While Lina Stores has spawned a number of perfectly good pasta restaurants across the city, the original Brewer Street deli remains the true trove. Offering the finest foods to homesick Italians since 1944, it stocks the best Parmesan, porcini and panettone. At lunch office workers visit for salami and mozzarella ciabattas made to order, and then take home parcels of fresh ravioli. While the closure of long-time competitor I Camisa & Son on Old Compton Street devastated many, Lina Stores has stood the test of time. 

This red-hot Thai restaurant serves a short, changing menu using impeccably sourced ingredients. Langoustine som tum is made with sour in-season gooseberries and a rich beef-cheek curry with nettles and wild garlic foraged from Mile End. Larger groups can sit downstairs but the best seats are those on the ground floor, with views of the clay cooking pots. Hop over to Bar Termini if there’s a wait.

The simple yet cosy interiors at Bocca di Lupo make it feel decidedly old-school. The food, however, feels fresh and inventive with a nod to classic Italian techniques.

Part of Soho’s modern wave of Sri Lankan restaurants (along with Hoppers and Kolamba), Paradise is now tasting-menu-only and a little more experimental than its contemporaries. The pol roti is puffed up over charcoal and topped with a glazed freshwater prawn and a zingy coconut sambol. A traditional meat curry is made with beef sirloin from Kent and served with a rich Kandy-style sunflower seed curry that’s poured at the table. Bold, innovative flavours that haven’t had as much hype as they deserve.