All Bar One, Regent Street, central London

Well-placed for a lunchtime pit stop while shopping for Christmas presents, Regent Street's All Bar One is a very light and airy branch of this widespread chain of bars with their trademark white walls, wooden floors, newspapers and shelves loaded with bottles of wine. The young waiters and waitresses will serve you at the solid wooden tables, most of which are near the big windows. Before noon, you can choose one of the dozen breakfast options, such as gammon and eggs or a bacon sandwich. After twelve, breakfast gives way to an extensive food menu, which includes tapas, sandwiches, burgers or 'big plates', such as salmon and haddock fish cakes or cumberland sausages. Service can be slow, very slow, particularly as the bar fills up, but your order usually comes with a smile. As well as a respectable selection of draught beers, All Bar One does decent coffee (£1.80 for an Americano) served in large cups branded Costa Coffee. But the food is hit and miss. The disappointing eggs benedict (£5.50) can be rather runny and bland. Better is the fried chorizo (£4.50), served with several small pieces of ciabatta. Although the meat can be tepid and a little greasy, it is full of salty flavour and goes well with a big bowl of lukewarm, skinny, but firm, chips (£2.50) and mayo. 6/10

Alice in Sunderland

Alice in Sunderland is an one-of-a-kind, 320-page comic book tracing the unlikely connections between the effete Oxford lecturer and writer Lewis Carroll and Sunderland, the gritty shipbuilding town in north east England. Author and artist Brian Talbot uses a bewildering array of literary techniques, from ranging back and forth across history to frequently swapping narrators, to explore how the art of story-telling is influenced by real life. The creative force behind several acclaimed adult comic-books, Talbot produces polished drawings in an impressive range of styles, supplemented by photo montages depicting the many faces of Sunderland and the surrounding area. With guest appearances by Sid James, the Venerable Bede, the Lambton Worm and George Formby, amongst many others, Alice in Sunderland is entertaining, but meandering. While the craftsmanship and the scholarship are impressive, you need to be seriously interested in either Lewis Carroll or Sunderland to really enjoy this book. 7/10

Malmaison Brasserie, Charterhouse Square, Farringdon, central London

Belonging to the Malmaison chain of smart boutique hotels, the brasserie is housed in the basement of a fine Victorian red-brick building - a former nurses' residence -overlooking a pretty cobbled courtyard. After entering through a grand white archway, you pass through a large ground floor reception decorated in dark, cool colours and head down the stairs to the slightly dingy brasserie, brightened only by a few skylights and the gleaming white tablecloths. Service by the young staff tends to be over-enthusiastic and the prices rather high. The main courses (around £17) are an unusual and contrived mix of two conventional meals, such as mildly-curried monkfish served with a clam chowder or roast saddle of rabbit, diced into anemic slices, accompanied by a stingy pot of shepherds pie and some slim orange and yellow carrots. The main courses typically need a side order of carbohydrate, such as a tray of creamy mash potato (£3.75) to fill them out. Deserts (about £6) include some respectable vanilla ice cream served with honey and a tepid chocolate sauce. Not surprisingly, Malmaison can be half-empty on a week day lunchtime as, unfortunately, you don't get what you pay for. 5/10

Skate Cafe and Bar, Somerset House, The Strand, central London

In a cobbled square enclosed by the neo-classical splendour of Somerset House, the Skate Cafe and Bar is housed in a glass-panelled prefabricated building well-placed to watch the thrills and spills on the adjacent temporary ice rink. Skate's adjustable stools, arranged around small round tables, rise and fall with the tweak of a lever, creating much amusement for kids. Not quite so entertaining is the sometimes chaotic service at the bar or the sometimes high prices - £1.20 for a pretentious bag of crisps, £2.40 for a cappuccino in a takeaway cup or £3.20 for a cold(!) pint of London Pride in a plastic glass. Still, the bar also serves hot dogs, soup and other comfort food at more reasonable prices, while the loud pop music and the buzz of excitable skaters, including the odd recognisable television actor, makes for a good atmosphere. Set in a fine location, Skate is a good spot for winter people watching. 7/10

The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, The Strand, London

A small, but world-class, art gallery housed in a wing of the charismatic, neo-classical bulk of Somerset House, the Courtauld Gallery is home to a clutch of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces by the likes of Degas, Renoir, Pissario, Cezanne, Gauguin, Manet, Monet and van Gogh. After paying the modest five pound entrance fee, you should climb to the top of the gallery via the elegant, stone spiral staircase with its ornate banister. On the second floor is a temporary display of fairly insipid and washed-out watercolours by Turner. Much better are the permanent exhibits, such as a handful of works by Seurat painted in his distinctive style using thousands of tiny dots of colour to create a sense of motion and life. Other highlights include a beautiful study of ballet dancers by Degas, the strange, but absorbing, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere by Manet and the endearing Pipe Smoker by Cezanne.

Miniature ivory carvings
But the Courtauld Gallery's treasures are not limited to priceless paintings. The centrepiece of one of the 15 distinguished rooms is a glittering collection of Eighteenth Century household silver featuring an array of charming objects such as an elaborate inkwell with a little sand shaker use for blotting. Elsewhere, you will find venerable old chests and delicate harpsichords painted with dramatic Christian frescoes. Among the eye catching exhibits in the ground floor room, which is largely devoted to religious artifacts, are some extraordinarily detailed miniature ivory carvings from the Middle Ages and a handsome pair of Venetian gold candlesticks from the Sixteenth Century. Complete your visit by taking the quirky spiral staircase down to the warren-like basement which houses the toilets and a small cafe selling drinks, cakes and other fare. 9/10

Regal Airport Hotel, Hong Kong

Right next to Hong Kong Airport, the Regal is a vast modern hotel serving the many business travellers catching early morning flights out of this busy Asian hub. The extensive lobby with its shiny floor and spaceship-style decor is dotted with seats, tables, pillars and pot plants. The unimaginative, but comfortable, rooms have grey carpets, brown wooden fittings, limp abstract prints on the white walls and compact bathrooms with naff black sinks. Still, the large flat screen televisions show 30 channels covering a good variety of languages. Via room service, you can order main meals, such as a fat and juicy 280g sirloin steak, served with squidgy, salty chips, a pleasant black pepper sauce and a small helping of peppers soaked in olive oil. Your main course comes with three warm bread rolls, but costs a pricey HK$238. You can wash it down with a small Japanese beer from the minibar for HK$50. Unfortunately, sleeping at the Regal isn't as pleasant - the air conditioning is noisy, you can hear next door's shower and the din of the odd aeroplane coming into land. At HK$2,100 for a double room, you pay a lot for convenience and some comfort. 5/10

MTR Airport Express, Hong Kong

Clean, fast and high-tech train service running every 12 minutes between downtown Hong Kong, Kowloon and the impressive Airport, the MTR is the way to ensure you catch a flight on time. During the 25-minute journey, the anxious can track their progress by watching little, blue bulbs light up on an electronic sign representing the 35-km train line. A single costs a very reasonable HK$100, but bewarned there are no trains between 1am and 6am. 7/10

CotaiJet, Macau to Hong Kong

Dedicated service from Macau's newly-developed Cotai Strip to Hong Kong, the CotaiJet ferries a steady stream of gamblers and other pleasure seekers to and from The Venetian and other glitzy casinos. The streamlined modern boats leave from a new, but basic, terminal about 10 minutes drive from the main Cotai resorts. You have to catch the ferry you are booked on and get to the terminal at least 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Sailing about 30 times a day in each direction, the CotaiJet costs between HK$134 and HK$168, depending on whether you are travelling at peak times, for a single in economy class. When you reach the bright lights of Hong Kong harbour, you dock at the bustling and large ferry terminal, which is a short taxi ride from the city's central train station. 6/10