Il Locale originally opened off Fenchurch Street a year ago as the first London outpost of the Turkish restaurant/bar chain Tike and later became the most reflective restaurant in London when mirrored panels were fitted to the windows presumably to stop people being spotted slacking inside. The spring brought a sudden rebranding into the Italian restaurant Il Locale but not long after the site was put up for sale and now seems to have closed for good.

Lahori Masala has also closed after miraculously surviving 6 months next to Hawksmoor on Commercial Street in Shoreditch. Sadly everything about it was a car crash. The wrong concept in the wrong location with a huge interior that had zero style and it only made sense during the introductory 50% discount.

Burritos have been getting a bit predictable lately and hopes were not high for the new Burro Burrito which has opened without any publicity in a side street between Ludgate Hill and Blackfriars but it turns out to be quite good.

Until recently the site was a Japanese Canteen restaurant and only the menu and wall colour has changed so it's possible this is Japanese Canteen's first quiet and cheap dip into the Mexican waters.

While the menu of burritos, tacos and salads looks familiar, the chicken is martinated with smoked jalapenos, which makes a nice change from the more usual grilled chicken. The sour cream and cheese combined with a cream cheesey kind of taste and the lime and corriandor rice was finer than normal. Some thought has gone into these little differences and so they are welcome to jump on the bandwagon.

Burro Burrito, 3-4 Ludgate Broadway, EC4V

Benihana are bringing their Japanese teppanyaki cooking to the City with a new and very long restaurant on the ground floor of the Grange Hotel off Ludgate Hill. This will be the third London site for the American based chain who don't use conventional kitchens and instead red-hatted chefs will prepare Japanese specialities to order on hibachi grills in the middle of communal tables.

Benihana, 10 Goldman Street, EC4V

The new St John Hotel in Chinatown was originally anticipated to open near the end of this summer but it still looks like a building site and they now predict an October launch. Only 16 rooms will be available for "discerning clientele" while the 60-70 cover restaurant on the ground floor will offer a hotel version of Smithfield's Michelin-starred Nose to Tail cooking and include Elevenses, lunch, tea, pre-theatre, supper and post-theatre meals until 2am. Opposite St John the much bigger and shinier £200 million W Hotel will be opening early next year and has plans for it's own "world-class destination restaurant".

St John Hotel, 1 Leicester Street, WC2H