Restaurants For Romantics

England has progressed and is now in early 2007 rated one of the best places in Europe to eat great food. On TV we have Jamie Oliver reforming school dinners. Delia Smith who teaches you how to cook an egg even if you can't cook an egg. Happy Ainsley Harriott who makes you feel you can do aything except spell his name. Both his names. The Naked Chef - hm - would he like an assistant - and many more.

Indian restaurants and Chinese restaurants are in most high streets with the Chinese well represented in London's Chinatown. Out in the suburbs the elegant Swan Peking in Hatch End has a hidden chef who carves carrots into things you and I never thought of. Because we were thinking of something else. Surveys reveal that men are thinking about sex twenty five per cent of the time. Women are probably thinking of the same thing.

You and your dinner companion are trying not to look like you are thinking of other things, like how your dinner companion would look naked, or how you can persuade them to come home for a bit of fun ; without looking like a total nypho; so you just discuss the weather and look romantic.

Meanwhile the chef, he (or she), turns tomatoes peel into coils of roses, which anybody can do in Asia but in the UK we are excited and impressed.

London has cosmopolitan diners and chefs. Immigrants arriving at Heathrow provide supermarket customers. Plus the restaurants' owners, managers, servers, cooks, and clientele.
England's restarants feature in the Michelin guide as well as several British guides for gourmets and the AA (Automobile Association) and RAC guides.

If you arrive in England at Heathrow airport look for Nico's restaurant in one of the hotels. From central London you can get a train to Heathrow. Ask the hotel restaurant how to get to them or if you're at another hotel ask the concierge or phone reception.

HATCH END
In North West London, Hatch End's Hatchet's restaurant displays a blue plaque to pioneering cookery writer Mrs Beeton. She introduced lists of ingredients at the start of recipes.

PINNER GREEN
Hatch End is just up the road from Pinner, a short bus ride, or cab. If you are ever in this area, for example visiting Wembley, you could go to Pinner Green and La Giralda (Spanish) or Mangosteen (oriental).

PINNER
Pinner (Metropolitan line underground train) has elegant l'Orient which serves Chinese, Japanese and Thai food.

Friends restaurant is in a beamed building in an old high street. The area has historic associations with Nelson, hence the Victory pub.

Pinner also has Cafe Rouge and Cafe Unno. If you are driving, continue east along the Uxbridge Road going away from Uxbridge to the restaurant capital of the north, Hatch End. Go on line to suss out the eateries and see what takes your fancy.

PUBS
All the UK's pubs' eating areas will go non-smoking from July. Scotland and Ireland beat England to it.

HATCH ENDMOON & SIXPENCE
The Wetherspoons pub has long had a non-smoking area with alcoves for diners and you'll get an alcove if you arrive early. For a real budget two for the price of one lunch Monday to Thursday I think. The garden at the back has benches.

No need to dress up. If you in an anorak you are fine. I often feel overdressed. They say better to be overdressed than underdressed.

They take credit cards and you can order the whole meal including a glass of alcohol or coffee first or last or both and they bring you the food if you quote your table number and you can spin the meal out for as long as you like. You have to collect your cutlery.

SAFETY FIRST
I don't drink with strangers. A man in London in early 2007 got sent to prison for spiking a woman's red wine. It's highly dangerous to combine drugs and drink with no idea what other medication somebody could be taking.

I sometimes have a glass of white wine, rose, kir, or sparkling, on my birthday, providing the waiter pours it out with a meal.

RESTAURANTS IN HATCH END
SUGAR SNAP
If your tastes are gourmet you might like Sugar Snap which has a chef trained by Gordon Ramsey. If you want to splurge or you are on expenses (are you fifteen miles from home and on business?) you can run up a big bill.

But they have a budget set lunch about £7.50 per person plus service. So if you are on a budget just whisper to each other and arrange to split a starter you both like between two and a dessert between two. Avoid coffee and alcohol and mineral water and drink tap water. On line newsletter and loyalty card.

SAN MARCO
For a real romantic time there's cosy San Marco, Italian, with no windows but trompe l'eoil of windows overlooking Venice.
Set lunches and dinners three courses:
410 Uxbridge Rd, tel 020 8421 3000. Similar menu to sister restaurant Fellini.

FELLINI
For fun there's my favourite, Fellini, all pink and pretty. I love to dress up.

The manager is jolly Franco who hugs the ladies and serenades you with a song or two from Italy or opera (he's professional - he sings at Covent Garden).

451 Uxbridge Rd, Hatch End, Middx, HA5 4JR
tel reservations 020 8428 4359
enquiries 020 8420 1191
www.fellinirestaurant.co.uk

ROTISSERIE
The Rotisserie is also trendy, black and echoing with laughter. Serves hot bread while you are waiting to order. If you order king prawns they come suspended on an amazing little rack.
Other branches in Whetstone and West Hampstead.
316 Uxbridge Rd, HA5
tel 020 8421 2878
www.therotisserie.co.uk

BUSHEY HEATH
The Alpine.
Italian with lots of rooms downstairs and upstairs. When they serve strawberries you get proper soft red tasty strawberries, nothing like the forced half-green hard ones that supermarkets sell, because the owner - or buyer - goes to market to buy the best at 5 am.

EDGWARE
Continuing east you reach Edgware which has kosher or Jewish-style eateries vying with England's Golders Green, or New York and outclassing Washington DC.

Edgware's B & K does the best salt beef sandwich to take away and lokshen pudding (noodle pudding). Huge portions.

If you're on a budget the Weng Wah buffet is an all you can eat Chinese restaurant and you can finish with fruit at the chocolate fountain.

GOLDERS GREEN
Golders Green has a good Korean restaurant.

FINCHLEY ROAD
Nearby Finchley Road has Just Around The Corner where you pay what you like.
And Philphott's Mezzaluna serves truffles, the savoury kind.

HOW DO YOU GET THERE?
Pinner is on the Met; Edgware and Golders Green are on the Northern line.

To Hatch End:
Either Euston to Hatch End on Silverlink about 35-40 mins but trains only every 15-20 minutes.
Or Paddington to Hatch End via Queens Park (and Harrow and Wealdstone).
Change at Queens Park, same platform, watch signs and front of train. Did you miss the sign on the front of the train? You will be moving from an underground train to a bigger intercity train.
If you miss the Queens Park stop, you can change later at Harrow & Wealdstone. But Queens Park is easier because there are lots of people about to ask (mostly foreigners who don't know either) and a shelter where you can sit and read.

Need directions on line?
INTERNET TRAVEL ADVICE:
London Transport:Transport for London: http://www.tfl.gov.uk
Streetmap
AA Route Planner http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/plannerRAC route planner
If you have any advice on restaurants, prices, budgets, transport or anything else, please tell us. Thanks.
If you are looking for a pretty lady to invite to a chatty or romantic dinner, you know who to ask.
They say the way to a man's heart is his stomach. In these days I think that applies to a woman.