What the experts recommend
Med Salleh Kopitiam 35-39 Inverness Terrace, London W2 (020-7792 2140)
Med Salleh Kopitiam has been around for a couple of years, “but explodes on you afresh each time you walk in, like a crazy accident”, says Giles Coren in The Times. Immediately, you are “joyfully received” into what feels like “a Malaysian family front room from the 1960s”, complete with a bike leaning on a wall and a “bulgyscreened” television. The menu is “an urgent mash-up of street snacks, hawker dishes and rice and noodle things, and the choice is to have it all in one go and lie there groaning for days afterwards, or go back another time to try other things”. I recommend the latter. Highlights are the beef rendang – tender, “dense and chocolatey” – and the satay chicken skewers, which come “as juicy and rich as any Sunday roast”. You can wash it all down with a “deep glass of delicious chendol” (£7.80), that after-dinner drink of coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar and “loaded with pandan-flavoured knoblets of green rice-flour jelly”. It’s “barely 1,000 calories” and “perfectly doable after a big dinner” unless you’re a giant “wuss”. £30-40 per person.
The Shed Unit 1-2, J-Shed, Kings Road, Swansea (01792-712120)
Swansea “does not enjoy the same tourist attention as Cardiff, or lure book-lovers as Hay-on-Wye does, or draw the Gore-Texclad visitors to Snowdonia”, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. “But it does feel like a slice of living, breathing, everyday Wales”, and it has some “sleek, hopeful areas, such as the SA1 Waterfront Area”, where Welsh chef Jonathan Woolway has set up shop. Woolway spent 16 years at London’s beloved St John, but hasn’t created a “St John replica” here. Instead, the Shed is essentially “16 years of Woolway’s homesickness on a plate”. So we have “offally, mysterious faggots” that come with chips and greens; “oozy” Welsh rarebit; and lamb chops presented on a mound of “peppery mashed turnip”. In a world of “depressing pudding lists that speak meekly of sticky toffee pudding and homemade sorbet”, the Shed goes hard. We (or rather I) managed a slab of “intense” chocolate terrine, and a “vivid” slice of pistachio cake. In short: “if you’re heading to Wales this summer, make a detour for lunch and leave room for the Welsh cakes”. From £50 per person, plus drinks and service.
Arlington 20 Arlington Street, London SW1 (020-3856 2000)
“I pretty much grew up in Le Caprice,” the late, lamented restaurant in Mayfair that was relaunched by Jeremy King and Chris Corbin in 1981, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. Now, King has opened a new restaurant on the site, named Arlington – but it’s Le Caprice in all but name. Sure, the neon sign above “those heavy revolving doors says Arlington, rather than Le Caprice”, and the fittings are “a little shiny”, but the room is still a “masterpiece of monochrome”, and David Bailey’s photographic portraits still line the walls. The menu, too, is “pretty much unchanged”, featuring “upmarket, ever-reliable comfort food” such as shepherd’s pie and steak tartare. And mercifully, the service “glides and purrs”, with no one interrupting your conversation or instructing you to “enjoy”. For me, “Arlington is more than a mere restaurant. It’s like coming home”. About £35 per person.