Restaurants

This month, we revel in fine French dining in Holborn, try three great barbecue joints, jet off to Munich for high-end Nikkei cuisine, and return to a classic London izakaya

Otto’s Holborn

There are some restaurants that just feel right. The furniture might not match, the art might be ‘eclectic’, but the atmosphere, ambience and – most importantly – the food are all spot on. Otto’s on Gray’s Inn Road in is one such gem. Everything about the place is superb and with its eponymous proprietor’s charisma, charm and extensive food and wine knowledge, has shot right to the top of our favourite spots in London. It’s a restaurant with a concept, but a ‘concept restaurant’ it isn’t. It owns some of the world’s only surviving pressoirs for lobster and duck: gothic-style torture implements that apply pressure to carcasses to extract every last drop of flavour to create a sauce so deep with flavour it verges on a religious experience. The rest of the menu shows French classics perfectly executed. Beef tartare is chopped and mixed in front of you, foie gras has the faintest kiss of char, and breadbrumbed sweetbreads are treated with the respect they deserve. As good as these are, they play a supporting cast to blushing roast duck and super-sweet lobster. It’s a restaurant that deserves your custom. MS. 020 7713 0107, ottos-restaurant.com