Me love Sushi – I don’t generally, though J – my friend and dining pardner for the night, swears by its protein content. So away we tubed to Swiss Cottage on a miserable, rain-blasted evening to a Brutalist restaurant whose sheet glass windows leaked in all that cold.

They’re big on wines at High Timber and keen to show off their cellar. I have to say that 48,000 bottles of wine isn’t exactly Disneyworld but it’s still a remarkable sight. The sheer volume of this wine cellar is explained by the fact that Gary and Kathy Jordan who own High Timber, also own a wine estate in South Africa’s winemaking region, Stellenbosch, and have brought their love of food and wine into one cool, slate-floored restaurant with great views across the river and a laid back feel.

if you want to have a taste of authentic Spanish cuisine, without jumping on a plane and then having to seek out the right place, it is well worth a trip to El Faro.

Brazilian Japanese fusion eh? Is that a strategically shaved raw fish? It’s an idea that sounds odd however you think about it, but with Sao Paulo home to the largest expat Japanese population it was inevitable that the two cuisines would come together. The question is would it be a car crash or something sexy?

It’s one of those uninspired, grey London evenings buffeted by chilly pre-Spring winds, when your sluggish, gravy-soaked system simply cries out for a jolt – fierce, piquant flavours, hearty portions of meat and carbs, unfussy, substantial food. We decided to head out West – specifically, to Korean restaurant Nara in the West End.

An article this week in the papers said that Chinese was replacing Indian as the most popular ‘UK’ dish. Some pundits said it was because Chinese was perceived to be healthier for you as a stir-fried dish will inevitably have less oil for you to absorb. Also the use of MSG, which you once used to see being literally sold by the sack full in Chinese restaurant wholesale suppliers, has declined. If you wake up thirsty in the night though, that’s a good sign your meal wasn’t entirely MSG free.

Tsuru is a clean bright place with tables outside and inside a kitchen turning out bento boxes, sushi, salads and even Katsu curries all at reasonable prices. Blackboards and signs scream sustainability telling you that the yellow fin tuna is line caught and that the salmon is fresh from the Shetland Isles. Chicken is free range and the packaging is as biodegradable as can be.

I seem to have an aversion to dining at restaurants around major museums. It cannot be that hard to devise a lucrative ‘special 2 course meal’ for the tourist in search of a ‘good’ (cheap, low quality) deal. I would like to think that true foodies such as us could never be blinded by such flagrant attempts to entrap.

With afternoon teas and a menu that also includes Welsh Rarebit, vegetables foraged for chef from the Kent countryside, classics like potted shrimps, a beautifully British cheeseboard and even schoolboy scarer prunes, the Goring is a great big Dreadnought of British imperial dining power steaming its own unique track through a sea of mediocre, me too, ‘Modern European’ restaurants. We stand up salute it.