London

Leffe Best New Restaurant | Best Gastropub | Best British Restaurant | Best Family Restaurant | Best Local Restaurant | Best Cheap Eats | Best Bar | Best Design | Best Traiteur | Best Coffee Bar

Leffe Best New Restaurant

Wild Honey

WINNER
Wild Honey
Anthony Demetre and Will Smith – owners of Arbutus, which won Best New Restaurant in the 2006 Time Out Eating & Drinking Awards – certainly have the magic touch. Though Wild Honey is very different from their Soho site in feel and decor (this is an oak-panelled but subtly modern space that’s deeply convivial and made for lingering), the alluring combination of exceptionally good food at fair prices and a user-friendly wine list are the same. We wish more restaurants would copy their genius policy of making all wines available in 250ml carafes as well as by the bottle, and keeping mark-ups low. The menu changes daily. We hope belly of pork with carrot and cumin purée and borlotti beans becomes a staple dish; deeply savoury, with melt-in-the-mouth meat and glorious crackling, it cost just £14.95. Fillet of halibut with Cornish razor clams, langoustines, Ratte potatoes and parsley, though good, couldn’t compete. Feature continues

Starters also garnered plaudits: a flavoursome Mediterranean fish soup with all the trimmings made a nice contrast with a delicate, summery fresh sheep’s ricotta served with watermelon, peas and pancetta. Pick of the puddings was vanilla waffles with crushed warm strawberries and chantilly cream, though the La Fromagerie cheese board (which takes centre-stage in the dining room) is hard to resist. Service is unstuffy but mostly on the ball; tables are nicely spaced; and, as at Arbutus, you can eat at the bar. Pay a visit as soon as you can; the set lunch, in particular, is astounding value.
Wild Honey, 12 St George St, W1S 2FB (020 7758 9160) Oxford Circus tube.


RUNNERS-UP
Barrafina
There’s an agreeable slickness and bustle about Sam and Eddie Hart’s sleek tapas bar. Unless you eat here outside regular meal times, there will be a queue (check it out on the webcam!), but the staff work hard at keeping waiting diners happy. Once seated at the L-shaped bar (which, apart from the kitchen and grill area behind it, pretty much constitutes the whole shebang) the fun really starts. All the tapas favourites (pimentos de padron, pan con tomate, and so on) are present and correct. Stand-outs included a flavour-packed chickpea, spinach and bacon dish, and light-as-air crema catalan. It’s far more fun than sister restaurant Fino, too, though prices are similarly eye-widening.
Barrafina, 54 Frith St, W1D 4SL (020 7813 8016) Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Rd tube.

Odette’s
The reinvention of Odette’s under music impresario Vince Power’s ownership has brought some striking changes to the NW1 old-timer. The interior, by Shaun Clarkson, is one, and you’ll either like the yellow leather chairs and banquettes, the statement wallpaper and the moody basement bar, or you’ll pine for the old-fashioned romance of yesteryear. You will like the food, though; Bryn Williams cooks like a dream. From a very memorable meal, ice strawberry parfait with poached strawberries and strawberry jam doughnuts was the highlight. The prices (£3.50 for an espresso) are at odds with the fact that Odette’s still feels like a local restaurant, despite the haute nature of the food and service.
Odette’s, 130 Regents Park Rd, NW1 8XL (020 7586 8569) Chalk Farm tube.

Olivomare
A vision in white (and everything is white but one wallpapered wall), this is one sleek restaurant. The food – Sardinian fish and seafood – may be rustic, but it’s served in suave fashion, and ingredients are good quality. Spaghetti alla bottarga (with thinly sliced grey mullet roe) was a deceptively rich plateful. Starters are uncomplicated but equally appetising: grilled squid with marinated tomatoes, pickled white anchovies on rocket and courgette salad, fresh rock oysters. Little touches (the variety of breads and olives served gratis) are well done too. The wine list is short and Italian. Staff are charming, but if you’re not a sloane or a Euro-banker, you may feel like the odd one out.
Olivomare, 10 Lower Belgrave St, SW1W 0LJ (020 7730 9022) Victoria tube/rail.

St Alban
St Alban marks something of a departure for Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, who also run the Wolseley, not only because it is an entirely modern space, but because the mouthwatering menu concentrates on modern Mediterranean dishes. We enjoyed a procession of punchy flavours right from the start: courgette flowers stuffed with salt cod bacalhau, and broad beans with chorizo. Mains were equally impeccable: a nicely spicy Sardinian fish stew and super-juicy seared scallops with a big tangle of samphire. Dark chocolate tart with white chocolate mousse was a fine dessert and the prices are reasonable for this level of restaurant. Charcoal-grilled Shetland Isles salmon with herby lentils costs £14.75 – about what you’d pay in a gastropub.
St Alban, 4-12 Regent St, SW1Y 4PE (020 7499 8558) Piccadilly Circus tube.


Leffe Best New Restaurant | Best Gastropub | Best British Restaurant | Best Family Restaurant | Best Local Restaurant | Best Cheap Eats | Best Bar | Best Design | Best Traiteur | Best Coffee Bar