Nobu is top London restaurant

Japanese restaurant Nobu has knocked the Ivy from its top slot as London's most popular restaurant in this year's Zagat survey.

After four years as the top London restaurant, the Ivy has slipped to the number two position.

While Zagat's guide describes the restaurant as remaining one of the most difficult places in town to get a reservation, it describes the food as "foiled by the star-struck staff".

For quality of food, Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Chelsea was voted the best.

And Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's broke into the top 10 for the first year, coming in at number 10.

Le Gavroche moved up from its eighth position last year to the number two slot for quality of food.

The Eyre Brothers restaurant, in the City, was voted best newcomer. Although criticised for its "pretentious" venue and "stony" service, it was praised for its creative Spanish-Portuguese cooking.

Food for Thought in Covent Garden was voted the best-value restaurant.

Zagat, which surveyed more than 5,000 diners, found that 67% cited poor service as the biggest irritant when dining out.

Only 8% of those surveyed cited smoking as an irritant and the same amount complained of high prices.

But the survey found that, apart from Tokyo and Kyoto, London was the most expensive city to eat out.

The average cost of a meal was £32.15, a 4.2% increase compared with the previous year.

An average meal in Paris will cost £29.96 per person, while in New York diners can expect to pay an average of £23.82.

The survey found that diners in London generally tip 12.2% if service is not included, well below the average tip of 18.1% in the USA.