Gary Yau, the younger brother of famed restaurateur Alan Yau (of Hakkasan and Cha Cha Moon) just launched this new Japanese spot. Located in Soho, Aaya shares some similarities with brother’s successful ventures, namely delicious sushi and cooked Japanese fare, as well as a sleek modern design scheme.

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For its new Italian restaurant, the Lanesborough netted both Nick Bell, former head chef of London’s acclaimed Cecconi’s restaurant and the legendary designer Adam Tihany (whose résumé includes Le Cirque and Per Se in New York and French Laundry in Napa). Bell imports all ingredients from Italy and innovative dishes on his modern Italian menu include beef steak Fiorentina with bone marrow sauce (carved at your table), wood pigeon ravioli and rabbit cacciatore. Meanwhile, Tihany’s Venetian-inspired décor is both elegant and unique: in addition to plushy sofas and huge chandeliers, there’s a dizzying collage painting by Simon Casson that’s composed of various images from classical works ( in one publication, Tihany said it “feels like a post-Renaissance artist on LSD”). The third most important player here is the sommelier, Andrew Connor (also from Cecconi’s) who oversees the 500 bottle cellar—where guests can personally select and decant their wine—as well as a wine list that features different Italian vintages every other week.

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Famed restaurateur Alan Yau (the man behind Michelin-star Hakkasan and fun dimsum eatery Yauatcha) has opened a new Soho spot for those on a budget (perfect for those disadvantaged by the current exchange rate). Every dish is priced at £3.50 (about $6.50), there’s a no-trimmings approach (you’re given three choices of wine: red, white and rosé). Within a few weeks of opening, the lines are already down the block.

Mark Hix, former executive chef of the Ivy, Caprice and Scott’s, has opened his own restaurant, reviving an 18th-century chop house. The menu features British meat on the bone, beef flank and oyster pie as well as various cuts of twenty-eight-day aged Aberdeenshire beef, while oysters of any kind serve as understudies. It has received good reviews and even the notorious AA Gill gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

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The Langham hotel remains in the midst of a major renovation, but if its new Landau Restaurant is an indication of what is to come, the landmark will be a major source of glamour for London. David Collins, the designer behind such hot spots as Nobu, used the buildings classical proportions to add major drama to dining. There is nothing austere or understated about this experience; it’s all wow.

The entrance from the street is a up limestone set of stairs, which lead to a stunning atrium dubbed the Wine Corridor. The vaulted hallway is lined with glass-fronted shelves of wine bottles that glow from backlights, evoking the cellar of modern day James Bond type. At one end of the oval dining room a bay of towering arched windows face Regent Street. Because of Collins brilliant use of curved banquettes and antique brass lamps (from enormous antique chandeliers to library-inspired reading lamps), the tables manage to feel intimate despite the grand space.

Chef Andrew Turner, who previously presided over the kitchen at Brown’s, is known for his “grazing menus” and revels in teasing diners with small surprising plates. Each night he offers five-, six- and eight-course menus along with the regular menu. Some critics complain that he’s too experimental, with dishes like carpaccio of milk fed veal, hazelnuts and sweet peppers, Parma ham and white balsamic going overboard. However, many are delicious, including the Fillet of lamb, confit of Menton Farm breast pudding with Jerusalem artichokes. There’s a lovely private dining room, the Postillon, that faces St. George’s church and features one long table for sixteen.

Tip: The theater menus offer two courses for £20 and three courses for £27. Open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

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Princess Di’s old Kensington hangout has been given a new lease on life with new owners D&D London. The food is delicious and original: soufflé comes with mustard ice cream; petits fours are chocolate-flavored and spiced with thyme, basil and bay leaf. The restaurant is just off Kensington Palace in lovely neighborhood that’s been long on cherry blossom trees and short on good food—until now.

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Sam and Eddie Hart, the owners of popular Fino and Barrafina, have revamped this iconic Soho eatery. In its past life Quo Vadis was run by famous chef Marco Pierre White and artist Damien Hirst. Now its gone traditional British with dishes like slow-cooked pork shoulder and macaroni.

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After you go see the Hayward Gallery, amble over to the Royal Festival Hall—which completed a two-year, $230 million restoration in 2007—and have lunch at this new Terence Conran restaurant. With its soaring ceilings and vast windows overlooking the Thames it is a fun place to have lunch and watch the boats sail by. We preferred eating at the more casual Grill than the formal-looking restaurant.

Promising Finnish chef Helena Puolakka overseas the modern European cuisine and there is lots of grilled fish, including poached Dorset lobster and wild salmon with watercress cream, on the menu. Plus lighter dishes for ladies who lunch and hamburgers for real men who don’t eat quiche. The staff was very friendly, if a bit forgetful, and the food was good. Perfect for weekday lunch or pre-concert option.

Wedged between L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and the original Ivy on West Street, you will recognize the Club at the Ivy by the liveried doorman standing guard outside. The star restaurateurs behind Le Caprice and the Ivy opened it in September, and not surprisingly it has drawn Kate Moss, Orlando Bloom, Andrew Lloyd Webber and loads of other privacy-seeking partiers. It occupies three floors above the original Ivy with an entrance on West Street. Behind the glossy white door, a towering stairwell with white-leather stitched handrails wraps around a glass box elevator to ascend to the main dining room. (There is also a piano bar, sushi bar and library.) The slow rise past an impressive, mirrored Art Deco chandelier signals clearly that this is a more elevated experience than the original outpost next door as do the attentive staff who coddle members with extra care. After all, the food, while perfectly respectable, has never been the main attraction at the Ivy either; it’s the crowd, silly. On permanent display and well worth staring at is the art collection, which includes pieces by Peter Blake, Damien Hirst, Toby Ziegler and Sebastian Horsley. There is a strict members-only policy so join or get an invitation.

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Superchef Gordon Ramsay, who owns one of London’s most extravagant gourmet spots his three-star Michelin restaurant in Claridge’s, has just debuted its antithesis: a cozy, down-home refuge by Regent’s Park that resembles a bustling dining room in a country inn. The gripe from some is that the hike to reach the York & Albany from central London is almost what it takes to get to the country, but for those seeking a sense of hearth and home and wonderful British comfort food, it’s well worth it. (And since it is Ramsay’s first hotel project, if you plan ahead, you can spend the night.) Ramsay’s protégé Angela Hartnett, also a Michelin star chef, has created menus that emphasize the freshest seasonal products from the region. So for Sunday dinner in autumn, she proposes such family favorites as pumpkin soup with parmesan shavings, roast corn-fed chicken with bread sauce and rice pudding with roasted figs. Popular lunch choices are the carmelized onion tart with mint and crème fraîche and braised pork belly with black pudding. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Read about the York & Albany hotel.