When you start shouting ‘encore’ at your emptied plate, you know something serious has happened

Claro, 12 Waterloo Place, London SW1Y 4AU. Smaller plates £9-£24; bigger plates £18-£48; desserts £14-£16. Wines from £42 a bottle

Email offers restaurants dreadful opportunities, and sometimes they grab them with both sweaty hands. Take Claro, the second venture from Israeli chef Ran Shmueli, following the success of the first in Tel Aviv. Let’s get the headline into the opening paragraph. At Claro, which serves food best described as eastern Mediterranean with Middle Eastern influences, I thrilled to some of the best dishes I have eaten this year, many of them plant-based. The cooking is smart, at times complex but most of all delicious. Which makes the whole email thing feel like dealing with an objectively beautiful but desperately insecure person, who is just gagging for affirmation.