1. 12 Temple Place Restaurant

While in its old guise the restaurant space at Swissôtel The Howard was called Jaan and served up exquisite French/Asian fusion creations, now it's changed to Temple Place and focuses on the best of British cuisine. It's simple, elegant and unpretentious – just like the locally sourced, seasonal ingredients in Brian Spark's food. That's not to say that the execution of his dishes can be described in the same way: thoroughly British they might be but uninspiring they ain't. I went for the assiette of suckling pig: loin, rillette, belly bacon and crackling to start. It sounds heavier than it actually was – the portions were carefully judged, allowing the celeriac, apple and grain mustard to come through. My guest likes to try a risotto whenever it appears on a menu, and the one here, with its earthy morels, chives and chargrilled baby leeks, almost saw her coming over all Meg Ryan-ish. Sometimes when your starters are so good, the main dish can be disappointing. Not so at Temple Place. I had the roast fillet of Scottish halibut with clams, oyster, spring onion and samphire potage with spring lovage, while my guest went a little lighter with roast fillet of linecaught sea bass with fennel, tomato and dill tagliatelle. With the carefully matched wines chosen for us by the charming and ever-so-handsome Restaurant Manager Alan Calzari, the meal, as well as the service scored top marks all round.

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