What the experts recommend

Olle 88 Shaftesbury Avenue, Chinatown, London W1 (020-7287 1979) Olle is the word for path in the dialect spoken on an island off the coast of South Korea, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. But there’s nothing particularly “regional or niche” about the food at this inviting central London restaurant. It serves familiar Korean dishes, executed very well, with an “uncommon grace and charm”. Korean fried chicken is “everything I want it to be”, with a “double fried crunch” followed by the “confectioneryshop slap” of the sweet-savoury sauce. A seafood pajeon (like a cross between a pancake and an omelette) combines stillpert spring onions with the softness of molluscs and crustaceans. And a seafood and tofu stew is a steamy and encouraging bowlful. If you’re hungry, I’d recommend a set selection of grilled meats (cooked at the table). Ours includes pork, beef ribs and rib-eye, and comes with prawns the length of my hand, plus various sides, pastes and dips. “We drink a serviceable sauvignon blanc, and hunker down.” Small plates from £6, large from £11. Brasserie of Light Selfridges (Duke Street entrance), 400 Oxford Street, London W1 (020-3940 9600) As a rule, fancy restaurants should not be located in department stores, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. “Who wants to pay top whack for a niçoise salad, then grapple their way home tipsily via the casual sports jacket section?” But this fabulously glitzy new brasserie attached to Selfridges is an honourable exception to that rule. The team behind The Ivy and Le Caprice have created a “splendid-looking, twinkling, expensively hewn 1940s Hollywood movie set” – one where you can sit on dark-blue leather banquettes and eat hand-dived scallops from mirror-topped tables. Oh, and there’s a Damien Hirst crystal Pegasus statue with a 30ft wingspan suspended from one of the walls. Given all this bling, the food is much better than it needs to be. My favourites (I’ve been three times) include a popcorn shrimp with truffled mash and a Cajun-influenced sauce, and black cod on charred broccoli with wasabi mayo. Or you might choose to “just sit up at the bar, drink Bottega Brut” and pretend you’re Rita Hayworth. About £35 a head for three courses, plus drinks.

The Chesil Rectory 1 Chesil Street, Winchester, Hampshire (01962-851555)

This friendly restaurant is just the place to come on a cold winter day for hearty food in comfortable surroundings, says Kathryn Flett in The Daily Telegraph. Housed in a 15th century half-timbered building, it’s a charming space, “neither funky nor entirely trad”. I loved the green leather banquettes and the service that wasn’t “oppressively formal or chummy, just attentive. It was all very relaxing.” An “unctuously flavoursome haddock and leek rice-fest”, with prawn beignet and lime beurre blanc, was one of the best risottos I’ve had in ages. And my main, a generously sized dish of duck breasts on red cabbage, with duck confit, was the definition of “robust”. My companion devoured his black pudding and Scotch egg, and raved about his flavour-packed fish pie. And our shared dessert of white chocolate mousse and dark chocolate brownie is elevated from “fine to nearstellar” by an exceptional passion fruit sorbet. Wintry spirits duly lifted: “thanks, Winchester”. Lunch for two, £90.