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A Crowne Plaza hotel in Blackfriars is an unlikely location for a Chinese restaurant, but the dining room has a pleasant, modern feel to it.  There is much wood panelling in evidence, banquette seating and a few cricket-related prints (the peculiar name is to commemorate the recent formation of the first Chinese national cricket team), and there is plenty of natural light.  The chef, Brendan Speed, grew up in a small town between Melbourne and Sydney, but has long been an expatriate: he was previously the head chef of Zuma in Istanbul, following a stint in the Hyatt hotel group. 

The wine list is over four pages, organised by style and draws from a wide range of countries.  Examples are Goldridge Premium Reserve Pinot Noir 2007 at £28 for a wine that retails at around £9 or so, Quercus Sauvignon Blanc 2008 from Slovenia at £22 for a wine that will set you back around £8 in the shops, and at the upper end of the list, Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1995 at £120 compared to a shop price of about £41. For those who want to continue the cricketing theme there is the pleasant Silly Mid On Sauvignon Blanc from Jim Barry 2006 at £26 compared to a retail price of around £9.

The menu draws in different regions of China, and includes a dim-sum section (mostly £5), small plates at around £7.50 and main dishes in the £9.50 - £20 range.  Lobster steamed dumplings (£9.40) had lobster that was cooked perhaps a fraction long, but were certainly decent enough (1/10).  Har gau steamed dumplings (£5.50) featured dumplings of pleasant texture and nicely cooked prawns, though they were a little salty (1/10).  Honey-glazed pork puff (£5) had reasonable pastry but could have done with more filling relative to pastry, and a little more of the the honey glaze, as the dish was a little dry (1/10). 

The best dish was kung-po prawns, stir-fried with a healthy kick of chilli.  The prawns were cooked carefully and were of reasonable quality (3/10).  Gai lan with garlic (£7.50) suffered from having rather large pieces of broccoli, making it hard to cook to a tender state, and for me could have had more garlic (2/10).  I was unconvinced by a stir-fried dish of orange beef, which seemed to me to have too strong a flavour of orange.  Also, while some meats go quite well with a fruit taste element e.g. duck or venison, which beneft from the acidity that fruit brings, beef seems a less obvious vehicle for such a pairing. The Singapore noodles here had quite good texture (2/10).

We finished off with a chocolate fondant that was made from high quality chocolate (Valrhona) and had a reasonably liquid centre, though was cooked just a fraction long; I am also not sure that the raspberries on the side were such a great accompaniment – why not a fruit that was in season? (1/10).

Service was friendly and efficient.  I guess that this location will attract mostly a corporate clientele, but the cooking is competent and is worth considering if you are in the area.

Konstam at the King Albert pub in Kings Cross opened in April 2006. It takes the idea of using locally sourced ingredients to the extent of aiming just for produce grown within Greater London (it manages to get around 80% of its ingredients in the winter, rising to around 95% in the summer). I was curious to see whether pigeon was on the menu, and indeed it was, but this was sourced from Amersham rather than Trafalgar Square. The lunch menu costs £18.75 for three courses. On the a la carte, starters are £6 - £8.50, main courses £12.75 - £17.75 and desserts £6.50 - £7.50, with vegetables £3.25 extra, and bread (from the Flour Station) charged extra at £2.75. Chef Oliver Rowe used to cook at Moro after having worked in Europe.

The short wine list starts at £18 but most bins are in the £25 - £50 range; the list is mainly French, with a few other choices. It features selections such as Leon Beyer Pinot Gris 2006 at £34.50 compared to a retail price of £14, Riesling Grunlack Spatlese Schloss Johannisberg 2007 at £48 for a wine that costs around £24 retail, and the Languedoc wine Minervois Cuvée Selection, Domaine de Rouviole, 2004 at £28 compared to a shop price of about £13. It does manage one English wine, the pleasant Nyetimber Classic Cuvée, West Sussex, England, 2003 at £40 for a wine that will set you back around £22 if you buy it retail.

The restaurant is in a converted pub in an unprepossessing part of Kings Cross opposite a massage parlour. The dining room has some unusual décor: blue painted floor and chairs with rather odd lampshades that look a little like cobwebs, but on a sunny day like today it was pleasant enough; the tables themselves are what an estate agent would describe as cosy. 

A celeriac soup with toasted hazelnuts, chives and sour cream had reasonable celeriac flavour, and the hazelnuts added a texture contrast, though the soup seemed slightly sweet to me, which was a little off-putting (1/10). A simple dish of steam mussels with shallots, cream and beer (from Battersea), flavoured with bacon, was more successful (2/10). 

The best dish was roast pork belly from Amersham, the pork moist but not too fatty, the crackling excellent, served with pumpkins and an apple and elderberry sauce (4/10). Mushroom and leek pierogi (Polish dumplings) with almonds, sour cream and horseradish was decent enough, though for me was light on seasoning: more horseradish would have helped (1/10). 

For dessert a Bakewell tart featured good pastry, and was served with a sloe gin ice cream that (fortunately as far as I was concerned) had subdued gin taste, made from berries they infuse themselves with gin (3/10). Coffee had reasonable taste (3/10).

The bill for two people, admittedly just with a single glass of wine, was just £22 a head plus service. Service was excellent, our waiter knowing all about the provenance of the produce, and seemed to have a real passion the for local produce goals of the restaurant.

Kitchen W8 is a welcome revamp of the old 11 Abingdon Road premises, which has involved an improvement in the décor and, more importantly, in the kitchen. The place is now owned partly by Phil Howard and partly by previous owner Rebecca Mascarenhas (who has the erratic Sonnys).  The dining room retains its split into different, quite cosy, sections with banquette seating around the walls, and seats up to 75.  The wallpaper is a little dark but there are plenty of mirrors to offset that.  There is the obligatory wooden floor, but noise levels are reasonable.  Chef Mark Kempson was previously sous chef at The Square, and also worked at the Vineyard at Stockcross, so has a good pedigree.

The menu offered nine starters (£6.50 - £10.50), eleven main courses (£14 - £24.50). with extra vegetables at £3.50 and half a dozen desserts (£6.50).  Cheese is £9.  Urbina Seleccion Rioja 1998 was listed at £40 for a wine that costs around £14 to buy, my favourite Louis Roederer non-vintage champagne was £65 compared to a shop price of around £25 (prices vary wildly for this wine by the way, so check around), and Little Yering pinot noir was £20.50 for a wine that retails at about £7 or so.  Breads were white and brown sourdough from Boulangerie de Paris, which has established itself since 2005 as perhaps the classiest UK bread supplier in my view. The brown sourdough in particular was excellent, with a lovely crust; this is supplemented by a pumpkin and onion bread that is made from scratch, and had nice texture (6/10 bread).  

Below are brief notes from my most recent meal.

Ravioli of Dorset crab pasta had fresh and good quality crab, albeit served with slightly softer pasta than would have been ideal.  There was a creamy sauce flavoured with lemon and fennel, and some iceberg lettuce (4/10). 

Rib eye steak (from Ayreshire) had pleasant, though in the case of this piece of meat the ageing was just a little longer than optimal.  Matchstick chips were decent, though not as crisp as I would have liked, though they were at least properly seasoned (5/10 overall for this main course).  Pot-roast guinea fowl was flavoured with bacon choucroute, served with a sauce of golden raisins and hazelnut.  The meat was cooked carefully, though it was far from clear what the hazelnuts added; they have quite a strong taste which rather dominated the dish (4/10). 

Rhubarb food was enjoyable, the rhubarb adding just the right level of acidity to the dish, while a blood orange sorbet had good flavour (5/10).