My favourite restaurant ever…

…is Food for Thought in Covent Garden, unchanged since the day it opened more than 40 years ago. Small, cramped and awkward, it serves the best and cheapest vegetarian food I’ve ever tasted. I’m not even a vegetarian but I’d happily have eaten there every day for the rest of my life. Sadly, this iconic institution will close down on Sunday as another greedy landlord forces another independent trader out of business. Food for Thought was resolutely independent. Never tempted to even open a second branch, they were serving organic vegetarian fare long before others jumped on the bandwagon. It was always rammed; with constant queues for tables and takeaways. But the rent hike would have meant doubling their prices just to break even, and the owners refused to do this. Good for them. But not so good for those of us who’ve been Food for Thought devotees since this was in the charts.