Nobu London - Mayfair

The Nobu brand has sprinkled its stardust from Malibu to Tokyo and now has a firm hold in London with Nobu Berkeley St near Green Park and its flagship restaurant in the stark setting of the Metropolitan Hotel overlooking leafy Hyde Park.

Celebrity playground or cutting-edge contemporary Japanese restaurant? In truth it's a bit of both. The kitchen has created some iconic modern dishes, which have been imitated by kitchens across the land. Black cod in miso is the most famous, but others are equally mind-blowing: try the spectacular yellowtail tuna sashimi with jalapeño dressing, wafer-thin slices of scallop in a heavenly soy and ginger dressing or a bowl of unbelievably moreish rock shrimp tempura to stimulate your appetite for just about anything.

Sizzling toban yaki beef is a succulent winner and the choice of bigger dishes might also run to snow crab with a spicy cream sauce or sea snails with a salsa cruda. Desserts are wild fusion assemblages, perhaps involving spring rolls oozing chocolate, little domes of kiwi jelly and green tea ice cream.

Be warned: the rigorously enforced time limit on tables in the evening is guaranteed to deflate your spirits – unless, of course, you happen to have special dispensation or a celeb face.