London restaurants best for... Counter dining

Now moved to a larger location, Prawn on the Lawn is a fishmonger and seafood bar - with a wine bar on the side. Expect the usual fruits de mer platters and whole crab as well as some more tapas-style dishes like scallops ceviche and their signature dish - the prawn on the lawn which is toasted soda bread with avocado and prawns.

Already a big hit in Brixton, this is the second Kricket - expect a bigger space with the same great Indian small plates.

This is the sibling restaurant to the hugely popular The Palomar. It features food from the Barbary Coast of North Africa to Jerusalem and it's a solely counter dining restaurant too.

This latest expansion for Moro sees them head outside of Exmouth Market with a new all-day kitchen. Expect food from Spain, Morocco, Turkey and Crete - with a focus on dishes new to London.

The Hart Brothers (also behind Quo Vadis and Fino) are opening a second venue of Barrafina, the Soho tapas restaurant. While much on the menu will be familiar to diners at their current restaurant with a menu made up of classic and contemporary tapas, chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho is planning some entirely new dishes. Those dishes will probably be inspired by the Josper oven that's being installed here.

Tredwell's is from Marcus Wareing, but he'll taking the role of restaurateur here, while concentrating on the kitchen at MARCUS. Here, Chantelle Nicholson is taking charge of what will be a "casual but informed restaurant - food you like when you like."

The Manor sees the Dairy's Dean Parker heading up the kitchen in this restaurant from the people behind Clapham's hugely popular The Dairy. As the new restaurant is just down the road from The Dairy, they'll still be able to use the produce from the rooftop garden and beehives, while Delicatessen will supply the homemade charcuterie.

This Thai barbecue restaurant in Soho features a short daily menu with a focus on cooking over wood and with traditional pestles & mortars.

Quite possibly THE best counter dining experience in town, albeit not the quietest one. Expect a Jerusalem-style menu here, with additional influences from Southern Spain and Italy, North Africa through to the Levant. You CAN grab a table at the back - but try for the full-on counter experience if you can.

This is the third London opening for the oyster and seafood restaurant, following Soho and Borough Market. Expect a similar offering of seafood and oysters at this Spitalfields location - but with a huge seawater tank into the middle of the restaurant stacked with 10,000 shellfish allowing diners to choose their own live crab, lobster or oysters.

This sees Angela Hartnett taking over the site in St James which used to hold Gordon Ramsay's original Petrus restaurant (and where she was Head Chef). Expect "regionally focused dishes, at an accessible price-point, in a relaxed and informal atmosphere – the kind of restaurant I would enjoy eating in every day".

Martin Morales is also behind Ceviche, although this restaurant takes a slightly different approach. It takes its influence from Peruvian ‘picanterias’, traditional family run restaurants serving local people from breakfast through to dinner.

This restaurant is by Rob Green and Brett Redman, the blokes behind the super-popular Pavilion Cafe at Victoria Park. Its aim is to be 'showcasing the best of Borough Market and supporting craft and artisanal producers'.

This restaurant is from Jason Atherton and, to date, his only one in Soho. Expect a very British menu, with plenty of starters in jars too. As with all of Atherton's places, the bar is just as important - so make time to head upstairs for a cocktail or three.

omasz Baranski, the former head chef at Barrafina, is serving up Basque-style tapas and pintxos such as Pil-Pil cod and stuffed squid in ink, as well as more mainstream Spanish dishes like croquetas and tortilla. As for the wine, the list includes various Basque specialities such as txakoli a slightly sparkling, dry, low-alcohol white wine.

Staffed by folk who previously worked at Hix in Clerkenwell, expect a small menu featuring the group's favourite dishes from around the world, created with seasonal British ingredients. Plus there's "bring your own vynyl" approach which lets you play your own tunes on the turntable.

Russell Norman's Polpo was a hit the minute it opened its doors. This smaller successor is billed as 'a sort-of speakeasy with food; like a machine-age downtown NYC Italian diner' and seats just 30 people. Head chef is Rachel O'Sullivan, former sous-chef at Polpo.

From the same stable as Salt Yard and Dehesa, this serves tapas-style dishes in a refurbished pub setting. Their teeny Iberico pork and foie gras burgers are worthy of the trip here alone.

Fans of counter dining have long known that one of the best lunches in town was to be had up dining up at the bar in Sheekeys, if you could get a table. Happily the move sideways into an neighbouring building has allowed Sheekeys to create a brand new Oyster bar while seemlessly giving it the Sheekey magic touch.

Jacob Kenedy's Soho Italian wins universal praise for its cuisine, a well-chosen wine list and for one of the most beautiful counters in town - a top counter dining spot.

The owners of the Michelin-starred Texture restaurant have taken up this basement restaurant/ wine bar in Fetter Lane and have persuaded Paul Walsh from Restaurant Gordon Ramsay to be Head Chef.

Daniel Boulud is one of the top chefs in Manhattan, where his restaurant Daniel was recently awarded three Michelin stars. This is his first opening in London - in the same hotel as Heston, no less. Bar Boulud, which also has a New York outpost, is a bistro and wine bar, has 165 seats and includes a charcuterie bar.

In an area of town more usually associated with after-office binge drinkers and faux American burger joints, the arrival of a new, cheerful Bistro offering great comfort food to the weary masses can only be a good thing.