What the experts recommend

Rofuto 160 Broad Street, Birmingham (0121-369 8888) “Rofuto is a Japanese restaurant that should really be in Japan,” says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. Located way up on the 16th floor of a city centre business hotel, were it in Tokyo, its clientele would enjoy a “view of dazzling multicoloured skyscrapers, lit up like Christmas”. But Rofuto is in Birmingham, and so the diner gazes instead “at the A456, an enormous roundabout and a scattering of stumpy tower blocks”. As it happens, I quite liked this view, but give Rofuto a try even if you don’t share my taste for “downtown decrepitude”. The restaurant itself is “spotless” and “glimmering” – and the food’s great. Tempura tiger prawns were so delicious and crunchy, “I could have eaten them all night”. Saffron-miso black cod was “beautifully buttery, melting like a dream”. My friend “rhapsodised” about his kakuni ( slow-braised pork belly) with cavolo nero. And my pudding, a twochocolate and banana fondant, was “terrific, a gorgeous tongue-teasing hotcold combo of ice cream and goo”. Three course meal, about £50, plus drinks.

Jaya 36 Church Walks, Llandudno (01492-818198) The dog-eared copy of the The Good Food Guide that sat on the windowsill of my late mother’s office was “a greedy person’s journal of hope”, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. It was a “model of crowdsourced opinion long before the first computer was even plugged in”, and it still does a valuable job today. Without it, for example, my visit to Llandudno would have been incalculably poorer – for I should never have known about Jaya. A hungry group of us rampaged though the menu of this friendly restaurant, which serves outstanding Punjabi food by way of East Africa. Lamb chops, marinated in their own lime pickle, were “all fire and acidity”. Baby squid, deep-fried tempurastyle veg, and jeera spiced chicken were delicious. And the curry dishes “boasted an uncommon depth”, the sauces built up with freshly roasted spices and layers of “punch and heat and power”. Two stood out: a “brilliant” sweet and earthy fish masala, and a splendidly “meaty” (although vegetarian) curry made with boiled eggs and potatoes. Meal for two, including drinks and service, £70.

Honey & Smoke 216 Great Portland Street, London W1 (020-7388 6175) Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, the Israeli husband-and-wife team behind the wildly popular Honey & Co, have opened their take on a grill house – and it’s stupendously good, says Fay Maschler in the London Evening Standard. A skewer of grilled Turkish Bursa figs and Greek manouri cheese dressed with mint, chilli and pomegranate seeds is so yummy, it “could settle all political differences between those two countries”. Msabaha (chickpeas cooked overnight with garlic and tahini) is “subtle and silky”. Burnt celeriac with Urfa chilli butter on soured cream with chives has a “douce nuttiness” which makes it unmissable. Other highlights include grilled pigeon, whole sea bass with preserved lemon dressing, and lamb chops in tahini barbecue sauce with charred Victoria plums. But everything is “delectable”. Unlike most London hotspots, you can book a table here (and you should). Autumn set menu £32.50. À la carte meal for two, with wine, about £95.