Five things Fay Maschler ate this week

1. Chilli-spiked shrimp cocktail and mojitos on tap at Nick Jones’s new Soho Diner where — when it was Wheeler’s — Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud drank champagne and toyed with sole Veronique.

2. Alvaro Maccioni was at his La Famiglia, where I finished lunch with tiramisu. I realise why his clientele come a million miles for one of his smiles.

3. Joining a coven of restaurant critics at Rooftop Café at The Exchange, Aussie chef Magnus Reid holds steady and serves, among other things, fried rabbit with fennel slaw.

4. Pork sausages from peerless McKenna Meats at a barbecue to toast Food Feast 2013, which raised a record sum for Soho Parish Primary School.

5. What good fortune to have friends such as Stephen Friedman and Edward Turner, who take us to The River Café, where fritto misto glows in the setting sun.