What the experts recommend

Tuscan Rye 8 Lion Street, Rye (01797-223269) Located in a “crepuscular” space that once housed a “bygone tea shoppe”, Tuscan Rye has “glossy brown plates” on the tables, and “spectacularly bad art” on its walls, says Kathryn Flett in The Daily Telegraph. It is “stupendously, perhaps wilfully, unfashionable” – and so, of course, I loved it instantly. I loved it even more when a 40-something Frenchwoman with tattoos sat down at the next table, ordered a bottle of red, pored over the menu, and declared, with a sigh: “I vant airverysing!” I felt exactly the same – it was all sublime. Vitello tonnato – slivers of cold veal – had a “sweetness and subtlety” with a “lemony-capery-tuna-zing” topping that made for a “quite glorious” combo. My companion’s beef carpaccio was “perfectly smoky”, and my main of firm salt cod beneath a sweet mixed vegetable caponata was arguably even better than the veal. Seafood linguine was accessorised with prawns so hefty that lobster crackers are provided. The chef here is Franco from Florence, and his cucina povera is the real deal. Do go. Dinner for two £80.

Chriskitch Hoxton 5 Hoxton Market, London N1 (020-7033 6666) Chris Honor made his name with robust salads, deli-style dishes and cakes at his deservedly popular deli/café in Muswell Hill, north London. But there was never any doubting that this is “a serious cook, with ladlefuls of technique and good taste”, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. At his new outpost in Hoxton, the daytime menu is familiar: there are hearty brunch dishes like fried eggs with tamarind sauce or a corn kernel salad with baby herbs and Polish cured bacon. “It’s the kind of food for which you would willingly incur a hangover.” By night, though, Chriskitch Hoxton becomes a “grown-up restaurant with ambition and flash and a wood-fired grill, on display behind glass”. Of the delicious starters, the “swoon-worthy moment comes with rock oyster shells filled with buttery scrambled eggs” – and a single champagne-poached oyster perched on top with a dollop of caviar. As for the mains, I watched them being plated up and wanted to eat them all. In the end I opted for “intense and earthy” blackened lamb, and didn’t regret it one bit. Meal for two £120, including drinks and service.

Mora 487 High Road, Leytonstone, London E11 (020-8539 1731) “It doesn’t look like much, but then the best ones never do,” says Ellen E. Jones in the London Evening Standard. This fantastic, and completely authentic, Sardinian restaurant sits in a far-fromswanky bit of east London, and the decor resembles “nothing so much as cheaply furnished student accommodation”. But if Mora’s lack of polish helps keep away a few “fairweather foodies”, then so much the better: that will leave “more majestic melanzane alla Parmigiana” for the rest of us. Not that there’s any shortage of custom: the place is rammed on an ordinary Tuesday evening, and almost everything we eat is thrilling. A primo of tagliolini, “Asian noodle-like in texture”, makes a lovely foil for fresh crab. Carpaccio di manzo al tartufo nero (beef carpaccio with black truffle) is enticingly decadent. And rabbit leg con purè di patate, olive e capperi “is so wonderfully comforting you want to curl up in the dish and use the mash as a pillow”. Around £90 for two with wine.