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Village East
A more chi-chi venue from the Garrison's owners, this place feels as New York as its name implies. Tasty food ranges from blini and tempura oysters to monkfish and lamb.
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Villandry
This excellent Modern European restaurant with a strong Gallic slant has an attractive market/delicatessen attached (not to mention a bar) so freshness and quality of ingredients is guaranteed. Try the cassoulet (around £17 ) or one of the several daily fish dishes.
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Wallace
There are few more idyllically placed restaurants than this French brasserie in the courtyard of the Wallace Collection, London's finest small gallery and virtually unknown to most Londoners. Michelin-starred chef Thierry Laborde's seasonal menus are a veritable tour de France and cost around £32 to around £36 for three courses.
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Wapping Food
We've all seen converted factories masquerading as restaurants but nothing compares with this erstwhile power station (and now restaurant/gallery/performance space), which has chosen to let all of its hydraulic equipment hang out. The food is modern European bending towards the Mediterranean, the wine list all-Australian and the staff pleasant.
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Wells Tavern
The Wells was once a raucous venue for 'clandestine or unpremeditated marriages' at Hampstead Spa. Now it's a popular gastropub, with comfortable sofas and couches, dark walls and big flower arrangements. The modern European food is well above average and, particularly at lunch, offers pretty good value - for Hampstead.
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White Swan Pub & Dining Room
A gastropub that everyone wishes were in their neighbourhood (and kept weekend hours), the White Swan has a convivial bar downstairs, with everything from fish and chips to lamb burgers (and a stuffed swan in a glass case) and an upstairs dining room with a more ambitious menu.
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Wine Library
This is a great place for a light but boozy lunch in the City. Buy a bottle of wine at retail price (no mark-up; around £5 corkage fee) from the large selection on offer at this vaulted cellar restaurant and then snack on pates, cheeses and salads.
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Wolseley
This erstwhile Bentley car showroom has been transformed into an opulent Viennese-style brasserie, with golden chandeliers and stunning black-and-white tiled floors, and it remains a great place for spotting celebrities. That said, the Wolseley tends to work better for breakfast, brunch or tea, rather than lunch or dinner, when the dishes (choucroute à l'Alsacienne, Wiener schnitzel) are somewhat stodgy and the black-attired staff more than a bit frayed. Daily specials are around £16 .
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Wong Kei
This place is legendary for the rudeness of its waiters, although they're really not that bad (or good, depending on what you're after). It's more just a pantomime these days. The Cantonese food is cheap and a little stodgy but as good value as you'll find on a (plastic) plate and the communal table is good for making friends.
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Woodlands
This South Indian vegetarian restaurant, whose rallying cry is 'Let Vegetation Feed the Nation', sets out to prove that South Indian vegetarian food can be as inventive as any meat-based cuisine and does a pretty convincing job of it. Superb thalis (around £16 to around £18 ) and dosa s (Indian-style pancakes; around £6 to around £7 ) are highlights. There's also a Marylebone branch (tel: 7486 3862; 77 Marylebone Lane).
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Wright Brothers
Should you be tempted by the offerings at the fishmongers of Borough Market and must have a fix of iodine right then and there, head for this excellent oyster bar and porter house. You'll find up to a dozen different types of the bivalve (around £7 to £17 for six) available at any given time, along with more substantial main courses.
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Yauatcha
This most glamorous of dim sum restaurants housed in the award-winning Ingeni building is divided into two parts. The upstairs tea room offers an exquisite blue-bathed oasis of calm from the chaos of Berwick St Market as well as some of the most arrestingly beautiful cakes we've ever seen.
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Zafferano
This glamorous place, sparkling with diamonds and wall-to-wall with highlights and perma-tans, serves excellent seasonal and inspired Italian dishes with a twist that succeed every time. So it's a shame that the service is sometimes snooty. Don't let them try to fob you off with an inferior table.
