I like to wrestle with a steak, shirts off like William Shatner in Star Trek, the hard-won bits are where the flavour is and that’s why onglet is so good. Flatiron’s steak is butter smooth, you could cut it with an airline spork, but they do a pretty good job of getting some texture and caramelisation on the outside, so saving it from being anodyne.

The Macdonald Townhouse Hotel sits on the corner of Portland and Princess Street; tall and elegant with the kind of soaring gothic windows that suggests an architect with pious leanings, the Macdonald is the understated antithesis of those 21st century hotel blocks that resemble a giant Rubik’s cube.

Town-Topic in Kansas’s menu remains dedicated to its burger output, offering single, double and triple hamburgers, alongside a ½ lb for fat bastards who can’t get their carnivorous kicks from a triple. 

They already have it good in Primrose Hill in their lovely ivory postcode, that they should also have such an excellent, well-priced, bistro is just another small injustice that life likes to challenge me with. Returning to Sarf Lundun and its grunting monsters, I felt that Absinthe had at least made my heart grow a little bit fonder.

Attempts to de-pubify the place have involved hanging jamons in the window like meaty Christmas decorations. This presumably in homage to the average tapas bar in Spain, where chunky legs hang over your head sweating gently into their cups. Rather like the clients.

Catherine Jones discovers cuisine in Paris has a certain je ne sais quoi…

Spanish food is now easily enjoyed in a number of London tapas bars and cafes, but Camino has already put its mark on the City with a distinctive brand of gourmet Spanish food and a top wine list. The’Camino’it aims to travel is the link between the different regions of Spain which each have their own specialities and tastes

The bill was approximately £65.00 each, but that was a la carte with fabulous wines by the glass, so all in all, not bad for fine dining. There were a few’faces’ there, but it would be indiscrete to mention them (even though I really want to!) because I would imagine celebs choose this place for its discretion and unpretentious approach. Now, who am I to sabotage that?

Life outside London. David J Constable goes over the water to find that burgers and ribs are okay for jaded Londoners but in other places skill, ingredients and an interest in real restuarant food still thrives. And with a strong Northern Irish accent.

This place isn’t going to feature on any food blogger’s radar, or that of the hair-shirt bien-pensants either who will only knee -jerk sneer at it, but overall the cooking is culinary-exam mode perfect, and yes it does have flavour but what it needs to do is break out, to have fun and to risk being more creative.  Maybe even try some of that advertised fusion, of course no one wants to witness a car crash but it wouldn’t hurt Levi to loosen his seat belt just a little bit.