St John, Smithfield, London

When we were asking around for food recommendations for London, 2 of my colleagues who had studied in London suggested St John, saying that it was a very interesting restaurant serving a different menu every day using only fresh produce. So off we went in search of this place on a Saturday night, right after touching down at Heathrow and dumping our bags at our Regent's Park hotel. We found it fairly easily, thanks to the map on their website that I had stored in my phone.

And boy, were we fortunate to find an empty table for 2. The place was absolutely packed with locals, which immediately made us very excited. Locals only pack good places.

The menu changes daily - they serve almost every part of an animal, so it seems. There's also a disclaimer that traces of lead shot may be found in the food, which my husband found most amusing.

We shared a starter of mussels and leek, served with watercress. It was a most surprising discovery - the dish was served cold, and the vegetables added a most refreshing flavour which I would describe as almost minty yet without a trace of any mint.

The husband had the grilled pigeon with radishes, served rare. He enjoyed it, since the meat was very tender, but it was a bit too exotic for me.

I had my own exotic dish of tripe stew. I loved the richness of the dish, and the deep braised flavours from hours of cooking with root vegetables, although it was just slightly too sweet for my liking. The tripe was absolutely tender.

The husband wanted to try the Welsh rarebit, which was interesting but very salty.

It was a great first meal! Set us back 50 pounds, including tip.

Website: http://www.stjohnrestaurant.com/