<preform>The Providores & Tapa Room, London</preform>

"Fusion food", like nouvelle cuisine, became a much derided term in the 1990s, and was dismissed as a gimmick and a passing fad.

"Fusion food", like nouvelle cuisine, became a much derided term in the 1990s, and was dismissed as a gimmick and a passing fad. However, it has seeped surreptitiously into modern restaurant menus, with chefs relying more heavily on exotic ingredients from distant lands. Sometimes the flavours work so well that you wonder why nobody thought of them before; at other times, they're plain bonkers. New Zealand chefs Peter Gordon, ex-Sugar Club, and Anna Hansen opened the restaurant in trendy Marylebone Village to acclaim three years ago. Unlike many other "fusion' chefs", they know what they're doing and travel around the world to source ideas and ingredients. The venue houses two small, stark dining areas. The Tapas Room on the ground floor is ideal for an imaginative brunch and small eats, while upstairs, at Providores, a daily-changing menu showcases the "now" ingredients, from pomelo and tamarillo, to morcilla and membrillo. Others include manuka honey, Norwegian cod, lingonberries, verjus and the fashionable Japanese bread crumbs, panko. No wonder Madonna and Paul McCartney are rumoured to have dined here.

The Providores and Tapa Room, 109 Marylebone High Street, London, 020 7935 6175, www.theprovidores.co.uk, Mon-Sat12-2.45pm, 6pm-10.30pm. Sun 6pm-10pm. Meal for two, excl wine: £80