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.

I’m a big avocate of keeping things simple, so when a restaurant serving top quality steak opens on Exchange Square and adopts the name of The Steak Exchange it’s already made it into my good books

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.

The restaurant has an authentic French feel about it reminding me in its style of several I have visited in Paris over the years. Chez Gerard, Tower of London, certainly didn’t feel like part of a chain, the food was very good indeed. We certainly enjoyed our meal there.

Tucked into the back alleys of the city of London, Bonds bar and restaurant deserves a look in from those who don’t work within a one mile radius of its doors.

If any restaurant is allowed to paint itself a rather alarming shade of yellow, it is one situated in a complex of council buildings, in this case between Durham County Hall and what was, I think, the offices of the waste disposal unit

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.

Among the array of eateries in Balham, just off the High Street is Harrison’s, which can best be described as a bar/brasserie/restaurant. It’s a great local restaurant, that was very popular the evening we were there; they give excellent value for money and absolutely deserve to do well, serving very good food in a great atmosphere that compliments the trendiness of the area.

Black and Blue is a no-nonsense chain of steakhouses, loitering somewhere between an upmarket TGI Friday and a downscale Gaucho. Still relatively young, with seven branches already open across London, so far, so good.

Named after a legendary politician and rake, the Bolingbroke feels very much part of its environs; large fronted and smartly decorated, it spreads a warm glow on a frankly nippy evening. Regular readers will know that we are fans of the Renaissance chain and The Bolingbroke certainly has enough good stuff to make it worth a visit if it’s in your neck of the woods.