Five Restaurants to Try this Weekend

Corner Room, Town Hall Hotel

Wood paneling and an antique lamp feature wall make for a cozy evening spot, slightly contradictory to the concept of hotel restaurant. Located at the back of east London’s Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, this restaurant offers classical (French-ish) cooking with British ingredients. A changing dinner a la carte menu means chef Craig Johnson (previously at Newington Table) can meet the mood of the very slow start to spring. On recent visits, ricotta agnolotti with wild garlic and ceps; and a rabbit wellington were superb. This weekend the menu will feature razor clams, sea bass, and Cornish turbot with new season leeks and caviar. —Anna Sulan Masing
Town Hall Hotel, Patriot Square, E2 9NF

Vijaya Krishna

Tooting has one of the best concentrations of excellent Indian restaurants in the city; its regional variety perhaps its crowning glory. At Vijaya Krishna — a stroll down the road that snakes through Tooting Broadway — the focus is southern, particularly Keralan, so ordering from the specialty sections of the menu brings greatest reward. Cochin prawn curry is spiced faultlessly and aggressed by mouth-puckering tamarind; Malabar, either chicken or lamb, thrums with coriander seed and ginger. Paratha is the side of choice in any case, but the menu’s star turn is the tomato curry, a silken tangle of sweetness and acidity that is luxurious as it is delicate. —James Hansen
114 Mitcham Road, SW17 9NG

Spice Box (at Kerb)

What goes up must come down — after January’s lemming-frenzy, London’s vegan and vegan-curious restaurants have been getting a clobbering from the critics. The newly opened Temple of Camden does mock meat best, but the still-squeamish will want to head up the road to Spice Box instead. The schtick? Indian-inspired, fully vegan curry combos that are big on plants, rather than refashioned protein sources. There’s a creamy, thoughtfully spiced jackfruit tikka masala, quinoa pilau and a sweet potato and peanut curry that’s so packed with spring greens it’s practically photosynthesising. The menu also features the only cauliflower ‘steak’ known to Eater London that isn’t a soggy, sulphurous disappointment. Everything’s gluten-free, if that’s a consideration, and light enough for lunch on the go — grease isn’t the word here. —Emma Hughes
Camden Lock Place, NW1 8AF

Saray Broadway Cafe

On a Saturday morning, Broadway Market in east London is heaving with people who flock to the popular market. But the best food isn’t to be had from stalls in the street. Hiding in plain sight, Saray Broadway Cafe serves proper greasy spoon dishes — and gözleme, Turkish stuffed flatbreads. The savoury pastries are made to order on a big flat griddle by the window, where the dough is stuffed with cheese and spinach. It’s the best £3 one can spend all weekend. —Daisy Meager
58 Broadway Market, E8 4QJ

Supawan

If a recommendation from London’s boss of discovering underappreciated family-run places isn’t enough, it’s hard to know what will be. But for those paywalled out from Marina O’Loughlin’s ecstatic Sunday Times review, the story of Supawan is a simple one: Thai food (nominally from the south, though there’s more than the occasional dish on holiday from Bangkok and the north) served in a bright, modern room near King’s Cross. But there’s more to it than that: Flavours are bright and fresh when they need to be (as in a superlative yum khao tod, or rice cake salad), and veer towards the rich and indulgent when they don’t (see: peek gai yud sai, or fried chicken wings deboned and stuffed with a farce that may even qualify for food-descriptor no-no “succulent.”) Curry pastes are made in-house, and in fact a cosy domestic warmth pervades the whole enterprise: service is not just friendly but enthusiastically well-meaning, more than happy to offer a helping hand and single out dishes especially worth trying. Be warned: getting through all of them may take more than a single visit. —George Reynolds
38 Caledonian Road, N1 9DT