Parma Ham Pitta Pizzas

These delicious treats are the perfect speedy snack. Made with bought pittas, topped with tomatoes, olives and grated mozzarella, then grilled and finished off with slices of Parma Ham – what could be simpler?

London restaurant Le Cercle

Le Cercle keeps a low profile, but the standard is consistently high and its ability to offer reasonably priced, streamlined and stylish food particularly at lunchtime is welcome. The people around Sloane Square may not be that strapped for cash, but those shopping around for bargains can always avoid cutting culinary corners by going to Le Cercle.

Sam’s Brasserie London

Our visit to Sam’s Brasserie in Barley Mow Passage, Chiswick, which is situated just behind Chiswick High Road, had us wandering out of Turnham Green tube station, and along the High Road. It quickly struck us that the locals have a huge choice of places to eat, and that Sam’s must have its work cut out to stand out from the crowd.

The Bread Factory

Up in The Bread Factory main office, where it’s warm cosy and smelling deliciously of, what else but, freshly baked bread, the staff are gently taking the mickey out of one of the accountants. ‘Every morning, first thing, he’s goes off to the baking floor for his fresh cakes and croissants!’’ they laugh. He smiles, acknowledging their banter, and then his eyes go all misty and unfocussed. ‘Look,’ his colleague says,’ he’s dreaming about those cakes again!’

L’Etranger london restaurant

L’Etranger, I imagined, had been a destination joint in the 1980s, still humming on a Monday night in the noughties. This, I dreamed as D and I were led to our seats, was where Duran Duran might have been taken on the cusp of a record deal, or where Docklands’ mandarins with flinty eyes seeded the City’s birth.