Les Trois GarÇons
These garçons put the flam into flamboyant. Eccentric décor and excruciating menu French — “La salade de tomate du sud de Sussex et de crabe de la baie de Lyme à Dorset accompagnée d'une vinaigrette persillée”. French cooking with a high style backdrop, a high celebrity count and a fairly high total on the bill.
1 Club Row, E1 (020 7613 1924, www.lestroisgarcons.com)

Saf Restaurant & Bar
You should go to Saf at least once if only to appease the spirit of discovery. Saf is a vegan restaurant that also fights a corner for “raw food”. Some of the salady dishes are well done, and there are good soups. The “cheeses” (made from vegetables and nuts) will never worry the real thing. The cocktails hit the spot.
152-154 Curtain Road, EC2 (020 7613 0007, www.safrestaurant.co.uk)

Boundary
You have to salute Sir Terence Conran for his boundless energy. As well as a swish and comfortable grown-up restaurant downstairs — French and English dishes — his Boundary project sprawls through the large building with a bargain canteen called Albion on the ground floor and a rooftop hideaway, as well as letting bedrooms.
3 Boundary Street, E2 (020 7729 1051, www.theboundary.co.uk)

Green & Red
This place is home to rather good Mexican food that hails from the province of Jalisco, dishes are surprisingly subtle and very different from the high-street chilli-and-cardboard approach. If all else fails there are rows and rows of different tequilas.
51 Bethnal Green Road, E1 (020 7749 9670, www.greenred.co.uk)

Eyre Brothers Restaurant
David Eyre was one of the founding fathers of the Eagle in Farringdon and he has a deft touch in the kitchen, knocking out big-flavoured Iberian cuisine with the occasional nod to something more exotic from his birthplace, Mozambique. Eyre Brothers is home to simple dishes made with top-quality ingredients, and a very relaxed dining room.
70 Leonard Street, EC2 (020 7613 5346, www.eyrebrothers.co.uk)