Originally Posted by luxury

I agree with Swanhunter on Busaba Eathai; it is good value, good food, and busy but going on off-times, around 2pm or so, gets you in quite quickly though this has been my experience at the Wardour Street location.

I recently went to Zuma again and I must say I was impressed with the food but utterly disappointed with the sushi. I found Zuma to be as pretentious as Nobu, but Nobu is more glamorous with supermodel types, lots of Americans, hip hop types, etc while Zuma is decidedly more Eurotrashy, trendy and hip.

The food quality is about the same, though I feel the kitchen execution is higher at Zuma. Zuma is a little cheaper but you get a little more food at Nobu. Some dishes at Zuma did come with superfluous sauces -- the grilled cod in miso came with a dipping sauce which completely erases the subtle richness of the cod. However, the cod was very very good and the piece was larger than Nobu. Service is friendlier and more attentive at Zuma. The big shock for me was how Zuma absolutely blew the sushi -- the amaebi and salmon were extremely fresh but the rice was horrid being too moist and utterly flavourless. The tamago or egg omelette, which is the benchmark for the quality of a sushi bar (it is given in Japan that a proper sushi bar would have fresh fish, but the egg omelette demomstrates the chefs attention to detail) was a little dry and tasteless. Such a shame. Given my experiences, three times at each place, I give the edge to Nobu overall. I felt that Zuma offers a very good replica of Japanese food but lacks the true authenticity at the base, before the "fusion" bit begins. Nobu, on the other hand, I would avoid on Friday and Saturday nights -- they are too busy and quality control slips. But on a Wednesday night, they were in top form.

As for Hakkasan, I felt that it was an excellent restaurant, in a fabulous setting, but the experience destroyed by utterly incompetent and rude service and management. Is it the best Chinese outside of Hong Kong -- I feel far from it. But for the total package, I think it is a great venue -- if they would only do something about the service!!! The Oriental in the Dorchester was a great restaurant -- the whole peking duck carved tableside was a treat -- it is a shame it has closed.

I have tried Locanda Locatelli, Scalini, and Toto's. I enjoyed the food at Scalini the most; Locanda Locatelli was just so expensive for what one gets, I feel that Babbo in New York City is far superior for about half the price.

The Lebanese restaurants in London have been very good -- Fahkreldine, Al Hamra, and Beiteddine are good choices, though my favourite is Beiteddine, off Sloane Street. Without a doubt I think I have had the best Lebanese food in London... I have not had a chance to go to Lebanon yet!!

I think that London as a city without ANY good food is unwarranted. But hearing and reading praise as THE food place in the world is equally unwarranted. I think London offers a very good range of good to excellent food. If one were to evaluate the quality of food as an average at the lower end of the price scale, I feel London does quite poorly, however.

On restaurant in hotels I don't think it is good to write them off so easily: Le Cinq in Paris is the Four Seasons George V and is one of the best in the city; many top restaurants in Tokyo are in hotels; and even in London Asia de Cuba, Angela Hartnett, Petrus, Capital Restaurant, Nahm are all in hotels.

In the coming weeks I will be trying Roka and Ubon -- can report back either here or in the appropriate forum at that time.