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Masala Zone
This spacious place with outside seating set back from Upper St in Islington is one of the best Indian budget options in London. Thoroughly modern in design, it serves up meals centred on its famous thalis, as well as tandoor and grilled dishes. There's also a Soho branch ( M04A6; 7287 9966; 9 Marshall St W1; ;Oxford Circus) serving equally authentic fare.
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Masaledar
If you're a true curry junkie and neither Brick Lane nor Whitechapel will do, the capital's contemporary hotspot is in the suburban wilds of SW17 - or Tooting. Near Tooting Broadway and Tooting Bec tube stations, you'll find rows of neighbouring curry houses, from Bangladeshi to Sri Lankan, including Masaledar, a tandoori house with East African specialities.
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Matsuri
This high-quality and very authentic Japanese restaurant on the fringe of the City can sometimes feel a little sterile, although the quality of the food is extremely high. With a sushi counter and stylish dining room on the ground floor and a large teppanyaki room in the basement where the meals are prepared in all seriousness by celebrated chef Hiroshi Sudo, there's plenty of choice.
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Mela
Despite its location in the heart of theatreland, this bustling Shaftesbury Ave eatery serves some pretty authentic dishes from across India (with an emphasis on tandoor) and there is magnificent choice for vegetarians. We love the décor too, with colourful papier-mâché Ferris wheels and naive paintings of carnivals and fairs ( mela means 'festival' in Hindi).
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Mirch Masala
The new(ish) kid on the block and thus even more eager to please, 'Chilli and Spice' is a less hectic alternative to New Tayyab and the Lahore Kebab House, and the food is every bit as good. Order the prawn tikka as a 'warmer' followed by the masala karella, a curry-like dish made from bitter gourd, and a karahi meat dish.
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Mr Wing
The oddly named Mr Wing is a very smart Asian-fusion place offering the full spectrum of Chinese cuisine with a few bits of Thai cooking thrown in. To recommend it are a plush, dark interior filled with greenery and tropical aquariums, helpful staff and a basement where live jazz sessions are held regularly.
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New Tayyab
From the enticing aroma on entering, it's clear this buzzing Punjabi restaurant is in another league to its Brick Lane equivalents. Seekh kebabs, masala fish and other starters served on sizzling hot plates are delicious, as are accompaniments like dhal, naan and raita. With New Tayyab's now appearing regularly in guidebooks and the huge London Royal Hospital round the corner, you should expect to wait for a table (and there will always be a doctor in the house).
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New World
Chinatown doesn't have much to recommend itself in the way of food these days but if you hanker after dim sum, the three-storey New World can oblige. All the old favourites - from ha gau (prawn dumpling) to pai gwat (steamed pork spare rib)- are available from steaming carts wheeled around the dining room daily to .
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Nobu
A London designer's idea of a Japanese restaurant with some of the best Asian food in town, Nobu is minimalist in décor, anonymously efficient in service, and out of this world when it comes to exquisitely prepared and presented sushi and sashimi. The black cod with miso and salmon kelp roll are divine.
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Radha Krishna Bhavan
If you're a true curry junkie and neither Brick Lane nor Whitechapel will do, the capital's contemporary hotspot is in the suburban wilds of SW17 - or Tooting. Near Tooting Broadway and Tooting Bec tube stations, you'll find rows of neighbouring curry houses, from Bangladeshi to Sri Lankan, including Radha Krishna Bhavan, serving superlative Keralan cuisine.
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Red Fort
The Red Fort has always been a trailblazer; as recently as the 1980s it was one of the very few places in London offering genuine Indian cuisine. It still retains its edge with glamorous decor and such dishes as nizami kaliya (kingfish in a spicy sauce with curry leaves) and mahi tikka (smoked dorade with fresh mint, garlic and green chilli).
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Roka
This stunner of a Japanese restaurant combines casual dining (wooden benches) with savoury titbits delivered from the robatayaki (grill) kitchen in the centre and modern decor, with the dominating materials steel and glass the colour grey. Sushi is around £5 to around £8 .
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Royal China
Though admittedly just one of four outlets of a chain, including the Bayswater branch (tel: 7221 2535; 13 Queensway W2; Bayswater), this is London's best Cantonese restaurant and excels in both standard and unusual dim sum, available daily from to . This branch has impressive Thames views, especially in the warmer months when tables are set out at the water's edge.
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Sakura
This very authentic Japanese restaurant has something for everyone throughout the day - from sushi and sashimi (around £2 to around £5 ) to tempura, sukiyaki and a host of sets (around £9 to around £24 ). Just opposite is a small Japanese shopping centre with grocery store, cafe-restaurant and pub.
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Shanghai Blues
What was once the St Giles Library now houses one of London's most stylish Chinese restaurants. The dark and atmospheric interior - think black and blue tables and chairs punctuated by bright red screens - recalls imperial Shanghai with a modern twist, and the menu is just as disarming, particularly the 'new style' dim sum served as appetisers, the pipa duck and the twice-cooked pork belly. There's a vast selection of teas, some of them quite rare. There's a three-course weekday lunch for around £15 and live jazz on Friday and Saturday nights.
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Snazz.Sichuan
As one London-based hack who knows a thing or two about Chinese food put it, 'Snazz is almost too authentic'. And we know what he means; tongue in hot oil, pig ear with ginger and special cooked pig blood in casserole just don't cut the mustard even with old China hands like us. But other Sichuan favourites - twice-cooked pork, gong bo chicken with chillies and peanuts, a noodle dish with mince called 'ants climbing trees' - are also available at this very authentic restaurant catering almost exclusively to Chinese people. Look for the rickshaw out front.
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Taman Gang
This basement restaurant just metres from the traffic chaos of Marble Arch is an oasis of tranquillity, suffused with incense and buzzing with a smart yet surprisingly informal Park Lane crowd. The interesting menu fuses Indonesian and Malaysian with Chinese and Japanese classics. On our last visit, the crispy aromatic duck roll was superb, while honey-glazed lamb cutlets with crispy lotus was of a similarly high standard but low size.
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Tokyo Diner
Everyday Japanese food at everyday prices is what Tokyo Diner's all about, and you can't ask for fairer than that. The waiters are all Japanese; they are discreet and graceful in their service, and very knowledgeable about the food. The miso is ordinary but the Japanese-style curry is tops, as are the noodle dishes.
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Tsunami
The food at this celebrated restaurant exhibits the style and taste you'd expect from an ex-Nobu chef. The sushi is exquisite, but it's the more unusual dishes, like ebi prawns wrapped in Greek pastry and butternut squash, and especially the mint-tea duck with pear and sweet honey miso, that will really bowl you over.
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Ubon
Ubon gets as many rave reviews as its big sister, Nobu, which is of course its name spelt backward. While customers argue over whether you really get value for money here (set lunch is a snip at around £21 to around £31 ), the selling point has to be the breathtaking Thames views from every corner, including the fabulous sushi bar. The restaurant has its own dedicated entrance next to the Four Seasons hotel and its own lift.
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Veeraswamy
Having opened in 1926, this upmarket curry house can lay claim to being the oldest Indian restaurant in Britain. It's now owned by the same people who run Masala Zone and the standards are as high as ever, with the kitchen producing such crowd-pleasers as slow-cooked Hyderabad lambbiryaniand Keralan-style sea bass.
