Hawksmoor Seven Dials (Covent Garden)

Steak, burger and Sunday roast specialists with the name of one of Britain's two greatest Baroque architects. This basement Covent Garden haunt is one of several Hawksmoor outlets in London; others include Spitalfields (the first, 2006), Knightsbridge, Guildhall (weekdays), Borough and Piccadilly (large and loud but upstairs and airy...ask for booth-tables 23, 121 or 125). Plus Manchester and Edinburgh, with Gramercy Park in New York due October 2019. Top-quality steaks dominate the menu – from cows with a "stress-free life" and "fed on a natural diet of grass and hay" – but fish and most other things quintessentially English are also a major fixture here (including the sticky toffee pudding). The Sunday roast ranks among London's finest, with every component (including the gravy) superlative. Not cheap, but not pricey-pricey either. And not for the wimpy.