This little neighbourhood trat has half price nights on a Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Its a bit out of the way, as its a good 10 minute walk from the station, but Battersea Park is easy to get to from town and then home from for me, so it looked like a viable option when my flatmate was working in Battersea. Its not possible to book for two on half price nights, (you may be able to book for more but I'm not sure). In any case the chap on the phone was perfectly confident we would be able to get in.

Once inside, his confidence was at first surprising, the tables are packed in but the place was buzzing, meaning the waiters appear to be engaged in a complicated dance routine with customers in order to move about. However, they are very efficient and the reasons for the confidence we could fit in became clear. L'Antipasto turns a lot of tables on half price night and it looks like you would never have long to wait. The food arrives very promptly once ordered, some might say a little too promptly, but I think it is possible to take a little more time if you want. The lovestruckcouple next to us seemed to be having a more relaxed pace, so perhaps the waiters are just very sensitive to people's needs.

Between us we ordered three different antipasti to start, a carpaccio was served simply with leaves and lemon. This classic presentation allowed the clear smooth flavour to shine through. This was nothing dramatic but very good simple food. It disappeared pretty quickly, and was a clear winner. A cheese and aubergine concotion baked in tomato sauce was less good. The strength and purity of the flavour was very mediocre, with nothing really to lift it. It wasn't helped by being much too hot, probably from sitting under hot lights. This is an obvious price for such quick turnover and is what allows them to charge so little, so no real complaint, but this dish suffered more than others.

Finally to start we had a chicken liver salad. This was a delicious, very simple old school salad tiede. The chicken liver was just warm enough, and worked very well with the salad of basil and rocket. We had no bread and olives, whilst other tables did. I assume there would have been a charge for them and I wondered if we would have a cover charge on the bill. In the end though there wasn't, so presumably you just need to order them. It worked for us as we didn't really need them and didn't get charged for them.

For my main course I ordered monkfish with prawn and mushroom, from a blackboard of daily specials. It was priced at £15, but the full price of a special on a half price night must be somewhat notional. Nevertheless I couldn't really complain as of course it was still a bargain at £7.50. It came with some broccoli and new potatoes as well so there was no attempt to sting you with sides.

Of course there was not a huge amount of monkfish, and it had clearly been flattened out to stretch the portions. But it still had a lovely texture and fresh flavour. The dish was again simple but worked, the meatiness of the mushroom going well with the fish, whilst the prawns increased the overall fishiness. The look of the food had been affected by its time under the hot lights, reinforcing that this is clearly a very quick turn over operation, but I can only repeat my observation that it tastes good and you cannot really complain for the money.

My flatmate had a dish of veal with artichoke hearts, again the meat had been flattened to stretch it, but this is a standard Italian technique as well as making things go further. Again this had clearly been “held”, but also again the combination which came in a slightly too creamy sauce was both simple and tasty.

We were keeping costs down and so opted for a bottle of perfectly drinkable Orvieto for £15. If you wanted to splash out there isn't really anything exciting on the list but I think L'Antipasto works best when kept simple.

I opted for a dessert, not because I needed it but because it sounded very good on the menu. I forget the name but essentially it was described as a combination of chocolate ice cream with a chocolate and nut covering. I should have realised it would have been bought in, as this is of course very standard in cheap or even mid-range Italian places, even in Italy. This was fine, but I could have done without it, as could my waistline, and it didn't really add anything to the experience.

I could have gone for something that was bound to be home made, but I didn't fancy Tiramisu, much as I do still love it. My flatmate sensibly just had a coffee, which looked pretty good. Its worth noting that the desserts are not half price, I knew this from other reviews, but its not really made at all clear in the Restaurant and I think if people didn't know they could be legitimately quite annoyed. That said they are all only £3.50 so if you do know, its clearly perfectly fair.

Our total including a tip for the smooth service was £25 a head. We did have three courses each and an extra starter, and there was wine even cheaper than the Orvieto so you could easily keep this below £20. I thought our meal was a total bargain as it was all simple and tasty, but for pretty much the same reason I wouldn't go on a full price night.

It is a bit in the middle of nowhere, which was highlighted as it was pissing down when we left and we would have got soaked walking to Battersea park station, so had to wait around for a bus. I will still go back on half price night (probably when its not raining!), for simple but good old school Italian and also as we didn't try the pasta which I've heard is pretty good. Any one got any views on that?

Rave reviews had put this tiny sushi joint on my radar some time ago, but living as I do deep into the SE postcodes, I'd never quite got round to making the enormous journey. It remained in the back of my mind however, as 'cheap', 'good', 'sushi' and 'London' are four words that rarely appear in the same sentence. When they do it is usually along the lines of “There is nowhere to get cheap and good sushi in London.”

Obviously cheap is a relative concept, fish is expensive and for reasons that are slightly beyond me, despite being an Island nation, very fresh fish seems to be logistically beyond most suppliers, and therefore very expensive when it can be found. In that context, truly cheap sushi is a deeply unappetising prospect, but Sushi-Hiro is known for reasonable prices and high quality.

With that in mind, when some West London friends who wanted Japanese food but didn't want to break the bank suggested we give it a try I was happy to agree. It helped that I was already in Richmond that day anyway, and it didn't look too difficult on the district line. Predictably, there were signal failures that made getting there a logistical nightmare, but I don't suppose I can blame the Restaurant for that. On the rare occasions when the district line is working, its opposite Ealing Common tube, and there is plenty of parking on the road for those of you within driving distance.

When I eventually got there, we went to our reserved seats at the counter, which the restaurant had been very helpful in holding after we explained our transport difficulties. It is probably essential to book here, as there are not a lot of covers and I imagine there's a strong chance your travelling at least some distance.

The first thing that hits you at the counter is the aroma, the clean tempting fish smell, not even a hint of being a touch high. In fact it was the very pure and delicate smell that denotes the freshest of fish. With that promising start, and as it was pretty much what we'd gone for, we all ordered various sushi. One friend had a set sashimi and another a set nigiri whilst I ordered various individual items, as none of the set platters quite pushed my buttons.

We didn't share items, as we all had what we fancied and the quantities wouldn't really allow it. The set sashimi was pretty tiny, but then I think it was only £12 or £14 so you could have a couple, or one and a few individual items as well. The set nigiri was £14, and because of the rice had a little more substance. A set nigiri plus a set sashimi might be a very good way to eat here with enough substance and still keeping the bill small.

That said, I think the key is not to go when your absolutely starving and need to load up. We'd all had a decent lunch and so were able to concentrate on enjoying the flavours and textures without the worry that we'd need to eat so much the bill would kill us.

I ordered crab, toro, scallop, turbot, salmon roe, sea eel and river eel. I enjoyed the delicate flavours of all the different fish. They all had subtly differing textures, but none were chewy and a particular highlight was the melt in the mouth scallop. Also interesting and very good was the eel that came with a little hot sauce which really livened it up.

I'm no expert but I thought the rice was pretty good, just sticky enough to barely hold together but not almost solid or clumpy like in the chains. Everything I ordered was delicious though, even the roe which can taste of nothing or even dusty in some places had a vibrancy and zing when it popped in the mouth.

I don't know that I can write that much about sushi, the quality of all the fish was excellent which seems to be the key and the young sushi chef in front of us was friendly and clearly perfectly able.

A slight disappointment was that I had ordered sweet prawn, which is probably my favourite type of sushi, but it did not arrive. By the time I'd realised it wasn't coming, my friends and I had been finished for a while and I didn't want to then get one more piece so I left it. I'm sure the friendly staff would have had no problem getting it for me had I asked.

Another niggle was that all the individual items I ordered were precisely that, one of each. I'd always thought they were served in twos for obscure cultural reasons beyond the likes of me. More pertinently for me, it did mean quite a lot less food than I'd expected. It really is only a niggle, because including a beer for me and green tea for them, the bill was about £18 a head, so we could have ordered quite a lot more and still had a very reasonable meal. Had I realised the bill hadn't really added up to much, I probably would have ordered more, but that's my fault.

If you come here hungry, your bill will inevitably mount up, but it'll still be superb vale for really fresh sushi. If you want to keep it on budget, have a decent lunch and then you can come here and enjoy the superb quality for a fraction of the price of sampling similar quality (if you can find it) in more conveniently located venues. It must say something that I can see myself going back, even though its the other end of London on the least reliable tube line!