What the experts recommend
Liu Xiaomian First Floor, Kingly Court, Carnaby, London W1 (liu-xiaomian.com)
I’ve been to this restaurant three times since it opened last month, says Charlotte Ivers in The Sunday Times – which “pretty much tells you all you need to know”. It began life as a market stall run by two flatmates – both expats from the Chinese city of Chongqing – before moving to the basement of The Jackalope, a pub in Marylebone. While it continues to operate there, it now has its first purpose-designed site: “a bright, no-frills little canteen” just off Regent Street. As its name suggests, it specialises in xiaomian – a type of spicy noodle dish popular in Chongqing. The thin wheat noodles come in a broth; you select toppings – pork, beef, vegan, pig trotter – and spice level. Noodles are a “competitive field”, but these are perhaps the best I’ve ever had. I choose the minced pork and chickpea topping, requesting “mild”: the dish is “pretty much perfect, and still blissfully, joyfully hot”. You can also have wontons (also served in broth), which are equally outstanding. My walk home takes me past a ramen restaurant – and I “feel sad for everyone inside”. Total for two, excluding service charge: £46.
Catch at the Old Fish Market 1 Custom House Quay, Weymouth (01305-590555) “It was not with the lightest of hearts” that I set off for my lunch in Weymouth, says Giles Coren in The Times. My previous two trips out of town had been ruined by train cancellations – and I worried that I’d again be forced to endure a nightmarish journey home. But the trains turned out to be “perfectly punctual” and, better still, I came back wondering if I’d been “to the best restaurant in the world”. Situated on the first floor of Weymouth’s Old Fish Market, Catch offers a “constantly changing” set menu – which at lunch comprises four courses, and costs only £40. Every dish came close to perfection. A “beautiful piece” of grilled local trout was served with a warm potato salad, puréed watercress and a “warm, golden brioche” that may have been the best bread I’ve ever tasted. Flakes of barbecued gurnard were piled, along with sliced morels and slivers of raw apple, into a staggeringly light and crispy pastry case. I asked Mike Naidoo, the “exec chef and co-owner”, how he managed it all for £40 – and he explained that since they have their own boats, this “knocks out the soaring price of fish”. My trip to Weymouth – which I initially so dreaded – proved to be “one of the happiest working afternoons of my life”.
Laghi’s 22-24 Islington Row, Edgbaston, Birmingham (01214-550660)
This long-lived Italian restaurant in Edgbaston has recently hired as its chef former MasterChef: The Professionals winner Stu Deeley, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. And he “can really cook”. His menu is “traditional Italian, by way of modern Britain”: fat pig’s-head fritters; queenie scallops in a buttery espelette sauce. The pastas are “seriously” good – the equal of anything at The River Café or Locanda Locatelli, and at a “fraction of the price”. Properly al dente campanelli is coated with “just the right amount of fierily porky ’nduja sauce”; rigatoni cacio e pepe is “robustly sharp and salty”. No single pasta dish costs more than £11.50, which is “astonishing value for cooking of this quality”. Birmingham is full of good restaurants – and I’ve discovered “yet another true Brummie beauty”.