Novikov is rammed to the hilt not with Euro Trash but with Global Trash. It heaves new money not old money, Non-dom not dom, second wife not first wife, 80s boom not 2012 recession, decadence not restraint.

Bucket loads of Russian money has been poured into the refit and it works. The route down to the basement bar with the view of the Italian restaurant and wine racks to the right is impressive.

We ate in the Asian restaurant and the food was a little below Nobu/Zuma but not by a lot. The Dim Sums were especially well executive and I enjoyed the Chilian Sea Bass cooked as chunks of fillets rather than on the bone. The classic ‘Black cod’ at £35 was pricy, a little small but excellent.

The waitress was too keen to take me up the list – she recommend Dim Sum at £45 rather than any of the others at £9 and pushed very hard for us to ‘go to the market’ and pick out fish we wanted to eat – a sure fast bill-expander (we declined).

The worst thing is the very load piped music. It is almost impossible to hear anything in the downstairs bar – rather a pity but with 2 beers, glass of wine and non-alcoholic cocktail costing £40 it was a good excuse to leave. Even the restaurant has excessively load music – they simply don’t need it but I suppose if you are in the mating game it helps when conversation falters.

In short I think this is a great fun place – if you don’t play dumb with your choices from the menu then the price is not as bad as it could have been. We were £70 per head for great food, moderate service but atmosphere that gives you a fill-good factor. Sadly you then walk out of the door and realise the recession has not gone away.

I went to Tinello last night and thought that the overall product was excellent. I was a bit nervous as they only had space downstairs and often the ‘second’ room can be a bit of a Gobi desert. This is far from the case – the down stair, with its open fire, has a intimate, cosy, private-dning feel.

The tastes and textures of the food was cracking, except my pasta starter was a little too al dente for my liking. My main of kidneys and polenta really hit the spot (could have had another kidney though) and the combo of the kidney jus in the runny polenta was a perfect taste sensation for February. It even persuaded my polenta-phobic male guest to look differently at this staple. The armganc tart was good but not amazing but I'm a starter/main man rather than main/pudding so no problem here.

I love the fact that you can BYO one bottle of wine with a cockage of £15 – it meant I could take a cracking bottle for my guest from my cellar. The waiter took my bottle without turning his nose up and event said what a good choice I had.

We went as a four and it was a superb settling for putting the world to right over top Italian food and wine.

Kettner's is certainly a wonderful building in the middle of Soho but you get the feeling this is either geared at tourists or parties. The main dining room is old fashioned with rather dirty looking carpets and school tables and chairs. The menu is club-like, to the extent that it is boring. There is nothing wrong with such a menu as long as the execution is good. Dover Sole should slide off the bone with little or no effort – my poor fish needed a chain saw to get the flesh off. Very poor indeed. In short at £10-£15 for mains you can do better else where and not a place for a regular restaurant-going Londoner.

Dinner after the theatre is a well-desired treat. If the play is good you can discuss the inner meanings and if it is bad you have earned your supper.

Kopapa is ideally situated for a post Donmar meal and last night, after having seen Harold Pinter’s Moonlight, I had earned supper for the next millennium. The play was an insult to my intelligence and as my guest said ‘you might as well tape record you conversations at home and pretend that is a play’. I am a great fan of the Donmar but this was a complete waste of time.

So our 9pm table could not have come quick enough. I’m of an age that I can still get goose bumps remembering the opening week of Sugar Club and the arrival of the term ‘Fusion’ cooking to the London scene by Peter Gordon.

Kopapa’s informal, café style atmosphere works well and on the whole he delivers with some interesting cross-border-combos – the ‘Master stock pork belly on shiitake & ginger congee with sweet chilli glaze’ was delicious although I could have done with a bigger portion. Good set of summery salads that are livened up with various ingredients. Mains are a tenner so worth ordering a few and share. Good list of new world wines, as you would expect. All in all most enjoyable and we concluded, after two bottles of Kiwi Pinot, that we would return to Kopapa but never to Pinter.

Went last night for a 9.30 table – haven't been for a while and I had forgottem quite what a superb restaurant this is. My starter of the squid & mackerel burger with razor clams is a taste sensation that I will remember for a while. Followed by the saddle of rabbit which was superb. My only grip would be that the service tailed off a bit as we had the late table – I had to turn around several times to get the attention of waiters. But in short the quality of the cooking and the price point means that this restaurant gives you more bang for your buck than most establishments in town.

Update 9/9/2010
Went for dinner – food as good as ever but the service has taken a downtown. We were asked if we wanted a drink before we had even sat down and then the drinks took 20 mins to arrive. Empty glass were left on our table till nearly the end of the meal. The sommelier however could not be faulted.

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A great basement restaurant that serves a grazing menu like Maze. I think this is a fabulous way to eat – giving you about 4 to 5 dishes to taste rather than just 3 and leaves you feeling you have had just the right amount. The basement works well in the evenings but less so for Summer lunches. Does a very good value set lunch menu. An excellent private room in a balcony looking over the main restaurant. Took a party there recently and had their set menu which worked very well as no one had to choose but the Sommelier was too freely opening bottles for the table which escalated the bill unnessaryly – so do not leave it up to him.

The other views are fair – both the negative and positive ones. A set menu of salad, steak frites and pudding. It is quick, almost too quick and too prepared. The salad was over dressed and dressed too early leading to wilted leaves. My rare steak was cooked correctly and when seconds arrive you can have pretty well as much as you want. The frites, in my opinion, should have been salted more but were classic ‘allumettes’. If you want a quick meal, where you do not even have to waste time looking at the menu, and the service is more 'gentlemen's club/Oxford College' than top restaurant, this is your place.

The restaurant part I fear is now getting completely over run by the success of the bar. Maybe the management are happy with the money they are making in the bar and taking their eye off the food offering. The food has gone downhill and the service is starting to be a joke. Very noisy so don't eat here if you are wanting a good gossip or of an age were hearing is dropping!

But you can not argue that the bar is a great place to have a drink and to imbibe a bit of the Chelsea set.

Situated in an old bank at the heart of the City this is a massive space to fill. I ate in the upstairs restaurant which looks over the street one side and the carvenous bar area the other.

A classic Green's (Mayfair) menu focusing on seafood / fish but with plenty of meat options. With us oysters preceeded simple, well presented dishes executed with good ingredients – fish and chips (folded, battered plaice, neat stack of chucky chips, mushy mint peas) and haddock, mash and poached egg. Puddings did not disappoint except that the Eton mess had too much cream and not enough bashed-up meringue. Prices pretty fair for that part of the City.

Wine list in price order (bit annoying) has a good amount in the sub £35 level. Service still beding in with some friendly, ‘English as a second language’, unexperienced staff. Management seem to know what they are doing and so should improve this with time.

The groundfloor bar is pretty empty at the moment but hopefully will fill up. There is a rather odd raised private dining area in the bar which I doubt will work – better for pole dancers or a band. Two better, glassed fronted private rooms in the main restaurant.

All in all a brave move that I hope succeeds.

I'm a great fan of grazing menus (take Le Cirque, take Maze) and Terroir brings this to French County dishes. It does this well and has cleverly gone for a light, bright atmosphere rather than the traditional dark Parisian Brasserie with mirrors and wood panelling.

I went for classic 'male friendly / ‘health unfriendly’ dishes of duck rillettes, steak tartare and potted brown shrimps and then tried to offset my guilt with a good quantity of omega 3 fatty fish in the form of Boquerones (sweet martinated anchories) and smoked eel. Washed done with some Spainish Albarino wine.

Table are tight but then this adds to the atmophere. Not cheap but then the location isn't either.

All in all – I'll defintely return and consider it the perfect post theatre food to munch over while psueding about the latest David Hare play.

Oh what a disappointment. I love Zuma so much and was wanting the same sort of execution, the same thought of style and the same ‘out of the box thinking’ but all I got was a normal Italian with carpaccio, pastas and pizzas in an ‘OK’ basement. Whilst I understand that they are targeting executives from the nearby dreary Baker Street offices as opposed to the beautiful Chelsea crowd, with pizzas at £12 you need to deliver a lot more. The service whilst keen is simply not trained. Multiple waiters and waitresses came to our table asking the same thing or removing or replacing items (sugar for coffee came and went twice). I’m afraid it is the bar at Alloro for me any time or to sum it up…I would walk over mountains for Zuma but just a block for Il Baretto.

I think this is a real find too – down a typical Soho street and opposite some rather dodgy bar adds to the character of this place. Unpretensious and not over expensive. Or to put it another way ‘under stated style & charm’. Italian food for sharing with grazing size portions. Food and ingredients from around Italy, most combinations work but some do not, but that is the fun of ordering multiple dishes to share. I'm not a fan of their puddings. Good for a quick, casual lunch at the bar to catch up with a lost friend or a more relaxed session at the back.

Went to The Ivy last week after the theatre. It is the utlimate post theatre restaurant which delivers highly efficient service, simple dishes done extremely well (fish cakes, cod and chips, steak tartare, kegeree etc). and a heady mix of metropolitan chic mixed with A-rated celebrity atmosphere. It is, in a nut shell, one of the reasons to live in London and avoid the countryside.

I just do not get why Sake No Hana has got a following from some celebs – it taking a space that has never really worked for restaurants, you have to go up in an escalator to the room and then down in a lift to the loos! Avoid the sunken seats if you do not want to take your shoes off or suffer backache.

New Japanese restaurant are in a difficult position as they are immediately compared with Zuma or Nobu – while Sake No Hana tries to deliver more traditional Japanese dishes I don't think it beats them for an overall experience. Or maybe it is just that I prefer the 'modern' twist to Japanese food. Service at the beginning was decidedly average but I hear it has improved now. Very expensive – probably just geared at Russians.

Quite simply one of the best Indians in town. Way above a 'curry house' yet without the pretentions of a posh Indian. Whilst I adhore a posh Indian like Amaya there are times when you just want an exceptional authentic Indian curry with a pint of larger. That is not to say that the cooking is simple and indeed there are regularly changing specials but it hits the spot well. Bright light decor makes it a top place to unwind after work. Certainly a hit with the Putney crowd.