Its unassuming location, in the suburban, culdesac-tastic commuter-ville that is Orpington doesn’t really prepare you for what lies inside – a West End style restaurant with chic decor, well turned out, professional staff and an impressively theatrical wine cellar.

No one is going to make the trek out to eat at the Wharf who doesn’t work there obviously, they can go to ROKA in town instead. But if you are in the area then beg a banker to buy you a meal. It’s not cheap ROKA, if you want cheap there’s Wagamama, but it’s stylish, cool, beautifully designed and with food that is catwalk chic and classy.

If you’re the kind of person who likes their restaurants to be a bit ‘hidden away’ then you’ll like Umu. As I tap, tap, tapped my way down Bruton Place, a discreet little lane just off Berkley Square, I felt that little bit of excited anticipation that comes just before you’re shown into a posh hotel bedroom. I like the idea that a restaurant has to be sought out rather than stumbled upon.

The Chinese Cricket Club is apparently named after the new Chinese National Cricket team who this year played its first international match. Ni hau? I am no sports afficionado but is this a good omen for a fledgling venture? What will stand it in good stead is that it’s located within the Crowne Plaza in London which already houses Giorgio Locatelli’s Refettorio restaurant.

Having recently reported on site that the Bingham Hotel had won two BT Visit London gold awards, for ‘Best Small Hotel/B&B’ and for ‘Best Gastronomic Experience’ we decided we must go along and see what all the fuss was about. The Bingham certainly is a great gastronomic experience.

The Covent Garden Market Place, Grocer, Deli, Cafe is so new I can still smell wood shavings from the fit out and polenta is definitely for sale, along with a whole host of foody things you lust after, while not always entirely sure what they are or what they do

It’s not often I enter a restaurant and immediately lower the average age of the clientele by about thirty years. All around us glided silver haired, straight- backed gentlemen of ex-Brigadier appearance, accompanied by their good lady wives decked in the family jewellery. It was rather like entering one of the last books of A Dance To The Music of Time. Mark Members over there, Sir Magnus Donners at the door and to the side, balefully watching the throng, Widmerpool himself.

Somehow I missed the golden age of Wagamama. A time when everyone was ‘queuing down the street!’ the manager tells me, wistfully recalling early days in the 1990’s. I must have been somewhere else I suppose, possibly Covent Garden, because this is the first time I have ever been inside one.

Mid week and mob handed we were having no luck getting a table at a new Soho hip hangout, so it was with bitterness in our hearts, and a copy of that restaurant’s lunch-time only booking number in our hands, that we sought the reliable shelter of Vasco & Piero’s Pavilion Restaurant.

Having attended a reception at Piya Piya and tasted some very good nibbles that were being handed around, we decided to go back there for a meal so that we could sample the selection from the full menu, with an interesting array of dishes, Piya Piya has a lot to offer.