd, but warms to the food at Inamo St James the second branch of a concept that's had a mixed reception for it's Pan-Asian cuisine and futuristic concept.

India Cookbook: by Pushpesh Pant and Regional Cooking of India: by Mridula Baljekar

A sirius whisky tasting at The Dalmore/Spectator Burns night supper

Anita Pati goes into the lions' den at the intimate, oak-panelled offices of the Spectator magazine as a host of Dalmore whisky to drink from the last known bottle of Dalmore Sirius, a 1951-vintage single malt whisky with a retail selling price of £20,000 per bottle. Apparently there were only ever 12 bottles of the Sirius in the world, all of which sold out in four days