Kam Tong Restaurant, 59-63 Queensway, Bayswater, London, W2 4QH

Lately, I've really struggled with Sundays. I can start the day early and full of good intentions to make the best of the last day of the weekend. The pressure to do something both fulfilling and exciting inevitably leads to timewasting and nothing of any worth gets done until about 11.30pm where I try and assuage my feelings of guilt with some late night hoovering (quite antisocial in a flat with mostly wooden floors).

My neighbours will have been pleased that last night, some uncharacteristic decisiveness led us to a Cantonese / Szechuan restaurant, which (along with some very good company) was a perfect antidote to the cold-damp-January-Sunday-night blues.

Almost every other restaurant between Queensway and Bayswater tube is a Chinese place. Luckily, Ying had been recommended Kam Tong by a friend (not by name - but by the description that it was 'the one with the big red sign'), so we avoided facing a conundrum of having too much choice.

The very old and naff looking paper menus were quite endearing (but incidentally, the take out menu I grabbed on my way out is exceedingly classy), with pages of dishes to choose from (some delicious sounding, and some a little too adventurous for a Sunday night ('Spicy Intestine Chilli' anyone?)

I was more than happy to let Ying order for me (definite bonus when someone in the know can order for you). Instead, I mostly drank the complimentary green tea (much appreciated in the freezing conditions) and giggled in an immature manner at the 'Morning Glory' vegetable dish (which we ended up ordering).

Slightly bizarrely there was no alcohol on offer tonight (due to a 'problem' of some description) but this didn't bother me. I was enjoying the tea and the way that the staff were determined to spill as much of it as possible whilst topping up our cups. Not to say the service was bad. They smiled at Will's attempts to remember the Chinese that he had allegedly been fluent in the week before.

Ying ordered us some Roast Pork and Roast Duck (it seemed rude not to, given the huge slabs of meat on view in the window). We also ordered spicy chili chicken, salt and pepper tofu for vegetarian Will, the aforementioned morning glory vegetables, and a couple of rice dishes. Out of habit I added some spring rolls to the order, which sadly wasn't a good move-they were the only non-enjoyable dish of the evening)! The Roast Duck and Pork was amazingly juicy and delicious, dripping in flavour.

The salt and pepper tofu was deep fried so it had a crispy coating but was soft inside and had a great kick to it.

The chili chicken was great: covered in chunks of chilli and Schechuan peppercorns.

Once I'd finished giggling, the 'morning glory' veg was nicely green and crunchy.

Overall

Nicely busy for Sunday night, and pretty authentic for Ying to enjoy it (and the majority of the other diners were Chinese). About £15 a head so pretty good value for money, (although this varies - the Roast Duck and Pork was only a fiver and was the best dish). A good place to be cheered and warmed by a tasty and spicy meal with friends on a miserable and damp January Sunday night.

Cake of the Day - Jaime's Intensely Chocolately Cake

Truly, this deserves the accolade of Cake of the Day.

It's cold and miserable outside. There's more snow heading our way. It's only Wednesday morning, although it already feels like it should be Friday...

...And there is a joyous shout: 'Ushi, there's cake in the kitchen!'

Unexplained cake? How delightful.

But, this is better than delightful. Expecting some cake of the shop bought variety, I discovered this huge, beautifully home made, decorated chocolate cake in the tiny office kitchen. Salivating already, we soon found out that this was John's birthday cake, made by his very talented wife Jamie.

Whilst 9am is usually too early for cake, I wasn't able to resist trying a little, and it truly was the most incredibly intensely (dark) chocolately cake experience.

So, thank you Jaime - your cake has made my day, and is cake of the day.

Nostalgic Trip to Wimpy, High St, Marlow - 3rd January 2010

"I'm worried you might be setting yourselves up for a huge disappointment" - my words of warning to my over-excited sisters as decided to revisit our youth in the Wimpy in Marlow. The majority of Wimpy Restaurants in the UK became Burger King in 1990, but in Marlow-on-Thames, it staunchly remained. (A Burger King in Marlow dahling? How preposterious!) Throughout the nineties and and noughties it existed in its own bubble of 80s decor, until a revamp about a year ago.

My sisters and dad had been struck with the idea that they wanted to celebrate the start of 2010 with a family trip there. We hadn't visited in years and years, and despite my slight cynicism, I allowed myself to be dragged out of bed early on Sunday to join them.

And I'm glad I did...

The table service and proper cutlery and crockery makes it a pretty civilised affair. The service was really quite exceptionally friendly. The food portions were big, well presented and very tasty. No one was disappointed. I don't normally write about chain restaurants on here, but for this one I will make an exception.

Satisfyingly large pot of tea each, marred only by the fact I wasn't able to drink much of it after my dad managed to drop a baked bean in the milk (I won't be bringing him again).

We were offered a variety of condiments - condiments are good.

My dad's immense all day breakfast. He doesn't like beans - he was trying to give them away, hence the bean/milk incident.

And now...Wimpy even serves booze! What's not to love?

L'Artista, 61 The Parade, Watford

The usual high street pizza chains leave me craving flavour - I'm almost always dousing my pizza in their lacklustre chilli oil. But despite the restaurant quickly filling up after our arrival, making for a busy and slightly manic atmosphere, L'Artista in Watford has food with the most intense flavour. Initial frustrations of being slightly ignored by frantic looking staff soon dissapated once the starters arrived.

Tomato garlic pizza bread was perfectly crispy with a decadently garlicky tomatoey topping. The Aubergine Parmigiana was equally flavoursome - the roasted aubergines were amazingly smokey and the mozarella perfect.

The main courses were huge. The Americana pizza was robustly delicious with plenty of chillies. The Diversa pizza was partly pizza and partly calzone (which reminded me of the 'La Raqueta' pizza I had at Starita in Naples - best pizza in the world, AND it was shaped like a tennis racket)! My pizza had yet more roasted aubergines, red chillis and hearty herby italian sausage. I didn't have to reach for the chilli oil once.

The rigatoni was perfectly al a dente and the roast vegetable garlic and tomato sauce had really deep and satisfying flavours.

Overall - This place is very busy for a reason, good food, low prices and huge portions (we had to take some of it home). Full of big groups so service can be a bit slow, and it would be a terrible place for a romantic meal, but for cheap and cheerful and very very intensely flavoursome Italian food, it completely beats the High Street chain pizza places.

Sitaaray, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, London

Vegetarian or non-vegetarian - that was the only question that needed to be answered at Sitaaray. I like my ordering to be that uncomplicated.

Bollywood was the order of the evening. I'd rushed across London from a Bollywood themed Christmas party to this Bollywood themed restaurant housed in the New National Theatre on Drury Lane. I quite liked the atmosphere - two floors, busy but warmly cosy.

The concept is a high-end variation on that of the traditional 'thali' concept (ie unlimited helpings of a set range of curries in little metal bowls in a circular tray (the thali) - which makes for very cheap eating and plentiful refills. Given the touristy location, this was not quite the case at Sitaaray, but the concept was there - there were large set menus for a fixed price. All one had to do was decide whether they were going to be vegetarian or non-vegetarian that evening, and many many courses of food would be bought to you, and you could request more of anything you like. It sounded like a wonderful idea, particularly as it made large group ordering far less stressful than usual - (I didn't even really have to decide between veg or non veg as myself and Cel ordered one of each so that we could sample it all!)

Staff were efficient but quite curiously neither Indian nor Bollywood themed. Food started arriving quickly. Lots of snacks and starters, in well presented but tiny portions. This was not necessarily a bad thing - it meant that everything could be tasted and sampled without getting too full and everything was tasty. Tiny portions of lamb kebabs, spinach kebabs, grilled chicken, spicy potatoes, paneer, spicy mushrooms and stuffed peppers appeared in a long succession of courses - which turned out to be good for big group eating, drinking and conversation. However, we all seemed to feel the variety of small portions made us feel too mentally full to bother utilising the unlimited concept.

We were slightly distracted by the club that adjoins the restaurant - diners get free entry, but the incongruent music made us believe we should definitely steer clear.

Overall:
I was genuinely pleased and surprised to find good quality Indian food in such a touristy spot. The food, whilst not very traditional, was all beautifully presented and tasty. I enjoyed playing name-the-bollywood-star (photo), and gawping at the bollywood videos playing and liked the decor and atmosphere. The service was fine but probably not good enough to justify the hefty service charge. I think value for money was perhaps the area where this restaurant loses points. The unlimited concept sounds like it could be cheap but expensive drinks negate the savings. However the concept is great in that you can try a massive variety of foods even if you are not in a large group. I would certainly recommend to try at least once - I was very pleasantly surprised.

Cake of the Day - Anjana's Blueberry Cheesecake

Divinely delicious blueberry cheesecake by Anjana. Utterly delectable - it was very creamy and nicely tangy with a very satisfying base...and beautiful!

Langan's Brasserie, Stratton Street, Picadilly, London

Perhaps as a direct consequence of it only being a few years since I was a student at Durham, where fine dining consisted of 'half-price-student-mondays-at-Bella Pasta' and 'all-you-can-eat-Chinese-which-is-even-cheaper-if-you-eat-fast-and-finish-before-6pm,' the majority of the entries on this blog, fall into the cheap and cheerful category.

However, I was recently lucky enough to find myself in Mayfair with someone willing to buy me lunch, so for perhaps one time only, here is a post about a restaurant whose website describes itself "as one of London’s top eateries to be seen in for Celebrities" (not that we saw any, but you get the idea).

Having initially spotted Langan's opposite Green Park station, it didn't appear overly interesting. It had a small neon sign on the outside, and I couldn't see inside. A couple of hours later, ready for lunch, I appreciated the plush interiors as we walked in, and was slightly bemused by the elaborate cloakroom ticketing system. We walked up an ornate staircase to the 'Venetian Room’ where I started to appreciate just how lovely a place this was. The walls were covered with beautiful paintings and but the atmosphere remained relaxed (I later found the ground floor gets manically busy, whilst the first floor is described as "more sedate," but that suited me just fine).

The menu was surprisingly extensive (even for lunchtime) and I appreciated it's handwritten nature (it changes on a weekly basis). Choosing was difficult. I decided against a starter, so that I'd be able to order Langan's Fish and Chips (which came very highly recommended by the person buying me lunch, who was a regular frequenter of the place). I was intrigued to see how it would be presented at such a classy establishment!

I wasn't disappointed. The usual rule of 'the posher the restaurant, the smaller the portions' didn't appear to apply, as my dish was generous. And oh the taste! T he batter was sublime - simultaneously light, crispy and melt-in-your-mouth. The fish was juicy and delicious and the handmade chips were of the perfect chunkyness. Every mouthful was an utter delight!

The restaurant was packed by the time we were midway through lunch. Only then did I realise just why such a comprehensive cloakroom system was needed, and just how famous this place was. The ground floor was heaving, but the atmosphere remained calm upstairs. Waiters were (almost surprisingly) friendly, and urged us to have one of the delicious sounding desserts, but I was so full, it had to be a pot of tea for me instead.

The moral of the story - You can take Writing on Bananas somewhere classy, but Writing on Bananas will probably order chips and a cuppa!

Overall

Langan's Brasserie confounded my prejudices against posh restaurants. It was neither pretenious nor stuffy, and the portions were generous. Food quality was excellent as was the atmosphere and service. Expensive but a truly wonderful place to be taken to lunch!

9/10