My daughter and I had a trip to London last weekend and decided to try Planet Hollywood. I am neither a fan of fast food or particularly enamoured by Hollywood, but I thought perhaps it would be a spectacle - I had in mind the restaurant that John Travolta and Winona Rider go to in Pulp Fiction. Looking at the website, it looked like it would be busy, especially on a Saturday so we decided to go for an early meal between lunch and dinner and see if we were lucky to get a table.

None of this is the fault of Planet Hollywood, but it did mean that we arrived very tired and very hungry at about 4.30pm. I'd suggest that you get a better map than we had - Planet Hollywood is really only a couple of minutes walk from Leicester Square.

The 400 seater restaurant is upstairs. On the wall as you ascend there is a mural of paparazzi - with flashing lights to make you feel that you're being snapped - this is a nice touch and does contribute to the atmosphere. One at the top you're greeted and given a ticket, then wait to be seated. We waited a couple of minutes, but this was at 4.30. Half an hour later there was a much longer queue. It is possible to reserve a table, but some tables are always kept unreserved for those who turn up on the day. I checked the website about 3 weeks before our trip and there were no reservations left - so if you want to reserve for a busy time you'll have to plan well ahead.

From our table a "Bond Room" could be seen, but without wandering around the restaurant leaning over people's tables while they eat, you'd find it hard to really take in all the memorabilia in one visit. It might therefore be quite frustrating for someone Hollywood obsessed, for us it was mildly interesting. Needless to say, John and Winona were not in evidence, at least not in person, they may have featured on the walls. Instead the clientele were mainly families, as you'd expect from any fast food restaurant.

Once seated we were given menus, and it was at this point that I realised I should have checked it out before hand, as Planet Hollywood is clearly not bothered about catering for Vegetarians. There was one solitary meal that was vegetarian - being a veggie burger with fries. I ordered this, and my potato loving daughter ordered potato skins with cheese (having to ask for the bacon bits to be left off) and an extra portion of fries. We each had a glass of fruit juice.

For dessert we chose banana cheese cake and raspberry sorbet. Both were perfectly passable. The bill came to just over £40, including the "discretionary" 12.5% service charge that is added automatically. (Not keen on this idea but that is a rant for another time!) This is much more than I want to pay for a mediocre meal.

Special mention should go to the toilet attendant (in the Ladies at least), who has a dazzling array of perfume, deodorants etc to offer her visitors. The toilets themselves are very boring - I was expecting a theme!