The country's biggest restaurant festival, Taste of London, takes place this weekend in Regent's Park. As previously noted, it's not cheap - entry is £22 in advance (or £26 at the gate) - but it does offer an opportunity for the restaurant geeks among us to try the food of some of the most interesting chefs around while avoiding the cost of a full meal and hassle of trying to get a booking.

The festival operates its own currency which you'll need to buy ahead of time or on site and use to pay for dishes: £1 buys 2 crowns. Some ticket deals include crowns and can bring the overall cost down if you're planning to spend more than 20 crowns (and it's hard not to), so take a look here at the prices and book tickets here.

Here are some of the dishes you can expect to find at Taste with our star recommendations, and an idea of what to expect from the dining rooms of the restaurants themselves.

Gauthier Soho

Restaurateur/chef: Alex Gauthier

Cuisine: French

Atmosphere: Gauthier Soho, housed in an elegant Regency townhouse sits rather quietly on Romilly Street, its whitewashed walls, cast iron fencing and lantern, and perfect plants lending it an air of respectability that belies a wilder past when it was Lindsay House in Richard Corrigan's big hands. The place is set out over three floors and has a quirky homely feel with a slight list that's only loosely connected to the effects of the wine. Book ahead for busy times but if you're flexible you can get a table relatively easily. Most likely to overhear: "Isn't this the room where you threw up in Jay Rayner's hat?"

★ Star dish: summer truffle risotto, chicken jus reduction, parmesan crisps
• Perhaps underwhelmed by thoughts of another risotto at first, you start to mourn the demise of this unctuous dish as soon as you've begun to eat it
Cost: 12 crowns
• Top-dog deluxe: smoked Strasbourg sausage hot dog, honey bacon mustard / mayo relish, golden soft and warm pain au lait
Cost: 10 crowns
• Minty Pimm's fizz - soft and fizzy Pimm's fruits jelly with mint ice cream
Cost: 8 crowns

ORA, Little Portland Street

Chef: Tamas Khan

Cuisine: Thai

Atmosphere: With the sort of design ethic that embraces chequerplate steel on the stair treads, dark woods and moody lighting from a constellation of shiny globes, ORA is pulling out all the stops to be contemporary. Tamas Khan's mix of Asian family influences (Pakistan, Thailand and Laos) combine with an excellent palate and technical mastery to result in a cuisine which is accomplished and refined but not afraid of its peasant roots.

• Grilled duck breast topped with sweet and sour tamarind sauce
Cost: 10 crowns
• Green curry chicken with Thai aubergine served with Thai jasmine rice.
Cost: 8 crowns
• Grilled tuna and green mango salad with chillies, lemongrass, fresh herb, tamarind dressing
Cost: 10 crowns

Quo Vadis, Soho

Restaurateurs / chefs: Sam and Eddie Hart (who also own Spanish restaurants Fino and Barrafina)

Cuisine: British

Atmosphere: The building is spread out over several old properties on Dean Street. A neon sign screaming its location sits incongruously above the stained glass windows Marco Pierre White installed when he ran the place. Walk in to an airy reception and bar with leather couches, bookshelves, art work on the walls and laid back atmosphere - beyond lies the informal dining room. The rooms upstairs, in which Karl Marx once sweated over Das Kapital are now the site of a cocktail bar and private club. Ah, the irony.

★ Star dish: grilled rib of Hereford beef with triple cooked chips and béarnaise
• With a lot of, shall we say, faffy little dishes on offer at Taste, a portion of expertly cooked well sourced juicy beef could be the kind of proper food you're after
Cost: 14 crowns
• Scotch burford brown egg
Cost: 8 crowns
• Whitebait with tartar sauce
Cost: 8 crowns
• Cheesecake ice cream
Cost: 8 crowns

Petrus, Knightsbridge

Restaurateur/chef: Gordon Ramsay / Sean Burbidge

Cuisine: French

Atmosphere: Run by Sean Burbidge, a member of Ramsay's crew for some 18 years, Petrus has been described as beige by many a critic. This is a little unfair, the food's more inventive than that and the blondeness of the dining room is broken up by dashes of claret red. The tables circle the floor-to-ceiling glass tower that houses 1,500 or so wines (including vintage examples of the namesake going back to 1924). Book ahead for busy times but if you're flexible you can get a table relatively easily.

★ Star dish: Pea and mint mousse with goat's curd and pancetta
• Couldn't be lighter, couldn't be more summery, this dish is a winner
Cost: 8 crowns
• Braised pork cheeks with creamed potatoes, sage sauce, presented in a mini plastic styled crock pot
Cost: 12 crowns
• Strawberry and champagne soup with fromage frais
Cost: 10 crowns

Bocca di Lupo (plus a gelateria, Gelupo), W1

Restaurateur: Jacob Kenedy

Cusine: regional Italian
Atmosphere: One of a wave of informal tapas-style Italian restaurants to open in recent years, offering tables and eating at the long bar (which makes walk-up possible even at busy lunchtimes). Perched in the heart of Soho, its proximity to Shaftesbury Avenue makes it popular with the thespian crowd.

★ Star dish: shaved radish and celeriac salad with pomegranate pecorino & truffle oil
• While this beautifully dressed dish is light enough to offer a good antidote to many of the richer dishes on offer at Taste, the pecorino adds a satisfying bite
Cost: 6 crowns
• Bianco di bianchi, coconut yoghurt, ricotta, sour cherry
Cost: 8 crowns
• Cucumber, Hendricks and rose granita
Cost: 18 crowns

Benares, Mayfair

Restaurateur/chef: Atul Kocher

Cuisine: Contemporary twist on traditional Indian cuisine

Atmosphere: Upscale Indian food in poshest Mayfair. Glide up a sweeping staircase to the dark and moody bar and dining spaces, lifted by a still water feature, all floating candles and flowers. The dining room itself isn't quite as cool as the bar but the food you'll eat in there is subtle and satisfying. Book ahead for busy times but if you're flexible you can get a table relatively easily.

Fennel infused lamb chop with mint chutney
Cost: 12 crowns
Chicken tikka pie with spicy berry compote
Cost: 10 crowns
Paneer wrap with tamarind gel
Cost: 10 crowns

Scott's, Mayfair

Chef: Dave McCarthy

Cuisine: Seafood

Atmosphere: Clean lines and matched wood veneers make for a well-presented modern dining room arranged around a marble-topped bar. In the background is the sort of moneyed conversational hum you'd expect in a not inexpensive Mayfair restaurant. Scott's is famously discreet about its clientele and celebs come here to be seen when they don't really need to be seen but are concerned they might disappear if no-one spots them at all. Book two months ahead for a table at busy times.

★ Star dish: Octopus carpaccio with slow roasted datterini tomatoes, capers and rocket
• A perfect balance of seashore-fresh octopus and super-sweet tiny plum tomatoes punctuated with sharpness and pepper from the greenery
Cost: 10 crowns
• Scott's shrimp and scallop burger
Cost: 12 crowns
• Strawberry posset with Mayfield lavender shortbread
Cost: 8 crowns

Maze, Grosvenor Square

Chef / restaurateur: Alex Marks / Gordon Ramsay

Atmosphere: The restaurant, and grill next door, stand rather grandly in the five-storey Marriott on Grosvenor Square, a stone's throw from the American Embassy. The David Rockwell-designed interior is divided by handmade screens and has big windows looking onto the square, lending a great sense of space. Head chef Alex Marks is now filling the large boots vacated by Jason Atherton - a tough act to follow. Availability of tables is good.

• Jasmine and miso cured salmon, radish shoots, ponzu dressing
Cost: 10 crowns
• Glazed veal shin white onion purée, rocket pesto
Cost: 12 crowns
• Lemon cheesecake, black sesame, Earl Grey syrup
Cost: 8 crowns

Le Caprice, Piccadilly

Chef: Andrew Mclay

Cuisine: Modern British and European

Atmosphere: An elegant L-shaped brasserie with David Bailey's photographs on the walls and celebrity rumps on the chairs, Le Caprice has always been a place for power-lunches and preening. As a favourite haunt of the well-heeled, well-connected and occasionally well-oiled you're as likely to rub shoulderpads with rock gods as royalty. Book ahead for busy times but if you're flexible you can get a table relatively easily.

★ Star dish: Cru Virunga chocolate crackle pot with raspberries
• Super-rich with a wonderful depth of chocolate and raspberry flavours, the playful inclusion of popping candy makes this excellent pud capricious indeed
Cost: 10 crowns
• Chilled plum tomato soup with basil and mozzarella
Cost: 8 crowns
• Thai-baked sea bass with fragrant rice
Cost: 12 crowns

Skylon, South Bank

Chef: Helena Puolakka

Cuisine: European

Atmosphere: Housed in the Royal Festival Hall with a view of the Thames flooding in through enormous floor to ceiling windows, this open space is big and bright in equal measure. There are dining and grill areas, with nothing much to separate them except for a change of furniture and different menus.

• Butter poached lobster, pink grapefruit, savoury cashews, golden raisins
Cost: 20 crowns
• Pressed ham hock and confit chicken, tarragon mousseline
Cost: 8 crowns
★ Star dish: Warm smoked Loch Var salmon, lemon verbena jelly, pickled cucumber and sweet rye
Cost: 12 crowns
This interesting dish which paired sweet rye with great slab of flavoursome smoked salmon won second best dish at Taste of London restaurant festival awards.
• Candyfloss delight, strawberry yoghurt mousse, macerated berries, Sicilian lemon basil jelly
Cost: 8 crowns

York & Albany, Camden

Chef / restaurateur: Colin Buchan / Gordon Ramsay

Cuisine: British and European

Housed in an old mansion right by Regent's Park, the Y&A, with its little takeaway / deli "Nonna's", an open and casual dining room, small courtyard at the rear and downstairs bar and lounge, makes for a welcoming stop from the traffic on Parkway. There's also a fantastic private dining room upstairs for about 20 which can be transformed into a one of the 10 hotel rooms on offer. Busy with Camden locals and walk up trade from those who have spent the day in the park (or are escaping the rain), it's got a relaxed friendly vibe, offers pizza and small plates from £6.

• Watermelon, feta, San Danielle proscuitto with almond and pomegranate dressing
Cost: 10 crowns
• Chargrilled lamb cutlets with caponata and salsa verde
Cost: 12 crowns
• Spiced cherry compote, lemon marscarpone, honeycomb and granola
Cost: 8 crowns

Le Gavroche, Mayfair

Chef / restaurateur: Michel Roux Jr (since 1991)

Cuisine: French

You don't open the doors to the three-michelin-starred Le Gavroche yourself, there's someone to do that for you. Beyond is the bar lounge with its plaid sofas, heavy curtains, big table lamps and reaching ferns. As you progress down the thick carpeted stairs to the dining room, the colour scheme moves from red to green, the walls are covered in watercolours, tables decked in crystal and heavy silverware, and the bathrooms sport huge gilt-framed mirrors.

Gavroche is of course, something of an institution in London, opened in Lower Sloane Street in 1967 by brothers Albert and Michel Roux and attracting the likes of Charlie Chaplin through the doors for cuisine which at that time would only have been available in France. It moved to its current location in Upper Brooke St in 1981 and, with celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr at the helm, is as exclusive today as it ever was. Still, if you can't get a table, you can always watch a video of their front door here. Book three months in advance for dinner at a reasonable hour.

• Lobster and truffle cocktail in an engraved Le Gavroche glass
Cost: 46 crowns. 46 crowns!
• White bean velouté with Hereford snails
Cost: 6 crowns
• Ballotine of chicken, pickled mushrooms and truffle dressing
Cost: 8 crowns
• Braised beef with olives and polenta
Cost: 12 crowns

Action Against Hunger

Chef: Marcus Wareing (on Friday)

Cuisine: British

Atmosphere: Marcus Wareing is at Taste on Friday as one of five chefs taking turns to cook in support Action Against Hunger (Theo Randall mans the hob on Thursday, Cyrus Todiwala of Café Spice Namasté on Saturday, and Jun Tanaka and Mark Jankel from Street Kitchen on Sunday). Wareing's offering is a showcase for his newly-opened The Gilbert Scott in the St Pancras Grand hotel. The restaurant is named after the hotel's celebrated architect, and the food served in the neo-Gothic splendours of the bar and curved dining room seeks to embody the new resurgence of British cuisine; hearty grub of a sort designed to get Victorian gents hot under their wing collars. Book ahead for busy times but if you're flexible you can get a table relatively easily.

★ Star dish: The Gilbert Scott pork pie with piccalilli
• What could be better in the park than a portion of perfectly prepared pork pie with proper pastry and perky piccalilli?
Cost: 10 crowns
• Summer cullenskink - chilled leek and potato soup, smoked haddock
Cost: 8 crowns
• Suffolk stew - mutton meatballs, lentils, barley and anchovy
Cost:10 crowns
• Strawberries and Jersey cream
Cost:8 crowns