Five to try: Restaurants with culture

LATIUM
21 Berners Street, W1 (020 7323 9123) £43.
Maurizio Morelli, whom I first enjoyed — gastronomically, you understand — at Ibla in Marylebone, is chef and co-proprietor of this restaurant named in honour of his Roman antecedents. So enamoured of ravioli is Morelli that a separate menu is devoted to the little parcels. Filled with Taleggio cheese, Swiss chard and walnuts, they were as pretty as Van Gogh's sunflowers: a picture on the plate. Courgette flowers contribute another pillowcase — stuffed with crab in a broad bean sauce. An excellent restaurant ably managed by Umberto Tosi.

DRAGON CASTLE
114 Walworth Road, SE17 (020 7277 3388) £15 (dim sum).
Much has been made of the gritty setting of this people's dining hall of a Chinese restaurant but I suspect most of Beijing looks likes the Elephant & Castle end of Walworth Road. The cooking is fittingly authentic and attracts a reassuring percentage of Chinese customers. The means of extracting the best value and perhaps the greatest revelation is to go for dim sum served until 5pm. With water roiling and woks roaring in a visible kitchen, the little dumplings mark that moment where immediacy meets delicacy.

WODKA
12 St Alban's Grove, W8 (020 7937 6513) £42.
Without Poles working front-of-house, restaurants in London would grind to a halt. Here they are happily right at home and intimate with the menu. In agreeably spare and moody surroundings there is a strong sense of purpose which is, in short, laying down a foundation on which to drink vodka. Pierogi, pelmeni, pasztecik and gulabki (stuffed dumplings and cabbage leaves) obligingly lend a hand. Sunday brunch from 11.30am has recently been introduced with a free glass of wine or champagne during the Proms season.

GREAT NEPALESE
48 Eversholt Street, NW1 (020 7388 6737) £25.
The gentle Manandhar family have been offering Himalayan specialities since 1982. "Quality is our Ascent" is their touching motto. Compared to other soi-disant Nepalese restaurants, a large proportion of the menu is Nepalese including a vegetarian section and a list devoted to new dishes. In the first course don't miss momo, steamed dumpling filled with meat or vegetables, and habu choyala, spiced, diced, barbecued mutton. Duck features widely in the main courses. A dried vegetable curry is a reminder of the often harsh conditions of the homeland.

ARBUTUS
63-64 Frith Street, W1 (020 7734 4545) £24 (set lunch).
The Provençal dish of pieds et paquets would have been perfect for this theme but chef/proprietor Anthony Demetre says lambs' trotters are so difficult to source that they now prepare instead caillettes, chopped up piggy bits wrapped in caul fat — in another (English) word, faggots. Caillettes have appeared on the remarkably good-value set lunch (£15.50 for three courses). Half-Greek Demetre is currently supporting the Kerasma London festival of Greek ingredients. Loukamades — doughnuts bathed in cinnamon syrup — are apparently flying off the menu.

Prices estimate a meal for one with wine.