Dinings

Dinings' kitchen takes the best parts of Japanese minimalism and Latin American flavour profiles, and melds them into something more than the sum of their parts. Bookings are essential, as the restaurant consists of just a ground-floor sushi bar and a tiny basement room. It makes for intimate dining, but service is efficient, with staff moving quickly and unobtrusively through the room.

Luxury meats and seafood - wagyu beef, fatty tuna, lobster and more - provide the base for the addition of punchy salsas, hits of citrus and salty-tangy sauces, as evident in a winning dish of duck tataki with shiso salsa and ponzu.

Prices have risen considerably since our last visit, but we'd still pinch together the pennies to order the seared wagyu beef nigiri topped with truffle salsa and wobbly cubes of sharp ponzu jelly - one of many creative variations on sushi that characterises the Dinings ethos.

An overly salty miso soup with tiny shreds of lobster meat was the only dud note; you're better off sticking with the more proletarian tofu and seaweed combinaton. But do save room for the decadent desserts, including fresh truffle ice-cream and yuzu champagne sorbet.