Waltham Abbey, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“It’s so fun being on board a boat!” – this 120-year-old barge is moored in Hackney Wick, near the Olympic stadium, and is also surrounded by gardens providing an alternative backdrop to a meal. All reports agree on its “fantastic food and atmosphere”: there are a variety of menus, including tasting and group options, all featuring imaginative modern British dishes.

Established in 1958, this Essex institution is well known for its “excellently cooked fish with some imaginative and well-executed dishes”, served in “generous portions” by “well-trained and extremely welcoming staff who provide great customer service”. It’s “always buzzing with a great atmosphere” – “and if you’re lucky you might spot Rod Stewart… a regular”.

“Excellent traditional British cuisine with an Irish accent” helped win very consistent praise this year for Richard Corrigan’s comfortable Mayfair bastion of ‘all that is coastal, wild, furred and feathered’. It’s a “classic dining experience” but service is “wonderfully welcoming” and is “pitch perfect” for business entertaining in particular. Top Tip – “the set lunch menu cushions the blow to the wallet”.

“These very big premises were once a prestigious tailor’s” – then more recently a branch of the Browns brasserie chain – and are now “a pub-like restaurant in the middle of Mayfair”. Fans are impressed by “its competent realisation of a standard menu” of British classics. But service can be “somewhat patchy” and food can be “fairly average” as a result.

Jesse Dunford Wood’s quirky former pub in Kensal Rise “never disappoints”. It’s open for “lovely meals all day long” (from 10am), delivering a versatile set of dishes from “an ever-changing seasonal menu” made “with fresh ingredients and imaginative preparation”. “Sunday lunch for both vegetarians and meat-lovers is a particular highlight”.

This “well-run spot” with outdoor seating attached to a hotel on Marylebone Lane makes a “very useful venue for lunch when in the vicinity”, with an offering that “seems to have something for everyone”. “It’s nothing exceptional in one sense, but a menu of properly prepared classics is the sort of thing that sounds easy but needs to be done well… and it is”.

“Stunningly fresh fish, brilliant service and a jolly super wine list” ensure that a dining cruise along the Grand Union canal aboard the barge Prince Regent is “a fabulous part of the London restaurant scene” – while “tucking into a lobster roll with a beer on the Grand Duchess, permanently docked in Paddington basin, is just as good”. The company’s third venue – its first on dry land – is a combined fishmonger and seafood bar in Swains Lane, near Parliament Hill Fields in Highgate, where late-afternoon oyster-and-wine deals are a special draw.

“A haven of calm in an ever-changing world”: “they cater for the most conservative of palates (and the deepest pockets)” at Gavin Rankin’s “old-school, brasserie-style restaurant in Mayfair” (which had the rare privilege of hosting the late Queen Elizabeth on a couple of occasions). Its Anglo-French fare is “super reliable, if not exciting” and service “immaculate”. “If you like the kind of place where you still need to dress up a bit, this is it”, but “the ambience is set by its older, quietly-spoken crowd: don’t visit if you are planning a loud-laughing night!”. Top Menu Tip – “good value lunch menu; and staples such as iced lobster soufflé, smoked eel mousse and steak tartare”.

Although this luxurious Mayfair hotel dates from the 1850s, its swish basement dining room owes its looks to the 1930s. Under chef Sofian Msetfi, the “fabulous” cuisine (choose either a 5 or 7-course ‘tasting’ option) continues to achieve high ratings with a recently awarded Michelin star and even the weakest report this year awarded “full marks for presentation and service”. “A friend of mine who swears not to visit hotel dining rooms granted it high praise after our dinner there!”

Co-owner Guy Awford’s “brilliantly executed, classically inspired” cooking is well above “pub grub” standard, and has established this “well-maintained, upmarket” Georgian tavern as a leading option in Greenwich.

Many “magical and simply sublime” meals were reported this year at Adam Handling’s “exceptional” Covent Garden HQ, whose open kitchen delivers “creative, passionate and sustainably resourced modern British cooking” (“intricate beyond belief in presentation; and a delightful explosion of taste and texture”). The “buzzing” setting is kept in “relaxed” mood by the “fun”, “slightly irreverent” service. The catch? “You get an incredible meal, but it comes with an incredible price tag!”

The “great vibe” created by its tranquil St James’s location and retro Americana helps create a feeling of luxurious nostalgia at this long-standing fixture. With the hotel catering now overseen by Northcote’s Lisa Goodwin-Allen, the menu has been usefully re-imagined in recent times and has a heartier, more distinctive US spin (steaks, dogs, pastrami rolls) than it did of old.

A “real favourite” of well-heeled foodies, this classy if relatively unsung Mayfair hotel dining room boasts in “William Drabble, the most underrated of chefs – and one of great longevity” after 15 years at the helm. There is an eight-course ‘Menu Gourmand’ (for £125), but also à la carte options (starting in the evening with a two-course meal for £82 – lunchtimes are cheaper).

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“If you are not planning a return to the office, the largest selection of whisky ever seen” helps round off a business lunch at this Canary Wharf branch of Ranald Macdonald’s Caledonian group. “The restaurant prides itself on good Scottish ingredients… shellfish in season… excellent fillet steak” and “tables are sufficiently spaced for private conversation”. Top Tip – “regular visitors may join a club which gives discounts on wines and they host musical events in the evenings”.