A Buzz of New Restaurants

Over the past 18 months, London’s restaurant culture has rediscovered its fizz to become the liveliest in Europe. While the Continent is still so deep in recession that in Paris or Milan tables can be found at even the best establishments without reservations, Britain has rediscovered its appetite for eating out.

Dozens of seriously fashionable--and seriously competent--new places have opened recently, but these are less self-indulgent, over-the-top affairs than the restaurants that transformed the face of London dining a decade ago.

This second wave has learned, through bankruptcy and bitter experience, that customers are sophisticated enough to rate value-for-money higher than flashiness or prettily arranged food on the plate. The days of conspicuous consumption, of serving a wedge of foie gras with almost every dish, have been replaced by competition to keep the price of a meal below 30 pounds--or about $46--a person.

The best of the veterans still flourish, of course. The Ivy in the heart of the West End has rediscovered its old magnetism under new management. And out by the Thames at Hammersmith, the River Cafe, designed by the architect Richard Rogers and run by his wife Ruth, continues to set the pace for the new-wave Italian kitchens.

But the newcomers hit two extremes: gigantic and minuscule.

Led by Terence Conran--creator of the Habitat housewares shops and the luxury restaurant Bibendum--the more affluent entrepreneurs have launched vast, 300-seat establishments inspired by the great French brasseries. The best of the big ones have the same buzz of excitement as Paris’ Brasserie Lipp or La Coupole, and draw equally large crowds, but they are quite different beasts. Their design may be fin de siecle, but the century in question is the 20th, not the 19th. There are no ornate wall hangings or fussy lighting; everything is pared-down simplicity in primary colors.

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The food is different too. The French bourgeois classics are still on most menus, but they are losing the battle to the scents and spices of the Pacific Rim or of southern India: lemongrass, chiles and chutneys are as ubiquitous as garlic. And the cooking is often better. Certainly the kitchens at L’Odeon, Mezzo or the Criterion, three of the best of the newcomers, are superior to La Coupole, though they have not yet achieved the consistency that comes from decades of experience at feeding 2,000 people every night.

At the same time a younger generation of chefs, in reaction to the lack of control and personal touch that is inevitable in grander kitchens, have opened restaurants in tiny front rooms or derelict shops where they can cook for 20 customers a night with only one or two assistants.

The decor has the same simplicity as in their giant competitors, but staffing tends to be a family affair, with wife or brother waiting tables. Their cooking leans less to Asia than to a delight in the robust textures of traditional British produce--now so much improved that relatively little is imported from France. This is where you find long-forgotten, seasonal treats such as the buttered fingers of sea kale and the richness of mutton stew.

The restaurants listed below in no particular order are my favorites of the establishments that have opened in the last year and a half. Prices are for a two-course meal for two people, including bottle of house wine, tax and service, computed at the rate of $1.55 per British pound. Fixed-price menu prices are per person. Reservations, except where noted, are essential.

Mezzo, 100 Wardour St., London W1; telephone 011-44-171-314-4000.

In the center of Soho, this flagship among Terence Conran’s recently opened restaurants was dug out of the derelect Marquee, once London’s most crowded jazz club, to provide two equally crowded and noisy spaces with 700 seats. Mezzonine is the quick-turnover cafe on the ground floor, and Mezzo is a more leisurely and expensive restaurant in the basement separated from the kitchen by glass panels. The latter features big tables, comfortable chairs, informal but expert service and shrewdly adapted Pacific Rim cuisine: crisp quail grilled with pickled vegetables, charred salmon with Thai herbs, scallops and nori spring rolls, lobster pot-au-feu. The cooking is never dull and can hit high notes in spite of the pressure. Regulars like rock star Bryan Ferry and Calvin Klein seem to prefer the wall tables. About $90 for two.

Sugar Club, 33a All Saints Road, W11; tel. 011-44-171-221-3844.

This is the modest but trim Notting Hill neighborhood cafe that was recently reported to be too full of locals to find room for Madonna. Since the neighbors include writer Martin Amis, airline mogul Richard Branson and pop star Elvis Costello, it can afford to. The kitchen plays the Pacific Rim repertoire full blast and the ingredients meet harmoniously: salmon smoked in tea matched with celeriac; chicken liver in star anise spiced with chile; roast English duck on bok choy and wok-fried black bean sauce; miraculously juicy fried mullet on spicy sweet potato. Cheerful, unpushy service. About $80 for two.

Maison Novelli, 29 Clerkenwell Green, EC1; tel. 011-44-171-251-6606.

Jean-Christophe Novelli, an innovative, hugely accomplished young Frenchman with Michelin-starred residencies behind him (notably at London’s Four Seasons Hotel), opened a few weeks ago a bustling brasserie and (more expensive) restaurant in a rambling old cafe on the edge of the City (the business district) for journalists and trendy loft-dwellers. Robustly classical French food with surprisingly strong flavors: salmon blanquette with Parmesan, carrot charlotte with basil cream, goose confit, pork knuckle poached in sherry with white beans. Two-course, fixed-price menu about $30 per person.

The Collection, 264 Brompton Road, SW3; tel. 011-44-171-225-1212.

In the hub of Chelsea, the Collection has taken over from Daphne’s as the city’s most fashionable dining spot. A cleverly split, 250-seat, steel and glass conversion of fashion designer showrooms, the smart crowd occupies the more expensive and spacious mezzanine while most of the rubberneckers sit on the ground floor, which is open through the afternoon. The kitchen turns out superb examples of East-West fusion at extraordinarily low prices: lightly seared tuna sashimi with shiitake, calves’ liver with broad-bean puree and chorizo, salmon ceviche with lime. Leave room for the yummy toffee and banana feuillete, and ask for a table by the stairs. About $90 for two.

St. John, 26 St. John St., EC1; tel. 011-44-171-251-0848.

Here is a champion of the forgotten flavors of Old England with a particular passion for offal and earthy vegetables, from ox tongue with sweetly melting beet, to delectably gelatinous lamb’s feet with crisp, meaty bundles of offal called faggot. Served in a ramshackle converted smokehouse next door, appropriately, to the Smithfield meat market, St. John is popular with fashion designers, especially Vivienne Westwood, whose parties spill out over several of the basic, linen-draped wooden tables and make this a place for informal jollity rather than intimate conversation. About $70 for two.

Criterion, Piccadilly Circus, W1; tel. 011-44-171-925-0909.

A glittering neo-Byzantine mosaic ceiling, giant Indian portraits and an old “smoking divan” at the end of the dining room dwarf the 80 closely packed tables in this extraordinary Edwardian fantasy palace right on the Circus. Since Marco-Pierre White, the self-proclaimed enfant terrible of the current restaurant world, took over, the cooking has risen to impressive levels of style and consistency, though the turnover and the fact that White is more frequently guarding his three Michelin stars at his Hyde Park restaurant means that this is competent, middle-of-the-road French food with tremendous value for money rather than inspired creativity. Best bets: sweetbreads with sauce gribiche, duck confit, roast cod and stuffed cabbage. About $85 for two.

Livebait, 43 The Cut, SE1; 011-44-171-928-7211.

This modern interpretation of the East End eel-and-pie shop, with its tiled walls, bright lights and snug wooden booths, is popular with casts from the nearby National Theatre. It’s located in a slightly Bohemian quarter south of the River Thames near Waterloo Station and is as yet undiscovered by tourists even though it has some of the freshest, most carefully prepared fish in the city: oysters from the sparkling shellfish bar, barbecued octopus, roast sea bass served with braised fennel and big, fleshy scallops with stir-fried vermicelli. Friendly servers, superb value for money. About $75 for two.

L’Odeon, 65 Regent St., SW1; tel. 011-44-171-287-1400.

A 220-seater, cleverly converted from old office suites into a sequence of curving banquettes; window tables have fine views up Regent Street and are good for intimate chats. Cooking by one of England’s most talented young chefs, Bruno Loubet, entices foodies from Sir Clement Freud to Conran, musicians from Simon Rattle to Simon le Bon and the brighter film stars, like Emma Thompson. Earthy ingredients are given an original twist: a platter of subtle, gamey Gascon duck, scallops with black pudding, rabbit braised in coconut milk. About $110 for two.

33, 33 St. James’s St., SW1; tel. 011-44-171-930-4272.

A step away from the Ritz hotel lies the most formal of the new restaurants, and the one with the most individual touch: a narrow but stylish yellow room designed by the yacht specialist Jon Bannenberg. Well-spaced tables and comfortable chairs are usually occupied by continental art dealers and richer artists who pay too little attention to the deceptively simple cooking. This depends on immaculate timing and subtle touches to heighten the flavor: a perfect combination of sardines with spicy beet vinaigrette, light and sticky quail in pastry, perfectly seared foie gras with cepes. Ornate but friendly service. About $100 for two.

Anglesea Arms, 35 Wingate Road, W6; tel. 011-44-181-749-1291.

This deliberately small-scale, neighborhood diner on the gentrified fringe of outer London’s Hammersmith district is the best example of the current fashion for converting seedy pubs into lively, bargain-price bistros. Here are alert waiters, plain tables, sofas and a blackboard menu that favors British tradition. Sea kale (a Swiss chard-like vegetable) comes with a blood-orange hollandaise, the salt beef casserole called stovey with potato hash, potted shrimps with fresh toast and a handsome prune tart with vanilla ice cream. This is still a deliberately small-scale, neighborhood diner on the gentrified edges of outer London’s Hammersmith district. No reservations; best to arrive before 8:30 p.m. Fixed-price three-course dinner about $17 per person.

Moshi Moshi Sushi, Unit 24, Liverpool Street Station, EC2; tel. 011-44-171-247-3227.

Cheap, fast and fun, this moving buffet above the railway station platforms has become a favorite detour for city bankers on the way home. It actually is moving: a continuous belt carries freshly prepared miso soup, sushi and other Japaneses dishes from diner to diner, and you grab whatever seems tempting. . Impressive quality for the price. About $25 for two with tea.