Looking for the perfect foodie spot when you visit London? bbcgoodfood.com lists out the capital's best cafés, pubs and restaurants for you

Cora Pearl, Covent Garden

Pesto, butternut squash and goat’s curd on plate Cora Pearl, a small, buzzing Covent Garden restaurant, has a menu that is reassuringly comforting. Everything sounds familiar – confit potatoes are listed simply as chips, modestly downplaying the kitchen’s skills. The menu also consists of dishes such as leek terrine, fish stew, pork and onions and a seasonal trifle that are perfect for two. Must try confit potato chips.

Padella, Borough Market

If you want to eat at Borough Market but perching on a kerb balancing a Scotch egg on your knee isn’t your style, Padella offers a foodie haven. This casual, no-reservations pasta specialist from the team behind Highbury’s Trullo has near-permanent queues thanks to much-Instagrammed dishes like pici cacio e pepe and pappardelle with eight-hour ragu. The small menu offers around six pasta dishes, plus excellent starters and desserts. Their speedy cooking method is the lynchpin of the whole magical operation: peer over the open counter to study the kitchen team ‘saucepanning’ the pasta to unctuous oblivion and those queues start to make a whole lot of sense.

Evelyn’s Table, Chinatown

The Blue Post exterior ‘Simple made splendid’ could be the tag for this tiny restaurant in London’s Chinatown. Tucked beneath the pub floor of The Blue Posts in London’s Chinatown is teeny, tiny Evelyn’s Table with all of 15 seats mostly arranged around a bar. The beef tartare with toast is stupendous. Pasta is made daily at 3pm and the fish from Looe market is shown to you in all its perky freshness before it is cooked. Order cocktails from the Mulwray two floors above to kick off with and if tarte Tatin is on the dessert menu, choose that – it’s a leader in its field.

Rochelle Canteen, St James’s

Rochelle Canteen at the ICA, London, is Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold’s second restaurant. Like the gallery, it’s a light, airy space with window seats overlooking the Mall. The food is deceptively simple, packed with flavours that show the skill of cooking and the pedigree of ingredients. Starters include dishes such as grilled sardines, fennel & marjoram and girolles & fried egg on toast. Rabbit often features: in pies, braised and served with borlotti beans or as here – fried to crispness on the outside and meltingly tender within. The desserts, meanwhile, are sublime.

Magpie, Mayfair

Magpie will not be for everyone. An industrial-style fit-out, potent cocktails and central location (off Regent Street) make for a clattery, occasionally chaotic, atmosphere. There’s no arguing with the food though. Co-owners Sam Herlihy and James Ramsden have created an intriguing menu of feel-good dishes with clever twists, such as squid with spicy calabrian sausage, grilled turnip & mussel sauce and steak tartare with taleggio and truffle crisps. Many dishes feature ambitious ingredients such as kombu (seaweed), umeboshi (pickled plums), gjetost (cheese) – eating here is an education.

London Grind, London Bridge

This sleek industrial restaurant is ideally located to serve both the city and visitors to nearby Borough Market with a concise menu made up of dishes that suit all day eating (arrive before 12 if you want breakfast). Small plates include chorizo and smoked cheese croquettes, while mains straddle the brunch-lunch gap with dishes such as sweet potato harissa cakes, and there’s flat iron chicken with baby potatoes, a mean burger, or steak with Béarnaise, if you prefer. The coffee at London Grind is excellent, as it should be from a business built on flat whites. If it’s drink o’clock, one of the three house cocktails built around coffee are a must order – especially the old fashioned.