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.

The Old Thatch in Adstock, Buckinghamshire ,is a bit of a celebrity in its patch – as one local told me, ” it’s one of a small handful of places worth going to round here.” So what’s made this seriously tucked-away village pub survive where others have been converted into super-homes?

Her guest pulls a sicky, but Anita Pati soldiers on alone in the oldest London French restaurant amidst Covent Garden theatre goers, tourists and regulars. Sometimes dining is a solitary pleasure

Laya’Lina is not budget-friendly by any means… I balk at the £5.95 price tag of a portion of chips, as not even Gordon Ramsay charges that much for fried potatoes! The presence of chicken curry and coconut prawn soup on the menu baffle me greatly, I may not be Lebanese, but I think it’s safe to say that neither are these dishes.

This year has brought some very good meals (Pied a Terre, Chez Bruce, Hibiscus), some average ones (Tom Aikens, Arbutus) and some damn right terrible (Umu). In the ‘very good’ column I can add Galvin at Windows and Bistro de Luxe, so I was very interested in seeing what the brothers had managed to do with their new venture. Would it be a restaurant too far or a City winner?