Out of the shadows into the spotlight

Launceston Place

This Kensington veteran has come a long way since opening its doors in March 1986. The original owners Nick Smallwood and Simon Slater led the mid-Eighties revolt against Nouvelle Cuisine, (tiny portions at staggering prices) and their first restaurant together was inspired by the holy trinity of success: good food, attentive service and affordable prices. Smallwood and Slater went on to recruit Rowley Leigh and open Kensington Place and for these two restaurants alone, they can be assured of a place in foodie's's Hall of Fame. Alas nothing stays the same forever and Smallwood and Slater were bought out by outsiders who slowly ran the restaurants into the ground.

But in the last year, a white knight in the form of D&D London came galloping onto the scene, installing a splendid new chef and slick waiting staff while revamping the interior to replace the faded chintz. Silver salt pots with blue glass linings are the only retro touch, everything else, is crisp, chic and new. D&D London (formerly Conran Restaurants) has a grown-up hands-off approach when nurturing talent. The group enticed Tristan Welch (above centre), previously head chef at the two Michelin-starred Petrus, and has "given" him the restaurant. He has chosen his own front of house team led by the engaging Hadi Aknin, also from Petrus, and the elegant, sophisticated food coming out of the kitchen is probably the most accomplished within the whole company.

Tristan has taken to his new responsibilities with ease and enthusiasm. He marries sophisticated technique with the well-sourced ingredients that are part of the best chefs' repertoire today. It is delicious cooking, clever without being contrived, fresh and modern. Try hand-dived west coast scallops with wild sorrel and apple, roast foie gras with rhubarb compote and elderflower milk soup, Cornish mackerel on toast with green tomatoes, or Cumbrian rose veal with beetroot puree and wild garlic. Launceston Place is in the heart of a leafy, upmarket enclave and the menu has plenty to keep the local pinstriped toffs happy: Tamworth suckling pig with creamed onions, traditional roast Long Horn beef, and the perfect nursery pudding, apple Charlotte with clotted cream.

Attractive pricing, (two-course lunch, £19, three-course á la carte dinner, £35) has sent reservations soaring. L.P. is rapidly becoming a neighbourhood favourite again, joined by the high-flier clientele that followed Tristan from Knightsbridge. The quirky layout of the restaurant remains as before with a warren of small (now smart) rooms brightened with natural light from street level windows and skylights, and cheerful modern paintings. A large area downstairs has been turned into an intimate, sexy private dining room (with a large TV screen). It's adjacent to the kitchen and you are served directly by the chef, with the menu and wines adjusted to your own special desires. It's one of the nicest private rooms in London. 1a Launceston Place, London W8, 020 7937 6912 www.launcestonplace-restaurant.co.uk

Quilon

Despite the British love affair with Indian food, we clump Indian restaurants together under the "ethnic" heading, and rarely assess them in relation to the overall restaurant scene. Michelin has made us see sense and the stars awarded to a Tamarind, Benares, Rasoi Vineet Bhatia and Amaya raised their profile and our appreciation of the excellent Indian food available in London - a far cry from the lager 'n' vindaloo student cliché.

In January this year, Michelin singled out Quilon and awarded a star to the chef, Sriram Aylur (above left), a quiet, intense perfectionist specialising in the food of the south west coast of India, the states of Kerala, Goa and Karnataka. This cuisine is much less pungent and spicy than the heavy meat dishes of the north, being based on seafood and vegetarian dishes inherent to South Indian culture. The cooking is light, fragrant and delicious, with starters including crab cakes with ginger, green chillies and curry leaves, mixed seafood broth, crisp fried banana flower and lentils, and coconut cream chicken with cardamom. In South Indian cooking, the heavy breads of the Punjab are translated into light-as-a-feather dosas and appams, the first a thin rice and lentil pancake, the second made from fermented rice flour, shaped into a deep bowl with crisp rim and spongy base, ideal for mopping up creamy sauces.

After the starters, there will be a refreshing intermediate course of rasam, a hot and sour soup made with tamarind. Main courses include lobster cooked with mango and ginger, fish fillets wrapped in banana leaves, seafood grills and crispy stuffed squid. The menu has some meat and game dishes and an extensive selection of items using unusual vegetables, fruit and legumes. There are salads (unusual for Indian restaurants) and fabulous puddings worth of any French patissier. For two months at the beginning of this year, Chef Aylur introduced a special Ayurvedic menu as a general introduction to the ancient Indian way of eating which combines nourishment with healing. It was a big hit with customers who want to eat lighter food as an antidote to winter.

Aylur comes from an intellectual, strictly vegetarian clan in the rich farming area that borders Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He first made his name in India under the auspices of the Taj group - in his early Twenties, he was executive chef the Karavali restaurant in the hi-tech city of Bangalore. Nine years ago he came to London to open Quilon, also part of the Taj group and sister restaurant to Bombay Brasserie in South Kensington. Quilon is in the heart of St James's, close to big business, Government offices and the corridors of power at Westminster. Lunchtimes are very popular with men in suits though evenings are livelier. The sedate interior is perked up with lavish jungle paintings and cane backed chairs, but there's an inescapable feeling of hotel-dining-room. However, despite the conspicuous absence of the ultra fashionable crowd, Quilon should be a destination for food lovers everywhere. It's not just an ethnic restaurant, it's a very good restaurant. 41 Buckingham Gate, London SW1, 020 7821 1899 www.thequilonrestaurant.com

Apsleys

It's a mystery. Why has the combination of a splendidly grand hotel, a very good chef Nick Bell (above right), a first class restaurant manager and what seems like an unlimited budget, not produced one of the most attractive new restaurants in town? Why hasn't Apsleys soared to the top of everyone's "must got there soon" list? The answer isn't in one huge error, rather it's a collection of tiny miscalculations that add up to a feeling of unease.

Take the name for instance. Apsley House across the busy roundabout of Hyde Park Corner is utterly British, the home of the Duke of Wellington when he was Prime Minister, basking in the glories of Waterloo. Apsleys restaurant serves Italian food to an international clientele in an American hotel. What's the connection? And then there's the decor. Now I admire oligarch luxe as much as the next person but only in its place. Grandiose double chandeliers do not sit well under a glazed conservatory roof. New York-based designer Adam Tihany has a great track record but he seems to have gone mad here with a forest of columns, buttoned sofas, scatter cushions, decorative door frames, a faux Old Master painting of Zeus and his surly consort Hera, walk-in wine cellars, art deco balustrades and high friezes, striped upholstery, thick swirly carpets, a grand piano, stop!

This over-the-top decor is just too swanky for the Italian food served here - the sort of cooking you should be enjoying in garden in Liguria or in a warm cathedral square in Umbria. I really want to enjoy the food because I've admired Nick Bell ever since he took over the reins at Cecconi's when Giorgio Locatelli moved to to open his own stunner behind Selfridges. Bell and Locatelli had worked together at Zafferano and Giorgio has the knack of instilling his love of Italian food into his fellow chefs. Andy Needham who remains at Zafferano is a case in point. Needham and Bell are Englishmen on their passports, Italian in the kitchen.

In Apsleys, richly granular Parmigiano-Reggiano comes to the table in bite-size chunks, along with a dipping dish of aged balsamic vinegar and crisp carta di musica bread. There are starters of delicious picnic food - creamy burrata, cured meats, smoked tuna and salads. If you close your eyes, you could be in Amalfi tucking into fat bigoli pasta coated with sea urchin sauce sharpened with chilli. There's silky handkerchief pasta with wild boar ragu, clam soup with knobbly fregola pasta from Sardinia, grilled fish, sweetbreads with fresh peas, broad beans and mint, and blood orange jelly with prosecco ice for afters. The thing is, you want to be in a slip of a summer dress or shorts and sandals, not all poshed up to be worthy of the Lanesborough. They even have Old Etonians on the front desk for God's sake.

And despite the rustic familiarity of the food, prices are pre-credit crunch, definitely for the recession-resistant classes. A decent meal for two will cost £140, not the £70-£80 you might expect from the style of food. There are three white wines by the glass starting wth Gavi di Gavi at £16 going up to Puligny-Montrachet at £55 - ouch. And an espresso coffee is £4.50, pre-service charge. I wish it well, I really do because the chef has a lot of talent and the ultra-friendly restaurant manager, Pasquale Cosmai, couldn't have been more agreeable. But I don't know who will go there. Perhaps there still are hotel residents afraid to go out into the wild streets of Belgravia in case they get gunned down by terrorists. But native Londoners, while they still pop in to the Library Bar for cocktails, won't be making a beeline for Apsleys. The hotel's super-suave managing director, Geoffrey Gilardi, needs to start tinkering. The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, London SW1, 020 7259 5599 www.lanesborough.com