Hertfordshire, International Restaurant Guide

“An oasis in North London” for 25 years – Austrian-born Julius Oberegger’s “excellent local restaurant” in Whetstone is “the closest to fine dining without going to the West End” – with a “well prepared and imaginative menu” that skips round the world from fresh Jersey rock oysters and English rack of lamb to chicken Milanese, wok-fried noodles, and chilli and soy-glazed tofu.

Spacious and lavishly kitted-out gastropub in a “lovely setting on Totteridge Common” – billed as a ‘country pub in London’, its menu ranges from pizza, burgers and steaks to Sunday roasts. The food is “decent” by most accounts, if “not cheap”, but it’s a “pleasant” place to visit.