What the experts recommend

Tabure 6 Spencer Street, St Albans, Hertfordshire (01727-569068) The Turkish places I tend to love in London are “essays in romantic primitivism, with terrible folk art and faded posters from the Cappadocia Tourist Board on the walls”, and salads that “might as well have been assembled with a chainsaw”, says Keith Miller in The Daily Telegraph. Tabure in St Albans is not like that – it’s “more of a modern brasserie, right down to the swishy velvet curtain keeping the draught out”. Even so, the uncluttered, low-lit dining room is charming and warm, and the food “exudes confidence”: classic Eastern Mediterranean dishes are here served with “gestures of refinement”. A bulgur wheat salad is “adorned – to its advantage – with little cubes of beetroot”; a roast supreme of chicken comes with a “succulent stuffing” made from dried apricots and barberries; a stew of white beans and beef sausage had a “smoky, spicy, distinctly Armenian accent”. And they do a meze of chillies served four ways that will “take the top of your head off if you’re not careful”. Dinner for two, about £100.

Skosh 98 Micklegate, York (01904-634849) I came across a dish at Skosh that was so good, I’m going to declare it one of the best of 2017, even though the year is still young, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. This winning dish consisted of mackerel and eel, skewered separately and then “barbecued with a sweet savoury soy glaze until the meat was just firm and the skin crisp”. Alongside, there was a thick, foamy cream flavoured with the iodine and brine of oyster – and that, in turn, was “piled high with shaved and pickled kohlrabi cabbage, and finished with the peppery hit of nasturtium flowers”. I loved it so much that I’ll even “forgive the whimsy” of the name “Skosh” being spelt out in kohlrabi. But then, I loved everything about chef Neil Bentinck’s “clever, delicious and often brilliant cooking”: from salt cod mousse with giant golden potato crisps, to croquettes of perfect deep-fried pig’s head with rhubarb ketchup, to fantastic lamb belly. Skosh, I believe, is the “ideal of what an ambitious, independent restaurant should be”. Go and eat there. Meal for two, including drinks and service, £110.

Hai Cenato Cardinal Place, 2 Sir Simon Milton Sq, London SW1 (020-3816 9320) Jason Atherton is a restaurateur who can “envision a fresh concept and employ a cast of hundreds to build it in the time it takes me to buy and daub a Dulux tester pot”, says Grace Dent in the London Evening Standard. Hai Cenato in Victoria is his ninth restaurant opening in just six years, which is “frankly impressive”. Everyone I’ve mentioned its name to has assumed it’s a Japanese hirata bun joint: in fact, it’s a New York-style Italian bar and deli, offering all-day casual dining to a “nicely noisy” 1990s hip-hop soundtrack (“all bangers, no clangers”). The food is appealing rather than groundbreakingly spectacular. A small plate of grilled octopus, Cornish squid and braised lentils works well – as does a corzetti pasta with a rich aged-beef Bolognese, sage and burnt butter. We also enjoyed a confit lamb-neck pizza with spiced aubergine. And a dessert of salted caramel gelato, served in a little cone, was quite simply “outstanding”. Large meal for two, about £100, plus wine.