Hot and chic at Yalla Yalla Jas Lehal/TLP

The Best

Best posh spot

Helene Darroze at the ­Connaught

She may not be the capital’s most famous chef, but the exquisite food Darroze cooks up at the wonderfully old-school Connaught suggests she might be its best.

16 Carlos Place, W1, 020 3147 7200, Green Park, meal for two: £200

Best Street Food

Yalla Yalla (read the review)

Don’t be put off by the dingy Soho alley, the quality of the authentic Lebanese street food at Yalla Yalla wouldn’t embarrass a good restaurant in Beirut - read our Yalla Yalla review

1 Green’s Court, W1, 020 7287 7663, Piccadilly Circus, meal for two: £45

Best Romantic Date

Odette’s

With its charming boudoir-style decor stopping just short of OTT, this Primrose Hill restaurant, specialising in fine British food and quiet intimacy, is just the kind of place to grease the wheels of love.

130 Regent’s Park Rd, NW1, 020 7586 8569, Chalk Farm, meal for two: £100

Best French

Wild Honey

Far less pricey than it looks, Wild Honey’s inventive French cooking and handsome wood-panelled ­interior make it one of the best deals in town.

12 St. George St, W1, 020 7758 9160, Bond Street, meal for two: £90

Best Tapas

Barrafina

There have been some fantastic Spanish openings in the past few years (Dehesa, Terra Brindisa, El Faro), but Barrafina’s marriage of friendly, counter-top eating and flawless tapas gives it the edge.

54 Frith St, W1, 020 7813 8016, Tottenham Court Road, meal for two: £90

Best for Breakfast

The Albion

From kippers to muesli, Terence Conran’s cute, smartened-up version of a traditional British caff does a great breakfast that doesn’t cost a bomb. Be warned though: it’s so popular, it’s often packed out.

2 Boundary St, E2, 020 7729 1051 (no bookings taken), Liverpool Street, breakfast for two: £17

Best Gastropub

32 Great Queen Street

Attractive, stripped-down decor and simple, well-prepared Brit grub make this good-value Covent Garden gastro one of the best to open in recent years.

32 Great Queen St, WC2, 020 7242 0622, Holborn, meal for two: £75

Best Indian

Chennai Dosa

It may be strip-lit and basic, but this cheap-as-chips South Indian snack restaurant proves you don’t always need to blow your wad in the West End to eat well in London.

529 High Rd, Wembley, HA0, 020 8782 2222 (branches in Croydon, East Ham and Manor Park), Wembley Central, meal for two: £18

Best out of town

Fish and Grill

With good fish and homegrown classics cooked and served with love and attention, this Croydon place is just what local restaurants should be all about.

48 South End, Croydon, CR0, 0208 774 4060, South Croydon, meal for two: £75

Best Japanese

Dinings

There’s not much glamour to this backstreet Marylebone spot, but ex-Nobu chef Tomonari Chiba’s bold Japanese fusion cooking is phenomenal.

22 Harcourt St, W1, 020 7723 0666, Marylebone, meal for two: £100

Best Italian

L’Anima

L’Anima’s marriage of delicate, ­delicious southern Italian food with luxuriously minimalist decor is a winning formula.

1 Snowden St, EC2, 020 7422 7000, Liverpool Street, meal for two: £110

Best Chinese

Baozi Inn (read our review)

Don’t let the curt service and hard chairs deter you, the cheap, excellent food at this Communist-styled cafe serving dishes from Beijing and Chengdu is a breath of fresh air in mediocre Chinatown - Read our Baozi Inn review

25 Newport Court, WC2, 020 7287 6877, Leicester Square, meal for two: £35

And the worst...

Divo

Bizarre decor, slapstick service and penis-shaped chicken kievs made this plush Ukrainian a laughing stock when it opened (though things have apparently very much improved).

12 Waterloo Pl, SW1, 020 7484 1355

Foxtrot Oscar

When Gordon Ramsay revamped this Sloane favourite with a ghastly 70s office look and bland grub, it was the first sign he was losing his touch.

79 Hospital Rd, SW3, 020 7352 4448

Vanilla

With overpriced, unappetising, poncey food and a screamingly tacky interior, the survival of Fitzrovia’s Vanilla is one of the restaurant world’s great mysteries.

131 Great Titchfield St, W1, 020 3008 7763

But what's next?

Aqua – Due 21 September

This huge new joint in Regent Street’s old Dickins & Jones building will house two restaurants: one serving Basque cuisine, the other Japanese.

Galvin La Chapelle / Café De Luxe – November 2009

The fab Galvin brothers bring their skills to two new venues in Spitalfields.

Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental – ­autumn 2010

At last, the Willy Wonka of haute cuisine is to bring his oddball but wonderful cooking to the capital.