Edging on to the Park Royal industrial estate but not quite part of it, Hua Imperial Palace is the new home for cooking from Kang Dong, who formerly ran an eponymous business out of Hoxton. This restaurant rewards the principle of scanning for diversions from the norm the menu establishes for itself. So on a menu mostly anchored in Anglo-Cantonese takeaway classics — of which Singapore noodles, chow meins, spring rolls, and particular lesser-spotted salt and pepper chips are executed to a good standard — look for numbing dan dan noodles rich with sesame; salted egg yolk prawns; Fujian pork soup; a decent rendition of hong shao rou hiding under “braised pork belly,”; and hand-pulled Lanzhou la mian.

With its Ealing Common sushi bar forced to close, Atari-Ya’s West Acton location — which is primarily a shop — has taken over the mantle for outstanding, simple Japanese food. The sushi is as excellent as diners could expect coming from one of the city’s premier fish suppliers, and the donburi topped with fatty tuna, spring onion, and ikura is one of the most satisfying lunches in the area.

Reopened after a lengthy refurbishment, this Pakistani grill next to North China has immediately returned to the form that made it one of the best restaurants in the area. It’s unceremoniously and excellently playing the hits that makes the best bands so good, and that’s precisely what Lahore Local delivers with a menu of mirch pakoras, fragrant chapli, karahi raspy with ginger, and the trinity of haleem, nihaari, and paya.

In a former pub clad with pool table and jukebox, Acton residents now find Mendes, Rogerio and Maria’s tribute to Madeiran cooking and its intersection with that of Brazil. Look for franguinho da guia, a butterflied, aggressively grilled baby chicken sour and fragrant with lemon and chilli, or its baby cousin frango passarinho, a more Brazilian preparation fried after being marinated in lime, salt, and garlic. With some bolo do caco, batata frita, and cold beers, there’s little to beat it in the area.

This simple little room on Churchfield Road turns out a reliably excellent menu of sushi standards, from slightly outrageous maki (scallops, spicy mayonnaise, spring onion...) to “Hasu style” sushi, which includes a fine tuna sashimi with yuzu and chilli. But don’t skimp out on decent tempura and some craggy kaarage with a formidable fermented chilli sauce, or on colder days, a commendable shoyu-style ramen, delicate and rich with miso.

At first glance, the loose union between Roasted’s menu — meat cooked low and slow, which means French-style beef cheeks and American barbecue appear on the same menu — raises uneasy thoughts of jack-of-all-trades. But it turns out to be a master of all, and a kind of monument to the fact that meat, fire, and time, whether applied to a lacquered, candied barbecue glaze on some ribs or a deep, glossy demi-glace over those beef cheeks, is common ground worth standing on.

A Pint of Hops and near-neighbour Vindinista are where those in search of craft beer and wine respectively need to go.

Per its name, Ezo casts a slightly wider net than near neighbour Hasu, with both shoyu and tonkotsu ramens and nutty, tousled soba to go with thicker, springier udon. It does a few nifty things elsewhere, offering aburi on fish fatty enough to take the torching, as well as a miso black cod that doesn’t require diners to remortage their house.

Per Eater contributor Stephen Buranyi, what makes Miod Malina a star of the city’s Polish restaurant firmament is a conscientious devotion to dishes that haven’t made their way into international culinary vernacular. Soups of chicken and sour rye are muscular, tangy, and impossibly warming, while placek po węgiersku, an Hungarian style potato pancake with served with a goulash, is a regular special alongside pork cutlets and zraz wolowy, a beef roulade stewed and served in its own juices.

Originally a private catering business, Donna and Donovan’s Jamaican restaurant and rum bar began life in late 2020, and was unable to open fully until mid-2021. But since then it has hit its stride, with weekly changing soups like cow foot and peas; and carefully made staples like oxtail, curry goat, and brown stew. Add an enviable rum collection and beautifully jerked pork grilled over charcoal, and it’s easy to see why Ku-Sheng Peng has slotted into Acton so quickly.

This little T-junction corner spot off the asphalt roar of the Westway bills itself as a Lebanese restaurant and bakery, but perhaps it should be other way around. Specialising in man’oushe, Yasmina — with head baker and chef Ramadan at the helm — is peerless. A long-running “battle” with Zeit and Za’atar — still excellent — one thoroughfare south on the Uxbridge road can be surrendered with a single bite, burnished crust giving way to a bread so light it might have been secretly inflated with a bike pump. It’s not: it’s all in the bake, best hot from the oven with za’atar, spiced mince lamb, or garlic sauce whose pop belies its beige. Little has changed here, despite so much having changed.