The Draft House is an interesting pub concept that only started last November in SW11 and has now opened it's third venue by Tower Bridge. The River Bar lived there previously and did much the same thing but now it all feels bigger, brighter, more professional and modern in a nice tradtional way. It's like Byron does the British pub with some pictures from Habitat thrown in.

The food menu is gastro-ish with plenty of burgers, bagels, fish & chips and a chicken breast with Dauphinoise potatoes which was nice enough but a touch square and will cost £12.75 once the 50% intro offer ends on Monday while a Rib-eye steak will be £18.50. The sight of the City across the river plus those expensive leather seats means prices are noticeably higher than Draft House's first pubs and in comparison to the service charge-less Zucca or a cheap but good Thai place nearby, it might be a bit high for lunch.


More Draft Houses are planned for upmarket areas around London just as soon as founder Charlie McVeigh can find suitable locations.

The Draft House, 206-208 Tower Bridge Road, SE1

Japanese Canteen are replacing their quite popular Indian fast food shop 'Curry' on Minories with the Burro Burrito brand which recently launched near St Paul's. A rapid make-over will mean that the new shop should open for business tomorrow (Wednesday) and there will soon be four City burrito places within a short walk of each other (Poncho No8, Flying Burrito and the forthcoming Tortilla). There's still a burrito gap around Bank for someone to fill.

Burro Burrito, 30-33 Minories, EC3N

The long awaited Kyashii restaurant and lounge opened last month in Covent Garden and hiding behind the net curtains is a very cool looking and very yellow sushi bar. The blue fish tanks also look nice and the black chopsticks on white table effect works well. A bento box style set lunch is available for £13.50 and the keenly priced main menu includes a Scottish Salmon Fillet with Teriyaki Sauce for £9.50.

Kyashii, 4a Upper St Martin’s Lane, WC2H

Durius River Café is a Spanish chain of Café-Wine Shops run by the two-Michelin starred chef Sergi Arola and their first opening in the UK has sensibly been located by the the Thames between High Timber and Northbank, although the river is not really visible from inside due to an inconvenient sea wall.
Prices are more restaurant than cafe with mains starting at £12 and going up to £20 for a plate of Acorn-fed Iberian ham and artisan breads which is probably fabulous but an Acorn-fed Iberian ham sandwich for £7-£8 would be even more fab and help fill the place up.

Durius River Café, Broken Wharf, EC4V