Over the last decade or so, London’s dining scene has become so diverse that there are literally hundreds of excellent places to eat for every taste in the world. Living within easy reach of so many great restaurants, we certainly make efforts to occasionally experience some of them. This entry provides brief reviews of the various places we visited.

Soho, Chinatown and Covent Garden

J Sheekey ♥♥ is more than 100 years old, opened before the turn of 20th century by a seafood market stallholder. It went through several re-incarnations in its storied history and is now one of the top seafood restaurants in London.

The atmosphere is certainly upscale, the service is impeccable, the prices are what you’d expect them. The food is entirely delectable, from razor clams or jellied eels for starters to the main courses of sole or trout. Delicious desserts, good wine list. There are meat dishes as well, but who would want them…

The restaurant is located in the middle of Soho Theatre district, and is not easy to get into. Reservations are absolutely necessary, and often are needed in advance, but 8pm on Saturday, when theatre-goers are enjoying the performances, is a good bet.

This is the first restaurant that we feel compelled to downgrade a bit because of the prices. It is absolutely beyond reproach, but is certainly quite expensive. Our damage: £290 for a meal for four, including appetizers, main courses, desserts and two bottles of wine. Last visit: July 2007.

Where Chinatown meets Soho, at the edge of West End Theatre district, Bar Shu ♥♥ is a “modern” Chinese restaurant. Modern both in terms of dishes and presentation, and also in terms of staff equipment – all waiters have hands-free phone cords hanging down from their ears, into which they continuously bark what I can only assume were orders and requests. They are quite a bit annoying with too frequent visits to take away plates, even ones that are still being worked on. Conversely, unasked-for teapot refills are quite welcome.

The Sichuan cuisine is decidedly on the spicier side. Very delicious, but very hot. Menu items are marked with one, two or three peppers to indicate the level of spiciness. “Three-peppers” mixed meat in a “fiery” sauce required some careful picking through to avoid unpleasant sensations. The portion was huge as well, and I had to admit defeat at some point…

The upper-floor dining rooms (there are two additional levels above ground) are considerably quieter, although a bit less ambient. On a repeat trip to Bar Shu, being seated on the first floor, we did not experience as much waiter activity around us as on the prior trip and on the ground floor.

If you like spicy or simply feel a bit adventurous, it is a great culinary experience!

Our damage: £170 for four people, including appetizers, main courses and a bottle of wine. Last visit: Fall 2007.

One block away on the same street as Bar Shu is El Cantara ♥, serving a mix of North African and Spanish cuisines. There are three levels of dining rooms – we were seated on the middle level. Very good service, all the way to a beautiful rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” by one of the waiters. A belly dancer spiced up the proceedings at some point. The food is pretty good, but not raising to the level of exceptional. The wine list is quite limited, although we were able to find a good bottle.

There are two tasting menus, each consisting of half a dozen tapas, three of more raciones and dessert and tea. The slightly cheaper option is at £22.95 per person, the other at £26.95. Our reservation made through TopTable afforded us a 25% discount. The resulting damage, as divided between 16 people, was £58 per couple; that included a handful of wine bottles. Last visit: February 2009.

Situated on a happening street in Soho, Montplaisir ♥♥ is an authentic French culinary experience. The waiters speak passable English, but are unmistakably French in both their accent and their demeanor. The wine list is more than adequate. The food is simply excellent. Selecting from nearly thirty types of cheeses for dessert is a treat in itself. Our damage: £200 for a full meal for four, including two bottles of wine. Last visit: April 2007.

Not far from the Covent Garden, but also within a stone’s throw from the British Museum, Sitaaray ♥ is an Indian restaurant that puts a spin on the South American churrascaria theme. Various meats come to your plate one piece per, and you have a chance later to request another helping of the ones that you most liked. There is also requisite Indian finger food and a couple of curries, plus at least two kinds of naan bread. The place is very popular, the service is reasonable, the ambiance unmistakably Indian, with a TV playing unending clips of singing movie numbers. Cost of meal per person (excluding drinks and desserts): £18. Last visit: March 2007.

Literally on the corner of the Covent Garden itself there is a nice French-inspired Palm Court Brasserie ♥. The sophisticated Parisian-style atmosphere creates a leisurely environment, and the food is pretty good, although not outstanding. Very popular with theater-going crowd, and on our recent meal there, several tables were actually turned over a couple of times. 3-course prix-fixe dinner costs only £15 (including a glass of Bellini), but one of the four choices for the main course – undoubtedly, the most popular – was not available, which is a big demerit in our book. Nonetheless, a pleasant experience. Last visit: Winter 2008.

On the opposite side of the same street, we chanced across a Mediterranean place called Carthage ♥. The food was great in all aspects, and the service, while unhurried, was nonetheless quite agreeable. I cannot intelligently vouch for authenticity, but we had mixed grill, lamb kebab, penne all’arabiata and spaghetti bolognese, and everyone was left happy. Greek, Turkish and North African appetizers were well received too.

We had Turkish coffee and Moroccan tea pot with our desserts, and having had experienced Moroccan tea before (via an erstwhile neighbor of ours), I can emphatically say that the tea was made right. The only problem of the entire meal was the fact that the cheesecake that my kids fancied was frozen, and they had to substitute it with apple pie, which got rave reviews, just as the chocolate gateau had. Our damage: £70 for a mix of appetizers and entrées for four, 12.5% service added to the bill. Last visit: Fall 2007.

Near Charing Cross, at the beginning of Craven Passage, sits Sherlock Holmes Restaurant ♥. As the flyer tells it, it is located at the spot of the old Northumberland Hotel, where Sir Henry Baskerville stayed on his visit to London to see Holmes.

The place is a regular English pub, but as many other pubs it has a full-service restaurant on the upper floor. The fare is traditional British, with staples such as fish and chips or toad in the hole, but all main dishes are cleverly named after tales and characters about the famous detective (i.e., bangers and mash – which translates to sausages with mashed potatoes – carries the name of Dr Watson’s Favorite).

The place is decorated with pictures and portraits related to Holmes’ portrayals in movies and television. There is also a room behind the glass recasting Holmes’s apartment, complete with a mannequin of “Empty House” fame with a prominent hole through its forehead. Rather spooky, but gives the place a lot of character. Main courses are £10-16. Last visit: June 2008.

Note: This place has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes Museum, which is located in a different part of the city.

Mayfair

Mamounia Lounge ♥♥, on Curzon Street, attracts pretty fashionable crowd. The cuisine is Moroccan, Lebanese and Mediterranean “fusion”, supplemented by a good wine list. There is an open-air seating area, and the ground level is a Moroccan-styled lounge, with low tables and cushion seats. The lower level is a contemporary restaurant, with an adjoining shisha room.

We had a great meal at the restaurant, starting with a large variety of appetizers, and getting different tagines for main courses. Tagines especially were excellent, but one person in our party decided to go for a mixed grill instead and was no less satisfied.

The service was attentive and professional. The live entertainment started at 10pm with a nice selection of music played by a keyboardist, then proceeded onto belly dancing and Moroccan singing. As we were leaving after 11pm, the place was just getting into a full-swing reverie.

Our damage for a small birthday celebration by a party of eight: £485, which included 4 bottles of medium-priced wine. Last visit: September 2008.

Marylebone

La Porte des Indes ♥♥♥ is located a block away from the bustling Oxford Street near the Marble Arch. Advertized as “Indian cuisine with a difference”, it does provide a more refined take on the Indian dining experience, with “French” Indian specialties on the menu alongside with Tandoori and Thai dishes.

The dining room is on two levels, of which the upper level (ground floor) is seemingly slightly more pleasant. The decor is modern Oriental, and the staff wears festive traditional garb. The service is very prompt and pleasant.

The food is fantastic. We tried dakshin lentil soup, magret de canard, two different versions of kohe kashmiri (spicy lamb), and a sampler talis called “Plateau des Indes”, with six small portions of different dishes complemented with rice.

As the dinner we had here was celebratory, we loaded on quite a number of drinks and desserts which inflated the bill a bit. 12.5% service charge was automatically added to the bill. Including two bottles of wine, our overall damage for a party of four (all adults): £235. Last visit: December 2008.

Belgravia

Mango Tree ♥♥, outside Buckingham Palace grounds not far from the Victoria train station, is a renowned Thai restaurant serving traditional cuisine in a sophisticated setting. Our later cooking-show encounter with its corporate head chef, Mark Read, actually managed to dampen my enthusiasm for it, but the recollection of the restaurant is very positive, with excellent menu, delicious food and great service. Our damage: £190 for a full meal for five, including wine. Last visit: January 2007.

Literally next door is Volt ♥♥♥, a contemporary Italian lounge and restaurant. Excellent service and fantastic food. We had a gourmet tasting menu called Mamma Mia!, which includes 6 different appetizers and primi for each two people to share (carpaccio, gnocchi, rigatoni, mozzarella, a couple of salads), a choice of a main course (one of us had a sea bass, another vitello alla milanese and two people opted for beef filet, which turned out the best choice of all; not that the others were bad), and a choice of desserts and coffee/tea. Desserts received great marks all by themselves, especially the tiramisu.

Mamma Mia! menu is £44.50 per person; there is also a slightly cheaper alternative at £38.50. We got in on a special deal for 50% off the menu price. Only alcohol was extra, and we had two bottles of our favorite Malbec Terrazzas from the comprehensive wine list. Our damage for a party of four (all adults): £180, including wine and gratuities. Last visit: January 2009.

Pimlico

We tend to like tapas places in general, and Goya Pimlico ♥♥ does not disappoint.

There is a bar on the ground level, with the main restaurant located in the basement. Nary a decoration in sight, but the not-very-large dining room has an inviting feel, with a couple of alcove seating areas as well as some tucked-away corner tables.

The service is mostly prompt and friendly; if you can order in Spanish, you score additional goodwill points. Over our two trips to the restaurant, we ordered more than a dozen different tapas. Pollo al Ajillo, Chorizo al Vino and Hígado Encebollado were especially well-received, but we were duly impressed by almost every other. Sangria was reputedly outstanding, while my choice of Spanish wine from quite a broad selection was certainly above average.

Several desserts were no longer available when we got to that point of dinner on one trip, but that was the only small hiccup in an otherwise excellent meal. Our damage: £100 for a dozen tapas shared by four people, with two bottles of wine. Last visit: June 2007.

There is a sister restaurant, Goya Belgravia, which I assume provides similar overall experience.

Kensington

The Mimino restaurant ♥ is located on Kensington High Street, a couple of blocks away from the eponymous tube station. For those who recognize the name, yes, it is a Georgian (as in former Soviet republic Georgian) place.

Nice experience, including live musical accompaniment of mostly Russian (and occasional Georgian) pop numbers. The food is not superb, just good, and on our latest visit, the main courses were all somehow half-cold when they reached our table. Traditional Georgian dishes abound (khachapuri, lobio, chakhokhbili, odjakhuri, etc.), but somehow, on the whole, they do not raise to the level of our recollections of youth. Kharcho is fantastic, though, as are most appetizers. There is a sizable selection of Georgian wines, for those who find them appealing.

The service was a bit amateurish in the past, but improved recently to very pleasant levels. Average damage per couple at a large party that includes several bottles of wine: £75-85. Last visit: December 2008.

Notting Hill

Negozio Classica ♥♥♥ is a little bar/lounge on the corner of Portobello Road and Westbourne Grove. Also a store specializing in Italian wine and products, the intimate eatery offers an excellent choice of cold cuts and light dishes to complement its broad variety of wines from all regions of Italy. We had various selections of cheeses and meats, including a fantastic deer meat, as well as crostini and bruschetta. Our damage: £135 for four people, including 3 bottles of moderately-priced wine, before tips. Very friendly service. Last visit: January 2009.

Bayswater

Bella Italia ♥ is located on Queensway, a few blocks from the Kensington Gardens and right by the Bayswater tube station. The food is unmistakably Italian, of an excellent quality. Pizzas went great with the kids, different types of pastas – with adults. We also had an excellent mushroom soup and some passable house wine.

The service is fairly prompt. Our damage: £60 for four people. Last visit: January 2007.

St John’s Wood and north of the Regent’s Park

The parts of northwest London abutting Regent’s Park are by turns unassuming, sleepy or happening. These mostly residential areas in tube Zone 2 are both far away from touristy London, yet within a fairly short distance of the city center. There are quite a number of great places to eat across them.

XO ♥♥ is a chic conceptual establishment on Belsize Lane, specializing in pan-Asian cuisine. Sleek colonial style decor creates a sophisticated atmosphere. The dining room was not very crowded on a Sunday night, which could be explained away by either the time of the week or the seemingly out-of-place location.

The menu consists of a mix of updated takes on traditional Asian, Japanese and Thai dishes, all entirely delectable. The service is prompt and friendly. Our damage: £120 for a full meal for three, including cocktails. Last visit: August 2007.

Beyoglu ♥♥ is a little Turkish place a hundred yards or so away from XO, and it was packed on a Thursday night (some tables were actually turned over a couple of times during our three hours at the restaurant). The walls are decorated with beautifully painted dishes, and unobtrusive Oriental music played throughout the night.

Every staple of Turkish cuisine is represented on the menu, and every appetizer and main course that we sampled tasted fantastic, be it “boring” shish kebab, or saslik, or more elaborate Iskender kebab.

The wine list is rather limited, but our choice ended up being pretty good. The service is very friendly. One small shortcoming is that the back of the room gets pretty hot and the air conditioner is positioned in such a way that it blows directly on people who do not entirely need it. We had to have a waiter on a turn-it-on/turn-it-off schedule every few minutes.

Our damage: £230 for seven people, with four bottles of wine. Last visit: September 2007.

L’Aventure ♥♥ is a French restaurant located on Blenheim Terrace just a couple of blocks away from the famous Abbey Road Beatles crossing in St John’s Wood. (Next to it is a new Italian establishment that replaced Rosmarino, once featured here.)

The menus are entirely in French and contain many of the staples of the French cuisine. Pricing is on prix-fixe basis, either for two or three courses, depending on whether you choose to have dessert. The wine list is on pricier side, but our low-end selection of Bordeaux was quite good.

I had an excellent soupe de poisson and a delicious magret de canard. The friends I was there with were all entirely satisfied with their choices of escargot, lotte (that’s monkfish), mignon de veau, etc. Very pleasant and understated service.

Our damage: &0163;280 for a party of five, including two bottles of wine, with a 12.5% service charge already added in. Last visit: August 2008.

Toresano ♥♥ is a tapas place on Boundary Road not far from where it crosses with Abbey Road.

While other restaurants on the same block appeared half-empty, Toresano was rather busy on Friday night. A couple of tables were turned over during our stay.

The service is very friendly, and the tapas are of very good quality. The selection includes every known staple of this culinary genre, and there are main courses as well (which we did not try). Mejillones, pulpo, albondigas and other offerings were very well received by our demanding company. We did have a slight hold-up with an aubergine dish, which arrived a long time after it had been ordered, but as we ordered two dozen tapas in total (some of them were seconds, though), we were not much inconvenienced.

Tapas £4.50-7 each. Our damage: £200 for six people, including three bottles of wine. Last visit: January 2008.

Lemonia ♥ is near Chalk Farm, just to the north of Regents Park. Some reviewers go as far as call it the best Greek restaurant outside of Greece; I would be less exuberant in my praise, but I certainly liked our experience there.

The place is popular and serves every staple of Greek food, from cold appetizers to meze combination. We dined with several friends and ordered many different dishes, none of which was a disappointment.

We also bravely selected a Greek wine to accompany the meal and liked it enough to order several more bottles of the same over the course of three-hour banquet.

Some of the waiters were rather economical in terms of speaking, which I ascribe to their little mastery of English. Our “main” waiter, however, made small talk, jokes and recommendations, so the overall service was on the pleasant side.

Our damage: £250 for a party of nine, including several bottles of wine. Last visit: Fall 2007.

Singapore Gardens ♥ is on Fairfax Road in Swiss Cottage. The contemporary Oriental restaurant boasts an extensive menu, which includes several combination plates, each with a handful of different appetizers and one or several main courses (combinations are for two or three people). For our party of four, we ordered one of such combinations, Jasmine, plus a couple of bowls of soup and three more “standalone” dishes (wasabi prawns are exquisite), which was more than enough for a great meal.

Wine selection is somewhat ordinary. The service is very prompt and friendly. The place seems to be quite popular, but we ate there on Valentine’s Day, so I cannot lend an opinion on how busy it gets on a regular date.

Our damage: £155 including two bottles of wine and gratuity for a party of four adults. Last visit: February 2009.

Camden

Half a step from Mornington Crescent located a wonderful Japanese eatery Asakusa ♥♥♥. Its hole-in-the-wall appearance is especially reinforced if you end up in the basement dining room, while the dining area on the ground floor is visually more respectable, if cramped nonetheless.

The menu is huge and caters to all tastes, from sushi, sashimi and tempura to traditional Japanese dishes that non-natives rarely sample. Our group of four ordered about a dozen of items, including soups, salads, appetizers and main dishes, which were delivered as they became ready, providing our table with a conveyor belt of incoming plates. All delicious.

The place is very busy nightly; for a larger group you will be well served with a reservation. We were warned when ordering that raw-fish dishes would not arrive for about an hour due to capacity constraints, but it did not deter us from ordering them. Overall, the service is understated, but friendly, and well-coping.

Not a glamorous meal, but excellent food and unbeatable value. Our damage: £100 for a dozen different plates for a party of four, including sake and beers. Last visit: January 2008.

Bankside and Southwark

Bankside and Southwark area on the Thames’s south bank have been revitalized over the last few years, acquiring in the process many hip and inviting places to eat.

We had lunch at The Real Greek ♥, where you can partake in the meze concept. Similar to tapas, the portions are small, and you would be well served to order a few different things (or possibly a Meat Sharer that combines several meats and salads). Don’t forget the flatbread to use with spreads, such as taramosalata. You can order additional dips, such as Parsley Aioli. Everything is tasty, and well presented. Our waiter at some point ignored us for a rather prolonged period of time, but overall the service was acceptable. Our damage: £43 for a meal for four. Last visit: Summer 2007.

Tucked into railway arches next to the Southwark Cathedral is a small coffee shop called Cafe Brood ♥, which is popular for breakfast with the Borough Market-goers. It also has excellent burgers and paella cooked on an open grill. The guy manning the grill is a bit of a Soup Nazi, but the quality of the quick bites is great.

The Borough Market itself has a number of food stands and cafés, but we have not personally sampled any.

At one corner of the market, there is Black & Blue ♥♥ steakhouse, with a limited but sophisticated wine selection and menu, the latter including several cuts of meat, as well as burgers and salad plates. The 600g (a bit over 20oz) Côte de Boeuf ended up being shared by four people in our party, but I can see myself handling it on my own; it was excellent. The service is a bit leisurely, but friendly. Our damage: £97 for one main course, three appetizers, several extra sides and a bottle of Malbec, with 12.5% service charge included in the bill. Last visit: March 2008.

Also within the confines of the market is Roast, on the upper level of the pavilion named The Floral Hall. This was one of those places where the meal was not bad in any particular way, but the overall impression was of middling variety.

The service is friendly and deferential, which was the main positive. The open-space layout is nice and modern-looking, and there is a partial view of the St Paul’s Cathedral from the raised part of the restaurant. The menu is not very extensive, and with the exception of one single appetizer (herring roes on a toast) and one main course (a fish stew remarkably evocative of a Provençal soupe de poisson), all of our selections were no better than ok (half a dozen oysters were quite good, but there is little credit to the restaurant for that, I suppose). Funnily, the two outstanding choices were both made by the same person, so the rest of the party could not get excited about anything. The sirloin, for instance, was pretty average.

The wine list is quite extensive, but on the pricier side. The overall value for money is low, even though the place is seemingly quite popular: A couple of tables were turned over during our meal, and there did not seem to be empty tables when we were leaving. Our damage: £220 for a party of four, including two bottles of wine and 12.5% gratuities automatically added to the bill. Last visit: April 2009.

A large block, facing the Borough Market on one side and almost coming out to the water on the other, is taken by the wine-dedicated enterprise called Vinopolis. Its corner nearest to the river is occupied by the eponymous cantina ♥♥. The cuisine is Mediterranean-inflected, and the portions are decidedly on the smaller “French” side. The service is nice and friendly, and the place does not get completely full and stays far from loud, with above-average sophistication level of the clientele. The food is quite good, though, with excellent scallops or goat cheese tart, or a tasty seasonal soup, for a starter and several savory choices among mains.

The wine list, as expected, is very extensive, with the downside of slightly higher pricing. Selections in our price range, which normally encompasses reasonably good choices, here are not too impressive, although I managed to select a pretty nice Argentinian malbec on our last visit.

On our first visit, ordering from the main menu, our damage came to £230 for a party of five, including two wine bottles, with 12.5% service charge included in the bill.

On a repeat visit, we chose from special set menus, limited in selection, but nonetheless quite adequate. Two-course meal cost £14.95, with a desert that added up to £18.95. With two bottles of wine and 12.5% service charge included, for a party of four the total damage was £135. Last visit: April 2009.

Canary Wharf

There are several Gaucho Grill ♥♥ restaurants in London and England, one of which, at Canary Wharf, I have visited on several occasions. The specialty is Argentinean steaks, and, boy, are those steaks out of this world!!

My favorite cut is Churrasco de Lomo, which is delectably marinated and is impossibly tender. There are enough non-steak fares to satisfy alternative tastes (Natasha had Adobo chicken which she was more than satisfied with on one of the visits), and I highly recommend a ceviche sampler for an appetizer.

For dessert, try Dulce de Leche Cheesecake. Very light, fluffy and delicious to the last bite.

The service is very friendly, and the demonstration of various meat cuts can be a highlight of the menu selection process. When the restaurant fills up, the attention of your waiter may wander a bit, but I have not found a particular problem even at the most busy times. The bartenders, on the other hand, somehow project amateurishness and often take inordinate time to prepare not very elaborate cocktails.

The wine list is very extensive, with Malbec dominating the selection.

The restaurant is located on the Canary waterfront, with outside seating for drinks (supposedly, in warm months, they even serve food outside). The interior is modern with partially open kitchen; many chairs use animal hides for upholstery.

The place gets very busy on weeknights (reservations are essential – or prepare to wait for quite some time), but not so much on weekends. Damage for a party of four: £215, including gratuities and £35 for a bottle of wine.

A visit in April of 2008 was a bit of a disappointment, as the meats were less than perfect. We were warned beforehand of the imminently changing menu, so I was both willing to allow them a mulligan and curious as to what the menu will look like next time. On a follow-up visit in June, there was a slight change in available cuts, but the quality somehow remained slightly lower than I remembered from the past. Last visit: June 2008.

In addition, I have visited many local pubs and eateries in Canary Wharf.

The boardwalk that runs parallel to Hertsmere Road on West India Quay is home to half a dozen pubs, sitting all in a row. Bar 38 is the most popular of them, especially on Thursdays in good weather, attracting mostly young crowd.

Brown’s ♥♥ is popular as well, but with a bit more established professionals. It has a bar and an informal dining room downstairs. The ground level is home to a more formal main restaurant. I visited the place a couple of times: Burgers are above-average, the main courses are quite good as well (but I always end up spending time mingling around the table too much to pay attention to the food).

A few doors down is La Tasca ♥, a tapas franchise, which is probably a notch below some other representatives of the Spanish cuisine that I have been to, but still quite enjoyable.

Across the pedestrian bridge, on Fisherman’s Walk, there are several more pubs and restaurants. I only had drinks and snacks at Cat & Canary, but went to a few lunches at Davey’s ♥. The fare is traditional, the service very prompt and friendly, the place itself is nice and is frequented by suits from nearby offices.

Brodie’s, another pub on Fisherman’s Walk, is great for drinks, but a lunch there was a disappointment; limited menu, average quality.

A few steps away, on the North Colonnade, sits a very popular Thai place called Sri Nam ♥. It gets very busy and noisy both during lunchtime and on workday evenings, with many professionals flocking in to its bar. The proper restaurant is upstairs, where I once attended a dim-sum-like banquet. I like Thai food to start with, and what I recall from that meal was beyond reproach. The place employs at least one she-man, who always attracts disbelieving looks from non-regulars.

Across, on the upper level of Cabot Place, there are a couple of popular lunching places, such as Chili’s (not at all disagreeable), Pizza Express ♥ (which, belying its name, has an excellent selection of gourmet pizzas) and Itsu Sushi (conveyor set-up; disappointing selection). There are many fast- or prepared-food, take-away establishments throughout the big underground mall. Birley’s Salted Beef, in a corner of 1 Canada Place basement level, is my favorite for sandwich-type lunch; at busy times, with half a dozen servers working simultaneously, it still grows a queue of 20-30 people.

Across from it is Nicolas bar, whose affiliation with the wine seller of the same name facilitates a pretty good selection of French wines.

On Reuters Plaza, near the Canary Wharf tube station, are a couple of other popular places. I’ve had several drinks at Smollensky’s, which is also a popular restaurant. Next to it is an Italian cafe, Carlucchio’s, where I once had an unremarkable lunch; in good weather, it’s outdoor sitting area fills out in the first few minutes of lunchtime; it is less busy after-hours if all you want is drinks.

On the waterfront around the corner from them is a Cafe Rouge ♥ franchise, which, unlike other establishments in this chain, boasts fairly efficient service.

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