A proliferation of strangely similar restaurants in our cities is at risk of making them boring places to live, writes Jonathan Nunn.

Have you recently had a meal in a new restaurant in the centre of your city" Let me guess. The food was from another country but the menu emphasised that all the dishes are made with local, well-sourced, seasonal ingredients. The decor of the restaurant was chosen to mimic the street food culture of that country, but with a modern, comfortable twist so you know you're not really sitting by the roadside.
The menu told you where the food was 'inspired by' and was divided into smaller and larger plates (the waiter recommended that you order two-to-three to share but you ordered four or five because you have a regular appetite). The typeface of the restaurant was sans-serif, and the name of the restaurant was one very tasteful word. Bland urbanism [is] currently being foisted on cities by landowners and developers
The landlord of the restaurant is also the landlord for all of the other restaurants in the neighbourhood, and makes sure no cuisine is repeated to avoid homogeneity. The restaurant is most likely part of a new pseudo-public development that says it's going to add 'vibrancy' to that area. Your meal was nice enough, good even, but you mainly recall the sinking feeling when you saw the bill.
Am I right" In London, this pretty much describes any restaurant that has opened in the centre in the last five years, particularly in Soh...