There are restaurants that serve memorable food and there are restaurants that provide a memorable experience. Dans Le Noir does both of these and to round things off, a marriage proposal!

Once populated with space-age orange booths, management decided to over haul the space yet again with the more mingle-friendly seating plan of community tables. So now, along with the help of the floor length front window, it’s easier than ever to see and be seen at the Soho venue.

Restaurants like Pitt Cue with their finger food, mess, and loud simple flavours are all fighting for a slice of the under 30 demographic pie but it’s a relatively small and fickle pie, always restlessly moving on to the next big food thing. Pitt Cue certainly do what they do pretty well, but is that enough to build a long-term business in a building? They could well be back on the road this time next year and that is where, I think, this kind of food works best and where it really belongs.

When you’ve got a night at the theatre planned, it’s important not to get off to a bad start. Forget grabbing a quick sarnie or chancing yourself with a nearby take-away, Tuttons in Covent Garden provides a quick service, a nice atmosphere and a good menu.

The Kings Road is full of over the top restaurants, so now and then it’s refreshing to chill out in a no frills pizza joint with some good food, tasty drinks and plenty of humour.

Italians love kids, and pregnant women apparently, so I wasn’t worried about bringing along my second and five-month-old third cousins to this busy eaterie just off Piccadilly Circus. Within a half hour of arriving the place was heaving with parents and kids, the noise levels on a par to the traffic intersection outside, however not all of it stemming from the junior patrons.

The sight of a man eating alone in a restaurant is reassuring, one you tend to see only in French restaurants. A good French place is where the lone diner never feels like a sad loner; just someone having a meal. The staff treat him perfectly normally and chat cheerfully, knowing just how long to linger before letting him get on with his grub.

Sweet as? Catherine Jones joins the elegant people at the Jam Cupboard and finds decent modern European food served with style in surroundings that frankly make her feel rather ordinary. Next time she’ll pack a Mulberry handbag so she can fit in better.

You don’t last this long in London without delivering and Roast is soldiering on solidly and getting tables filled doing so. The location is still lovely and unique and while the food breaks no boundaries, there’s nothing wrong with that. 

I’ve just had a bit of a’When Harry Met Sally’ moment with an egg custard tart. It was rather a long time coming, if you’ll pardon the innuendo, with a pleasurably leisurely dinner finally culminating in this timely and ultimate climax. But I’m not at Katz’s Diner- not a bit of it. This restaurant is as staunchly British as that joint is pure Noo York, even taking its name from a character in one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.