Restaurant Spy

Look to where the locals go and head to Sakoni's for cheap, filling and mouth-watering vegetarian Gujarati food. Populated as it is already with sari, jewellery and Indian grocery stores, Ealing Road is packed with locals who pop into Sakoni's for their spicy masala dosas, burning hot chai and crispy bhajiyas.

If you don't mind being packed into a corner in a clinical and sometimes dirty interior, its well worth it for the food. In fact, sometimes, it adds to the authentic Indian experience.

The Brilliant has been a Southall fixture for over 30 years, and I have been coming here regularly for fifteen of these. It aims to do traditional, family style Punjabi cooking in a restaurant setting. Recently the influence of the owner's daughter has added a number of "healthy options", where there is less use made of ghee.

The strengths are in the main course curries and in several of the starters. For example Methi chicken has tender chicken in a rich, spicy sauce with fenugreek. On the starters, aloo tikki is a dish you only seem to see n Southall: chickpeas, tamarind, yogurt and coriander, which work well as a combination. The chicken starter dishes are excellent e.g. methi chicken (cumin) or malai chicken tikka, or butter chicken if you don't mind the calories. The naans are OK but no more that than, but the romali roti is excellent. Vegetable dishes could do with a being cooked a fraction less to retain more texture, though aloo chollay (mainly chickpeas with a few pieces of potato) works well. They actually make the desserts here, including excellent kulfi and halwa. It is very much a family atmosphere, with groups of ten or more commonplace.

Well, they said it. Boeuf Bourguignon, ladies and gentlemen. What does that say to you? French peasant food? A little auberge tucked away among some hills, near a small gallic village perhaps? A large - I'll say that word again - large - tureen filled with steaming succulence on a a groaning wooden table flanked with lots of bread and a flagon or two of red wine? Followed by lots of cheese? Does it say that to you? Then we are on the same wavelength. If that is what you want do not, repeat not, go to the Bloody French.

I ordered a takeaway from the Notting Hill Tandoori last night, quite by chance, and I found myself eating the best Indian food I have tasted in years! I had a freshwater fish dish called African Queen, and a spinach, green banana and potato side dish. Both were delicious, with top quality ingredients, and lightly spiced so that all of the natural flavours were enhanced. The Pilau rice was a revelation - it had a superb taste and texture, and none of those strange bright food colourings. All of the food was fresh, natural and healthy, and not in the least bit oily.

don't think Ognisko's has much passing trade, because if you didn't know it was there you would walk right past it. The imposing entrance looks like the portico of an East European embassy, which it almost is. It is in a building that was donated by the then Duke of Kent to the Polish resistance during the Second World War. It now houses the Polish Club whose attached restaurant, Ognisko, is open to the public. You enter the restaurant through the club-like bar, which is set about with portraits of bewhiskered Polish officers, the two being separated by a wall of plants. The restaurant is large and magnificent - all pink walls and pillars - with an impressive collection of portraits gazing down on the diners below. I thought one was Zsa Zsa Gabor but was soon put right on that - it was the wife of a famous general. The rear of the room gives on to a splendid terrace but that was shut when we went, Autumn having just arrived. The tables are well spaced with proper linen napkins, candles and flowers. The food is, not surprisingly, Polish and slightly pricier than average, but you can have a three course set dinner for £11 so I had that. The food quality was patchy. The chicken consomme was OK and the pudding - pears - were out of a tin but the main course was good. I had pork, potatoes and pickled cucumber which was plentiful and well worth the money - the pork's sauce was particularly excellent. My companions had, among others, borscht, which was the real thing and good and a very fine liver dish. The house wind (French) was very palatable too. Service was excellent, by proper Polish ladies and one of them was kind enough to tell me the history of the place, which is fascinating. So although my £11 bargain was a bit of a curate's egg, it was unusual and interesting and a good and enjoyable night out. I would certanly go back. Harry

To MSG or not to MSG? That is the question. When we went to the New Revolution Chinese we wondered if Red Guard waiters would write our orders in Little Red Books under portraits of Chairman Mao and relay them to a factory field kitchen. But, no. This was not the revolution referred to. Theirs is a cooking revolution, balancing starch, fibre and protein where monosodium glutamate and other artificial additives are eschewed and the reliance is on natural flavours. They also favour the cooking of the harsher climes of North China where the emphasis is on wheat (noodles) rather than rice, though they do serve rice dishes. The place is of average size with plain white walls and minimum decoration. The wooden chairs look like they came in flat packs. I had hot and sour soup and found it neither hot nor sour enough. I don't know whether that was due to the absence of MSG or other artificial additives but whatever the reason I always hope hot and sour does what it says on the tin - and this didn't. My friend had a salad to start which she found bland and uninspiring. Mains were better - I had a quite fiery duck and noodle dish and her squid was good. However, it was the service side of things which let them down. Although they were very polite we did get the impression that they couldn't wait to see the back of their customers. When asked when they closed they said 11 - on the dot - all finish - and they couldn't wait to get finished dishes off the table even if other people were still eating. At twenty to eleven I asked for coffee and was told that the coffee machine had already been switched off. As eleven o'clock approached the atmosphere was more like a pub at kicking out time than a restaurant. No lingering over coffee here - even if the machine was still on. I won't be back. Harry