rjs1

Chris Staines is a very talented chef, I think. My wife & I had a supurb lunch there with a friend and two babies a little while ago - the staff couldn't have been nicer to the infants (may have helped that we were the only people there for 1 3/4 hours of the meal). Better for lunch than dinner, perhaps (as well as much cheaper!), as you get the view of the park to distract you from the awful carpet.

Last Tuesday it was 3/4 empty at lunchtime, and no wonder at the prices they are charging - small portion of chiterlings (sp?), very salty, £7 - plus the service was dozy (though friendly) and my (takeaway) eccles cake was burned to the point of being inedible. I love St John, but on this occasion perhaps the Emperor has no clothes?

Have to disagree. In my experience Sardo and Paolo are both better for service and food than Passione. Also, if it matters to you, while the food at Passione isn't bad, the room is very full of cigarette smoke. Is the deli you are refering to Lina Stores on Brewer St? Excellent, as is Camisa on Old Compton Street.

QC is quite good value for lunch or the early evening dinner menu (last orders 7pm, but in my experience you can then linger for hours... Otherwise, how about the Punjab on Neal St as an alternative to Mela. It's good (if a bit more old school) and they've got a private dining room. Abeno on Museum Street (where the late lamented Museum Street Cafe used to be) is also great for an informal meal. Beats Pizza Express hands down and is probably cheaper.

The woman who sued McDonalds was apparently clutching the full cup coffee, open, between her thighs while driving or being driven and the car went over a bump - that's how she got scalded. The insanity of the US courts meant that despite what sounds like 100% contributory negligence she was still able to get massive damages against McDonalds (mind you, couldn't happen to a more desrving firm...). However, the damages were reduced on appeal.

Okra's fine as long as you soak it in lemon juice diluted with a bit of water first.

Yes. It's called River Walk; I tried both the grill and the restaurant for lunches in February. Food in the brasserie was good value, if not particularly imaginative (crab salad followed by fish & chips and then pavlova, if memory serves), although service was chaotic. The restaurant was a cut above. One dish, smoked beef, stood out particularly. The a la carte prices were high-ish, but I think that they were going to introduce a lunchtime set menu - they may have done so by now.

Puddings have always been weak, ever since it opened. It used to be great, and great value, but I think it went seriously off about three to four years ago and more or less gave up on it after several sub-standard meals. Any signs of a return to form?

Useful article on this topic by Nicholas Lander in today's Weekend Financial Times. It's a "sinner who repented" piece, saying he didn't cater at all for the needs of non-smokers when he was a restauranteur but now believes a ban on smoking in restaurants is the way forward.

Restaurant Tom Aikens gets 3 stars from Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard today.

After a slightly disappointing lunch at QC a week ago, decided to give it one more go to try to find out if standards had slipped permanently or it was a one-off dip. My wife and I went there last night and ate from the full menu rather than the fixed-price lunch-and-early-evening menu I've always had there before. Dinner was wonderful, by far the best meal I've eaten there. After a taster of blue-cheese, celery & walnut soup (a clever twist on the usual stilton, celery & walnut combo at the end of a meal), we had monkfish & clam risotto (very fresh fish, perfect risotto with lots of parmesan) and hot peppered venision salad with red cabbage coleslaw and blackberry dressing (very tender meat, perfect coleslaw, but slightly unbalanced by very hot pepper). For mains we had canon of lamb with sweetbreads (perfectly pink meat) and red mullet & sardine with chorizio and tempura-battered vegetables (again, very fresh fish; the vegetables were perfect with very light and beautifully flavoured batter; the chorizio didn't overwhelm the other ingredients. Unfortunately didn't have time for pudding or coffee. The sommelier said that there would be a new wine list in place by the end of next week.

I'm a 99% non-smoker who does enjoy a very occasional cigar at the end of a meal. However, I can't see that cigars (or pipes) can ever be smoked in a dining room without interfering with the enjoyment of other diners. Cigarettes are almost as bad but their smoke can at least be contained by state-of-the-art air conditioning. What seems fair to me is that cigarette smokers can only smoke in a separate dining room or if a single dining room is big enough and well air-conditioned enough for their smoke not to affect any one who doesn't want to be affected by it (including staff as well as customers). What I find ridiculous is the number of restaurants in London who tell you when you ask for a non-smoking table that the whole restaurant is "smoking". As the industry has failed to self-regulate on this, the GLA will probably impose non-smoking rules in a much more heavy-handed way than could have been achieved by self-regulation.

This could be very good - Aikens is an interesting chef. If he's still doing his leek & foie gras terrine with celeriac (sp?), it's a wonderful summer dish.

I think that what Jay Rayner said in his review in The Observer a month or so ago was pretty much what you're looking for.

You can't beat the assortment of fish ravioli at Paolo, to my mind.

And a stinker from Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard yesterday. You've got to wonder about a restaurant that (she says) can't get French fries (sorry, Freedom fries) right.

Sorry, Circeplum, I didn't eat there, I just walked past and looked at the menu. Neither the line about the service charge being added for my convenience or anything else on the menu tempted me in.

On the menu at No. 5 Cavendish Square today: "For your convenience, a suggested gratuity of 12.5% will be added to your bill".

On the subject of Hywel Jones, it's been pointed out to me that it wasn't adequate to have prefaced my comments by saying that he's a friend; I should also have disclosed that I did a consultancy for the Hartford Group that involved recruiting him to go there. Many apologies for not having stated this before making my point about 3 stars at Foliage, 3 stars at Lola's but only one at Pharmacy for what I think it pretty much the same standard of food. Love the wine list at Lola's, by the way.

I would give it a try. Sorry, but I stand by my point. How can Fay Maschler give Pharmacy one star when she has given Foliage and Lola's three for essentially the same food. The rest of the package is important too, but not that important (and Pharmacy is surely not a step down from Lola's with its leaking roof and WCs accessed via the kitchen)?

Interesting as Circeplum says that reviews can differ so radically for basically the same food cooked by the same chef when he moves from restaurant. Why did Fay Maschler give Hywel Jones 3 stars at Foliage, 3 stars at Lola's and only 1 star at Pharmacy, all for what in my experience of several meals at each was pretty much the same standard of food? I may be biased as Hywel Jones is a friend and so is Bruno Asselin, the new Maitre d' at Pharmacy (ex Pied a Terre), but I think the food at Pharmacy is better than it was when Hywel was at Lola's and almost as good as when he was at Foliage. A A Gill's review seemed to me to miss the point of what Hywel does, which is unexctected combinations of ingredients put togehter so that the whole is more than the sum of the parts. Anyway, why should we pay any attention to a restaurant reviewer who doesn't know what sauce vierge is and can't be bothered to look it up? He's right about the grammer on the menu, though.

Reviewed by Jay Rayner in today's Observer. Likes the food but not the place.

Absolutely concur with Mr Rayner. Rodos (59 St Giles High St WC2, Tel. 020 7836 3177) is very old school in that they don't give a damn about modern trends or decor (I've been going there for 22 years and it doesn't seem to have changed a bit, or indeed seen a lick of paint, in that time), but they do care a lot about the food. Sadly its continuing existence is threatened by crack dealers taking over the neighbourhood, so please go there and support while it's still with us.

I agree Lemonia has a good atmosphere but sometimes rather ordinary food. Specials can be the best bet - I had an unusual and rather good hare dish there a couple of months ago. Quite good wine list, if not in the Real Greek league.

I lived just off Tower Hill until eight months ago, so these recommendations might be a bit out of date. The Vestry can be good, is always weird. Lighthouse 10 is good but only acceptable value-wise if you stick to the set menu (which is fine), as the a la carte is overpriced. Haven't tried Acquarium myself but hear good reports. That's about it in the immediate area unless you cross Tower Bridge.