London restaurants best for... Sunday roasts

Just up the road from the Martin Bros' Chiswell Street Dining Room is another Martin gastropub, and this time the theme is a British pub with a "real wine and food focus" and an open kitchen with rotiserrie and charcoal grilled food on offer. As with the Dining Room, it's also attached to the old Whitbread brewery, opened as a luxury hotel from Montcalm.

This pub revamp sees it being taken over by the same people behind Waterloo's hugely popular Anchor and Hope and has Mike Davies in the kitchen, a young chef trained up in the Anchor family and also part owner of the achingly hip Franks Cafe pop up in Peckham.

Originally the home of Neil Rankin, both he and the restaurant have moved on, although the emphasis on smoking remains. Alongside the food expect plenty of rotating beers and the outside garden is a surprise oasis just off a busy Islington road.

The team behind the Harwood arms are Stephen Williams, former head chef at the Ledbury, Mike Robinson from the Pot Kiln pub in Berkshire and Edwin Vaux from the Vaux brewery. Together their impressive credentials have formed a perfect whole - a gastropub that actually serves what the name suggests.

It's around the corner from Buckingham Palace and the Queen has been known to pop in from time to time...

It takes a lot to make yet another gastropub opening stand out from the crowd in London but the Bull and Last appears to have stuck to the tried and tested formula of serving simply fantastic food. They call themselves a Pub and Kitchen, but reviewers felt the food surpassed usual gastropub fare to be truly gourmet.

The original Hawksmoor, and for many the best. Known as the group that transformed steaks in British restaurants forever for the better, this is a perfect place to come to for a meat-fest. And expect some cracking cocktails too - head to the bar downstairs for those and extra snacks not on the main menu.

Brothers Tom and Ed Martin - who already have the White Swan in Fetter Lane, and Clerkenwell's The Well to their names - have struck gold once again with The Gun. This historic establishment perches on the Thames on the West India Dock and the brothers Martin have come up with a foodie offering that has made this a favourite with locals and a place worth travelling east for.