TheChek News Flow

US credit card defaults jump to highest level since 2010

Consumers are ‘tapped out’ after years of high inflation and as pandemic-era savings have evaporated

Defaults on US credit card loans have hit the highest level since the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, in a sign that lower-income consumers’ financial health is waning after years of high inflation.

Credit card lenders wrote off $46bn in seriously delinquent loan balances in the first nine months of 2024, up 50 per cent from the same period in the year prior and the highest level in 14 years, according to industry data collated by BankRegData. Write-offs, which occur when lenders decide it is unlikely a borrower will make good on their debts, are a closely watched measure of significant loan distress.

“High-income households are fine, but the bottom third of US consumers are tapped out,” said Mark Zandi, the head of Moody’s Analytics. “Their savings rate right now is zero.”

The sharp rise in defaults is a sign of how consumers’ personal finances are becoming increasingly stretched after years of high inflation, and as the Federal Reserve has left borrowing costs at elevated levels.

Banks have yet to report their fourth-quarter numbers but the early signs are that more consumers are falling significantly behind on what they owe. Capital One, the US’s third-largest credit card lender, after JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, recently said that as of November its annualised credit card write-off rate, which is the percentage of its overall loans that are marked as unrecoverable, hit 6.1 per cent, up from 5.2 per cent a year ago.

“Consumer spending power has been diminished,” said Odysseas Papadimitriou, head of consumer credit research firm WalletHub.

US consumers exited pandemic-era lockdowns flush with cash and ready to spend. Credit card lenders were happy to help, signing up customers who might not have qualified in the past based on income, but looked like safe debtors because their bank accounts were flush with cash.

Credit card balances soared, rising a combined $270bn in 2022 and 2023, and pushing the total US consumers owed on credit cards above $1tn for the first time in mid-2023.

That spending along with coronavirus-induced supply chain bottlenecks led to a burst of inflation, prompting the Fed to boost borrowing costs starting in 2022.

Higher balances and interest rates have left Americans who cannot pay off their credit card bills in full paying $170bn in interest in the past 12 months ending in September.

That sucked up a portion of the excess cash that was in consumers’ bank accounts, particularly those of low-income consumers, and as a result, more of those borrowers are struggling to pay back their credit card debts.

Hopes that the US central bank will rapidly slash interest rates in 2025 after cuts this year were dashed last week, when officials predicted only half a percentage point of rate cuts next year, compared with a forecast of 1 percentage point three months earlier.

In a sign of how consumers are struggling, even after writing off nearly $60bn in consumer credit card debt in the past year, another $37bn remains in consumers’ cards that is at least one month overdue.

Credit card delinquency rates, which are seen as a precursor to write-offs, peaked in July, according to data from Moody’s, but have only fallen slightly and remain nearly a percentage point higher than they were on average in the year before the pandemic.

“Delinquencies are pointing to more pain ahead,” said WalletHub’s Papadimitriou.

US president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of wide-ranging tariffs, which could increase inflation and interest rates, would be “two problematic things for the consumer in 2025”, he added.

EU plans hot weather ‘stress test’ on railways and power grids

Bloc seeks to respond to growing number of disasters expected as a result of climate change

Railways and electricity grids across Europe may be “stress tested” for hot weather under plans being drawn up by the EU to prepare critical infrastructure for the demands of a warming planet.

The stress testing would be part of a broader policy, due to be presented next year, to respond to the growing number of disasters expected as a result of climate change, said three EU officials with knowledge of the proposal.

Brussels is weighing whether to require EU governments “to do stress testing across energy, health [etc] for a four-degree warmer scenario”, a senior EU official said. “It’s something we believe would be a sensible effort from member states.”

Another official described the move as a “no brainer” that should, if enacted, prompt more resilient infrastructure to be built and “further debate about what needs to be done”.

Temperatures in Europe are expected to increase at least 3C by 2050 compared with pre-industrial levels, according to assessments by the European Environment Agency.

The EEA in March said Europe faced high risks of “heatwaves and prolonged droughts”, even at marginally higher temperatures. “This can lead to acute crises, such as widespread wildfires, critical infrastructure failures, blackouts, and major health and economic impacts,” it said.

The EU has suffered billions of euros worth of damage in the past two years from significant forest fires and floods. Floods in Slovenia in 2023 were estimated to have cost the country 16 per cent of its GDP.

“​​It is a good question for what the kind of extremes we should start to prepare, especially if we have this more longer-term perspective,” said Leena Ylä-Mononen, executive director of the EEA, told the Financial Times. “We are talking about infrastructure or really major industrial installations — they are meant to last for decades.”

She added whether stress testing against a 3C warmer scenario should be “explored” as that would “already have devastating impacts in Europe”.

France is the first member state to have started stress testing nationally. In October it opened consultations on a plan to look at how critical infrastructure fared if temperatures were 4C higher.

In the 2015 Paris climate agreement, countries agreed to limit global temperature rises to well below 2C and ideally to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

The global average temperature is expected to surpass 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for an annual year for the first time this year. This is distinct from the Paris agreement target, which is measured over decades rather than in a single year.

Europe is warming faster than other continents because of its geography and surrounding ocean currents.

“What is clear is that whatever scenario for the globe is assumed there has to be an add-on applied [in Europe] because the effects are expected to be worse here than anywhere else,” an EU official said.

Concerns around the readiness of EU countries for the effects of climate change were exemplified in November when devastating floods hit the Spanish region of Valencia, killing at least 231 people.

Other elements of the EU plan are likely to include strengthening early warning systems and providing a framework to provide incentives to private investment into projects to improve the bloc’s resilience against extreme weather.

UK admissions of overseas tax evasion jump 22%

HMRC disclosures rise as agency clamps down on tax evasion with cross-border data exchange

The number of people in the UK who admitted not paying tax on their overseas assets jumped by nearly a quarter in 2023-24, according to government data.

A total of 5,643 people admitted not paying enough tax on their foreign assets to HM Revenue & Customs, up from 4,630 in 2022-23 — a rise of 22 per cent — data obtained under a freedom of information request showed.

The government has promised to raise billions of pounds by clamping down on tax evasion and avoidance, with HMRC given funding for 5,000 extra compliance officers in the Budget.

Tax experts said the surge in evasion disclosures had been driven by several factors. These included HMRC sending out a greater number of warning letters, receiving data from more countries on people’s offshore affairs and an increase in public awareness about its data sharing.

“HMRC’s aggressive pursuit of tax avoiders now leaves very few places to hide,” said Graham Caddock, tax investigations director at Lubbock Fine, the advisory firm that issued the FOI request.

He added that the tax authority was “making good use of the information it receives from overseas jurisdictions, checking tax return entries and . . . its database to look for those who are avoiding HMRC altogether”.

Since 2018, international rules have led to the automatic exchange of information on financial accounts between tax authorities. These agreements, developed by the OECD and known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), have been signed by 120 countries.

Participant nations include popular tax havens such as Switzerland, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. Meanwhile, from 2027, the information sharing programme will be extended to include crypto asset exchanges.

HMRC uses algorithms to identify anomalies between the offshore data records and its data on UK residents. The system then generates “nudge letters” that are sent to individuals when discrepancies are detected.

Dawn Register, tax dispute resolution partner at BDO, an accountancy firm, said she suspected the information HMRC is now receiving is “more accurate and subject to greater analysis . . . using sophisticated AI technology”.

This greater analytic power was likely to be one of the factors driving an increase in tax disclosures.

“Awareness and education around CRS and tax reporting has encouraged more people to come forward and bring their UK tax affairs up to date,” she added.

Individuals can disclose unpaid tax on foreign assets using HMRC’s online worldwide disclosure facility.

The maximum penalty for failing to disclose offshore income can be up to 200 per cent of tax owed and in the most serious cases carries a prison sentence.

Coming forward to make a disclosure after receiving a nudge letter, “significantly reduced” the risk of penalties, said Caddock.

HMRC’s estimates that the tax gap — the difference between what it expected to collect in tax and what is paid — was £39.8bn in 2022-23, with about £5.5bn likely to have been lost specifically to evasion.

HMRC estimated, in data published earlier this year, that the under-declared tax liability of UK-resident individuals with foreign income was about £300mn in 2018-19. The analysis found that about 4 per cent of this group had under-declared their tax liability to HMRC.

The car in front is no longer a Stellantis — but Ferrari’s performance shows betting on billionaires is here to stay

The end of the year is a time for reflecting on one’s successes and failures, and mining them for insights to apply in the future. The Lex version of this ritual navel-gazing involves sifting through the calls that we made over the past year: those stocks we thought would race ahead and those we touted as set to crash. There are always, inevitably, some hits and misses.

Seen in the rear-view mirror, some of our positions look uncomfortably ill-judged. Take our endorsement of Stellantis, formed from the combination of Italy’s FCA and France’s PSA. In February, we admired chief executive Carlos Tavares’s post-merger axe-wielding, which had driven the carmaker’s 2023 margins to 12.5 per cent, almost double those at Volkswagen.

Since then, the wheels have totally come off the Stellantis story. It has missed expectations, warned on profits and, finally, ejected its chief executive — and its stock has very nearly halved. 

For sure, life has been hard for all European carmakers. Sluggish demand, competition from Chinese automakers and a bumpy transition to electric vehicles have sent the Euro Stoxx Automobiles and Parts index down about 16 per cent since February.  

But much of Stellantis’s skid is of its own making. In the post-pandemic period, it raised forecourt prices so much that its market share eventually cratered. Those plush margins that so enraptured Lex? Bit of a warning signal, as it turns out. Rising margins in consumer-facing businesses are the equivalent of an amber light. As Nestlé’s recent history teaches, what looks like pricing power or efficient marketing spend can just as easily signal a predilection for short-term profit over long-term growth. 

Not all our favoured car stocks have gone off track this year. Lex has long been a fan of Italy’s Ferrari. We called out its better prospects in comparison to Porsche in 2023 — referencing its model of restricted supply and exorbitant pricing — and have continued to highlight its strengths since then. 

And there has been some decent mileage out of this one: Ferrari’s shares are up nearly 30 per cent this year. That is all the more remarkable given the pile-up in European autos and the fact that the luxury sector has wilted.

Clearly, the uber-wealthy who can afford to shell out up to $10mn for a personalised Ferrari are in a different class from the merely very, very affluent. Ferrari has even outperformed Hermès, its functional equivalent in leather goods, to trade at 48 times next year’s earnings. Lex thinks this is a trade that has further to run. Betting on billionaires is here to stay.

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This year’s top tables, as selected by FT editors and writers

2024 saw the introduction of dozens of excellent new restaurants in London, from thrilling newcomers to the offspring of the city’s most storied institutions. With food inflation, increasing operating costs and higher rates, prices continued to trend upwards too, but there is still value to be found, with the set lunch menu once again coming to the fore. The prix fixe nouveau can be partly credited to a new wave of bistros that has reinvigorated London’s love affair with classic French cuisine, some of the tastiest found at the tourist-heaving Borough Market, which even locals will admit is back and better than ever with so many celebrated new eateries in the mix. Canary Wharf is also at risk of becoming cool, a trend most Londoners wouldn’t have predicted for anyone who isn’t paid to be there or doesn’t don a suit. But that is the joy of the UK capital: it is constantly reinventing itself, and for those of us who like to eat, it has never been more exciting.

A restaurant inspired by different visions of Greece; the ground floor, Agora, is canteen-style with an open kitchen, baker’s ovens and charcoal grills. Here you can’t really book (they offer a limited number of reservations), but you can join a queue of London’s young and tasteful that moves pretty quickly. Upstairs — Oma — is a bookable dining space, part of which hangs out like a balcony into the iron tracery of Borough Market’s roof. 

You’ll want to order at least a couple of clementine mini-gimlets or apricot sharpeners, several rounds of the açma verde — a soft, herbed bagel/roll, baked fresh downstairs and Instagrammed by everyone. There’s hummus, obviously, served masabacha-style (with whole chickpeas) and a fresh green zhoug. Expect baba ganoush, charred squid and grilled lamb, but sea bass is served as a crudo rather than the more obvious charcoal grilling, and the spanakopita comes as a gratin. Oma buzzes with all the joy of a taverna, with added sophistication.

I confess my first arrival at Café François, the diffusion line spin-off of the immaculate Maison François of St James’s, involved repeatedly muttering “Jesus Christ, I’m never ever coming here again” until a glass of crémant had taken the edge off shuffling through Borough Market tourists (all the while fearing you are now suspended forever in the tractor beam of The Ginger Pig’s sausage-roll queue). 

But once you’ve made it to the safety of a banquette, you are so very well looked after it’s impossible to sulk. The pared-down menu is handled lovingly — a pal of mine is so keen on the quiche she orders it every time; personally I favour the rotisserie section, but that’s the roulette of weekend brunch. The wheely bureau-of-delights dessert trolley has not made the journey from the mothership (or it’s probably stuck outside in line for a loaf of sourdough), but the macarons and tartes have sneaked in. The prices are Côte-adjacent and you’re getting a Mayfair experience. I believe there may be plans to open more, and that alone is a reason to look forward to 2025.

So powerful is the draw of Lyon-born chef Claude Bosi that even London’s food mafia, who seem loath to venturing further west than, well, the West End, made the uncustomary journey to an SW postcode — and thus Joséphine Bouchon opened in March to much critical fanfare. The menu at this neighbourhood-style, notably Lyonnais bouchon is generous with options, portions, sauces, butter and other fats, and (for this part of town and Bosi’s CV) price, with a deal of a daily special (£15.50), and an à la carte offering and wine list that mostly won’t break the bank unless you’re trying to.

While it’s billed as a starter, the French onion soup, covered with a thick slab of almost impenetrable Gruyère, is a meal in itself, and at £13.50 probably the best value you’ll find in a borough where you can easily spend thrice just taking a breath. There’s rabbit in mustard sauce, which feeds two or three, a chicken and mushroom vol-au-vent that will make you smile and an unmissable chocolate mousse, unfussily presented as an enormous spoonful on a plate. The signature rum baba is determinedly boozy and comes from a trolley like the best things do. The dishes at Joséphine, named after Bosi’s grandmother, are lovingly executed, while the whole package is refined but joyful and unstuffy. It is a tribute one can imagine Joséphine would be proud of.

The Dover is pretty much the perfect embodiment of a Jazz Age Manhattan nightspot, crossed with the cocktail bar of a transatlantic liner. The owner Martin Kuczmarski, late of the Soho House Group, is London’s finest exponent of restaurant mise-en-scène, so I’d say it’s like dining on a film set, if the food weren’t so damned good. 

There’s nothing on the menu that’s going to scare the horses, but truth be told, the room is so special, they could get away with merely adequate food. Fortunately, the Dover’s executions of prawn cocktail, chopped salad, penne arrabbiata or “The Dover” sole meunière (see what they did there?) are exemplary. It’s possibly the most romantic venue in the city.

Gymkhana in Albemarle Street was always my go-to recommendation for a festive blowout — that is until this summer, when the JKS Restaurants group opened Ambassadors Clubhouse, another absolute banger, closer to Piccadilly Circus on Heddon Street. The focus here is on the food and hospitality of Punjab, and the low-lit, lavish decor matches the sumptuously rich, fiery cuisine. Sink into the plush upholstery, loosen your belt and start as you mean to go on with a tandoori margarita, a smoky, pineapple-y take on the classic, accompanied by seriously moreish chilli cheese pakoda with tomato chutney from the “Bitings” section of the long, toothsome sharing menu. Don’t miss the finger-lickingly tasty barbecue butter-chicken chops or the giant ajwaini wild prawns cooked in the tandoor, but be sure to leave room for the succulent matka beliram lamb curry, silky maa ki (black) dal and a perfectly pillowy yet crunchy butter naan. On my recent Monday-night visit, several groups were clearly at the tail-end of a card-busting Christmas lunch. To me, this is more date-night territory: thanks to the thick swirly carpet, it is one of the few restaurants in this cacophonous city where you can actually have a proper chat.

There are many reasons this 18-cover, cash-only, lunch spot near King’s Cross warrants inclusion on a list of 2024’s most notable openings. Few other bistros have caused more controversy following comments made by its co-owner about teetotal customers hogging tables. It’s also surely the only restaurant in London where you can make reservations by postcard and purchase poetry from the bookshop in the basement. But for those who appreciate boozy lunches fuelled by impeccable wine and hearty food (think comforting pies, stews and the like) served in Le Creuset pots by the aproned chef who made them, this place is a gem.

Anyone familiar with Perilla in Newington Green will have salivated at the thought of Morchella: another neighbourhood restaurant, another airy dining room. But while there are similarities between the siblings, the proposition is entirely different. Morchella hits hard with punchy, Mediterranean-inspired flavours. Weeks have passed and I still long for the pork jowl; ditto the mussels and focaccia drenched in spicy pil-pil sauce. You can be sated with a few small plates — spanakopita, vitello tonnato and salt-cod churros — and a glass from the restaurant’s extensive wine list. Or go all-in with a larger plate and Parmentier potatoes. Exmouth Market has a new star venue.

Those who remember the first iterations of chef Santiago Lastra’s Kol when it opened in 2020 — a flag firmly planted for the new-to-London genre of Mexican fine-dining — will recall its arrival with nostalgic reverence. As Lastra’s awards rolled in faster than the time it takes to make a mole, the tasting menu and therefore the prices began to grow too, and Kol today is rather unrecognisable to those who knew the band before it made it big.

So with the opening of Fonda, Lastra’s take on a casual Mexican eatery, excitement to see the chef let his hair and prices down was palpable. It is not cheap for what’s ostensibly meant to be street food (around £200 for dinner for two with cocktails), but Lastra has made no sacrifice in quality or thoughtful sourcing in his more laid-back approach (this is Mexican food with mostly prime, seasonal British ingredients). The tacos are the stars — in particular, rib-eye topped with grilled cheese, and the battered Baja-style cod — while the sea trout ceviche and short-rib mole are also superb. A tower of different salsas is set on the table, with recommendations to accompany each dish, but the fun is in the mixing and matching. The lengthy agave-forward cocktail list is also a thrill to explore; try one of the variations of a paloma.

This debut restaurant from husband-and-wife chef and sommelier team John and Desiree Chantarasak was a long time coming (it was first mooted in 2020) and it was certainly worth the wait. Everything virtuosic about Chantarasak’s cooking, which draws from both his Thai and British heritage and builds on his experience at Som Saa in London and Nahm in Bangkok, is on display. Dishes might include lion’s mane mushroom with sunflower-seed satay and wild garlic; pork chop with smoked chilli relish; wok-fired long aubergine with soy-cured yolk; and crown prince pumpkin, honey cake and pumpkinseed ice cream for dessert. The wine list is just as delightful. 

Jason Atherton is on a roll in London this year, with five new restaurants opening since he called time on Pollen Street Social. The most recent, Row on 5 (with former Ritz head chef Spencer Metzger) is his most daring of all. There’s no à la carte — just a 15-course tasting menu (£198.50 per person) served to Atherton’s trademark soundtrack of pop and rock (AC/DC, Bob Dylan, Dexys Midnight Runners). There’s unstuffy fun with his take on a cheese and onion crisp sandwich; the best scallop I’ve ever eaten carpeted with ikura (salmon) roe and bathing in a smoky broth; a deep-fried taro bun filled with slow-cooked venison; and an absurdly creamy and umami bowl of mashed potato with N25 Kaluga caviar. The wine list by Roxane Dupuy, formerly the sommelier at Sketch, offers 2,300 bottles and covers most bases. There’s a touch of The Menu to proceedings, but if anyone can add a bit of earthiness to the hyper-elevated it’s Atherton.

Run, don’t walk, to Ibai — a Basque grill from Lurra founder Nemanja Borjanović and one of the latest additions to Smithfield Market that is continuing the area’s upwards trend as a prime dining destination. Located in a capacious former factory space, Ibai has succeeded where others failed, offering a dining experience that’s simple and unpretentious yet upscale and refined.

The highlight for me was the £30 steak-frites lunch special, yet the allure doesn’t stop there; the list of delicious starters and sides — Cantabrian anchovies, Basque pâté, a carabinero (red prawn) tartare — will quickly expand your meal (and bill), each dish packed with flavour.

As you finish, perhaps with a glass of wine in hand, you’ll notice something rare: a bustling, happy crowd still lingering at 2pm or even 3pm. Ibai isn’t just a great spot for lunch — it’s a City institution in the making.

Firmly one of the best new additions to the City’s dining scene, Cloth, a neighbourhood-style restaurant near Smithfield Market, is the definition of a hidden gem, tucked away on a quiet lane in a cosy Grade II-listed building that was once the home of the poet John Betjeman. The team behind it are wine importers Joe Haynes and Ben Butterworth, and chef Tom Hurst (his CV includes the likes of Lasdun, Brawn and The Marksman), who collectively combine their expertise to excellent effect. Dishes here are simple and seasonal — mushroom risotto, perfectly cooked bavette with anchovy, a wonderfully creamy Jerusalem artichoke soup — while the world tour of a wine list not only makes thrilling exploration for deep-pocketed aficionados but features plenty of reasonably priced, accessible options too. Book ahead: Cloth is usually heaving, particularly at lunchtime, the atmosphere lively as diners squeeze into the rustic dining room with its art-laden walls for an excellent prix-fixe menu (£24 for two courses or £29 for three). Don’t plan to go over the weekend, though: it’s open Monday to Friday.

Before owner Jeremy King opened Arlington on the site formerly occupied by Le Caprice, he referred to it as “Not The Caprice”. The joke was that this place was Le Caprice in all but name. (The original name still belongs to its former owner Richard Caring.) A swish canteen for the art and media crowd, Arlington looks like Le Caprice (down to the black-and-white David Bailey prints on the wall and Art Deco fittings). It feels like Le Caprice too: a spot for preening and people-watching (Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham Carter were among those dining on the night I visited). And the menu looks all too familiar, filled with comforting staples such as steak tartare, salmon fish cake and chopped salad. King’s genius is in giving customers what they want: a restaurant that recreates the buzzy glamour of Le Caprice in its Diana, Princess of Wales heyday. It’s packed most evenings for good reason.

Julie’s, which reopened this year, is in its third iteration finally the neighbourhood haunt that Holland Park has been waiting for. The kind of place where you want to dine weekly, equally suited for bringing your mother, your lover or your best friend for onglet bordelaise or lobster soufflé. Reimagined under the direction of new owner (and local) Tara MacBain and chef-patron Owen Kenworthy, the menu is classic French brasserie fare with a contemporary twist. (Burrata and avocados are banned.) The martini trolley, warm maximalist interiors and vintage Steinway piano invite lengthy sojourns. My best new discovery is the green-tomato martini: clear, crisp and with a subtle hint of umami — a far cry from the Bloody Mary in a martini glass that I anticipated.

The natural-wine-and-small-plates combo has long been exhausted in London, and yet Goodbye Horses proves the need for one more spot. Since opening in De Beauvoir’s leafy backstreets in July, the former pub has welcomed a revolving door of pét-nat-sipping revellers. Its 4,000-strong collection of vinyl might look daunting, but the staff are as welcoming to casual drinkers as they are to serious aficionados (glasses of wine start at a very reasonable £6). The unexpected highlight, however, is the food: classic egg mayonnaise, pickle-studded toasties and an oxtail ragout rice so good I’ll never look at risotto the same way. 

If you want a good lunch in the Square Mile and are not of the steak-and-truffle persuasion, my advice until recently would have been to head north to Farringdon. Now it’s the brilliant Bao City, which has managed to inject real soul into the charisma vacuum that is the Bloomberg Arcade. The new Bao looks like a retro diner meets whisky bar-cum-high-end design studio with money to burn. The menu of Taiwanese bao, small plates and noodles is playful (as in clever, not gimmicky) and, as with all of the London mini-chain’s restaurants, there’s an attempt to anticipate what Londoners might want next, rather than mimic existing trends. Here, that means upscale karaoke booths on either side of the dining room.

In a location like Sesta’s — five minutes from London Fields — you could get away with being average. Thankfully, founders Drew Snaith and Hannah Kowalski have serious ambitions. The pair have an imposing legacy to continue: Sesta resides in the space formerly occupied by much-loved Pidgin, and has almost the same front- and back-of-house teams. But the concept is more relaxed than its predecessor’s. In place of a tasting menu is a lively, seasonal à la carte and the requisite selection of natural wines. Sauces are king here, be it gentlemen’s relish with a neat hunk of Hereford beef rump, or the parsley pesto butter served with the housemade rolls. Order the nduja scotched olives and then order them again.

This was nothing if not a surprise: the first and only opening since 1987 from the (needs no introduction) River Cafe, one of London’s best-known and most influential restaurants. Next door to the original, the site of the new café was previously the restaurant’s shop; it has been refitted as a breezy, all-day casual canteen, serving plates of beautiful ingredients and delicious, simple Italian antipasti, primi and vegetable dishes. (Don’t expect to find a bargain, however; it’s less expensive than the restaurant next door but a simple pasta will still set you back £23.)

The veggies here are the low-key star; a roast violetta aubergine dish with chilli and oregano was a favourite, as was the earthy and sweet roast pumpkin. Plates of prosciutto, mortadella and salumi, with warm, freshly baked focaccia, should kick off proceedings, followed by a pasta or risotto — I enjoyed the rotolo al forno, which here is essentially stuffing (spinach and ricotta) wrapped in a layer of thin fresh pasta dough, cooked and sliced, en croûte-style. Do save room for dessert — you’ll spy some icons available from the original venue, including the famed Chocolate Nemesis cake.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Abc Kitchens glows in a small alley off the tunnel end of Knightsbridge. The chef’s first London outpost of his feted line of Abc-titled NYC eateries is the restaurant of The Emory hotel, one of architect Richard Rogers’ final projects — an elegant high-tech bookend to the London thoroughfare, overlooking Hyde Park.

The dining room spans from a courtyard conservatory to the glassy front facade and contains a selection of intimate or more public tables, all wrapped around interior designer Rémi Tessier’s warm and wonderfully shiny copper bar.

The food is Latin American-inspired with local twists: pea guacamole, Dover sole tacos, beetroot carpaccios — all fresh, fine and zingy. The dining spaces exude comfort and consideration, the prices are suitably steep and the wine selection is superb. It is all finished off with an exposition of vivid artworks by Damien Hirst. An excellent addition to a crowded scene.

Rooftop dining doesn’t get any more glamorous than Kioku by Endo, the latest opening from chef Endo Kazutoshi at Raffles London at The OWO, itself one of London’s most anticipated — and delayed — openings. Our experience began at ground level at the cosy wood-clad Kioku bar, in our case with an Ooba, a clean-tasting yet punchy shiso- and gin-based cocktail from its extensive drinks and sake list, before whizzing up to the sixth floor to be seated for dinner. But not before gawping at the incredible sunset views of the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Horse Guards and, from one particular spot, Nelson eclipsing the Post Office Tower. Diners go mad for the nigiri here: plumptious, ridiculously fresh and among the most expensive morsels in London. We steered towards two Endo signatures, a delicate starter of cuttlefish ribbons with fresh pesto and peas, followed by an umami-rich lobster, fregola and sansho-pepper dish washed down by a nutty sparkling sake. NB: book the circular turret room for a private dinner and a 360-degree perspective of the capital.

This intimate little restaurant tucked just inside Borough Market is a far cry from the chaos beyond its doors: cosy and rustic, with a tiny bar, just a handful of tables and unpretentious regional French-inspired cooking, Camille transports guests from one of London’s most touristed grounds to a charming, under-the-radar corner of Paris. Appearing from a little service hatch, each dish from chef Elliot Hashtroudi hails from a short, oft- changing menu and a blackboard-written list of specials.

A meal at Camille should start with a dirty vodka martini and some oysters, which here are topped with a virid, frozen verjus; subsequently, order as many plates as possible to share. We particularly enjoyed smoked eel tartiflette, sausages with kale and perfectly cooked monkfish, and finished with the exemplary milk tart. Camille is probably not one for unadventurous eaters or vegetarians: fish and meat make up the majority of the menu, and offal — liver, hearts, other curiosities — is very much a feature. The wine list is French-forward but not entirely traditional; the Alexandre Jouveaux white burgundy we enjoyed was probably the best natural wine I’ve ever had.

This small counter-and-stool bar under an arch in Brixton may be home to the finest burgers in town. The brainchild of Matt Harris and Tommy Kempton (behind Clapham restaurant and wine bar Ploussard), Buster’s offers three burgers — a hamburger, cheeseburger and the “Buster” burger, which features their signature brown butter, tarragon and tomato sauce — all made with Wagyu beef patties. You might find better french fries elsewhere, but few sides top their Wagyu-fat or chicken-Kyiv mayo or foamy cheese sauce piped from a whipped-cream dispenser. Pét nat is by the glass, but the must-order is the picante (tequila and green chilli) cocktail.

Well situated just off Cannon Street for a City lunch, The Don nestles in the building that was the home of Sandeman, makers of port and sherry, until 1967 and still has, in the cellars beneath, the iron lifts for the barrels dating back to the 18th century. The current buzz, however, is all about the new menu by Rowley Leigh, the pioneer of modern British cooking behind Kensington Place and Le Café Anglais. I started with the vitello tonnato — five tender slices of veal anointed with a creamlike tuna mayonnaise and punchy anchovy — followed by a main of roast-onion squash, celery and chestnuts agrodolce, which was earthy and tangy, with a vinegary nod to the building’s historic links. There are grilled lamb chops, côte de boeuf, rib-eye steak and french fries for meatosaureses — and the return of Leigh’s iconic scallops with pea purée. The wine list is extensive and the Deco setting airy and warm. Set lunch menu, £35; à la carte, mains from £22.50.

Light pours in through the huge wraparound windows of The Barbary in Notting Hill, the second — much larger — site of the original restaurant in Neal’s Yard, which takes its culinary inspiration from southern Europe to northern Africa. Park up at the yellow marble horseshoe-shaped counter, where you can watch the chefs in action and smell the lamb cutlets sizzling on an open fire. The warmth and fluffiness of the flatbreads (with Swiss chard, feta and pine nuts) were such that it prompted my dining companion to temporarily abandon his gluten intolerance. And the deliciousness of the desserts proved so irresistible that we followed up the basbousa, a syrup-soaked semolina cake (here served for two) with an exquisite chocolate crémeux with a hint of coriander seeds, and a deliciously dense and buttery pistachio-hash cake.

Roe is the latest offering from the team behind Fallow, the lively St James’s restaurant where a seasonal nose-to-tail ethos showcases ingredients that are typically destined for the bin (most notably cod or pig’s head, for example). Named after Britain’s native deer, Roe is similarly sustainability-focused — and with 500 covers and several dining spaces, it’s easier to score a table here too. Punters will be pleased to see many Fallow favourites on the menu with a local twist, like smoked hispi cabbage, mushroom parfait, which somehow tastes meatier than any animal-based variety, and venison tartare, as well as a slew of original new dishes that suit the more casual set-up: shareable skewers, flatbreads and a giant blooming onion — the most Instagrammed allium in all of London. Go with a group to share with: you’ll want to try as much of the menu as possible.

Maida Vale was lacking decent gastropubs, but this has all changed with the reopening of The Hero under new operators. As at its sibling establishments, The Pelican in Notting Hill and The Bull in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, its aesthetic is the epitome of rustic chic: four floors of stripped-back wood, plaster walls and Windsor chairs. The boisterous pub on the ground floor does high-end comfort food that is steeped in nostalgia: cocktail sausages, Scotch eggs and a showstopping cheese and onion pie. In the grill on the first floor, speciality cuts of meat and fish are cooked over an open fire. 

Marceline, a stylish French brasserie with a menu overseen by chef Robert Aikens, is a boon for E14’s business diners (and worthy of off-duty attention too). Here you’ll find classic French dishes cooked with panache — think rotisserie chicken, fillet steak au poivre, an impeccable twice-baked soufflé — with dashes of fun: steak tartare is punctuated with hazelnut, mint and artichoke chips to delightful effect, while the ravioli dauphiné (with Comté and crème fraîche) is served as a sheet of uncut pasta in a pool of brown butter. Madeleines, made fresh to order, are a must. The wine list is, unsurprisingly, French-forward, but full of surprises, though if visiting on regrettably restrained business, the two-sip dirty vodka martini will do the trick.