the UK Restaurant and Hotel Zine
Gastronomic excitement in the City!
Just in case you're reading this from abroad - and sixty per cent of our
readers live in great wide world beyond Britannia's shores - the
City is the heart of London's banking and financial sector. It's
where the youngsters with the disposables work, yet it's not noted as a
playground. In the old days, there was a mini rush hour at midday as the
taxis bore the pin-striped gentry to the West End where all the best
restaurants were, and still tend to be, located. For a quick lunch there
were City wine bars and famous ale houses, but proper restaurants have
always been thin on the ground. Restaurateurs have always found it hard to
crack the City, mainly because it goes very quiet at night and postively
dead at the weekend. Even a
nocturnal visit to the Barbican Centre with its concert hall and theatres
has always seemed like a bit of a penance.
Just lately there has been what can only be described as an explosion
of serious new eating places. The fact is, the guys and girls are working
so hard and so late that they want to be able to stroll out of their
merchant banks and dealing floors straight into a trendy new eaterie. Here
are just a few of them...
"10" opened last spring just off Devonshire
Square
As you walk down the curving stairwell into "10" you'll soon realise why
this £1.5m restaurant is an investment in style. Julyan Wickham who
designed Bank and Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor is the architect, and head
chef is Richard Ross of The Ivy. "10" used to be Le Champenois, and
Julyan has recast it as the City's first really bright modern restaurant. The
fluid curves of the bar, the lengths of mirrored walls and the ceiling with
its internally-lit pastel ball reflect the attention to detail that has
gone into the concept. Even the chair backs have been specially designed
to prevent jackets from falling off. (What? you mean the chaps are allowed
to divest themselves?)
Dishes are eclectic and wide ranging in origin and often presented in
authentic tableware, such as the bento boxes for the lobster tempura, or
the earthenware tagines for the lamb with chickpeas and cous cous. British
dishes include traditional delicacies such as Oxfordshire sausages with
parsnip mash, and Roast ham knuckle with chilli jam honey and ginger.
Puddings are very nursery, with old favourites like spotted dick and baked
rice pudding given deft new twists.
10 Cutlers Gardens Arcade, Devonshire Square, London EC2 tel: 0171
283 7888
Open Monday - Friday from 11.30am to 9.30pm for last orders.
A new Lazeez in Clerkenwell
EC1
Café Lazeez just past Christie's Auction rooms in
the Old Brompton
Road is one of London's most exciting modern Indian restaurants. It won
Carlton Best Indian Restaurant awards both in 1996 and 1998. Now its
sights are set on trendy Clerkenwell where new restaurants have been
spreading like wildfire, with top names like Novelli, Moro, Gaudi and St
John.
The menu at the new Cafe Lazeez falls into two categories: firstly
there's traditional North Indian home cooking with treats like
Chukunder Ghost - lamb with beetroot and coriander (£7.95) or whole
tandoori pomfret £7.95, tamarind chicken £4.95 and Aloo Ki Tikki £3.75.
Secondly there is a section of newly evolved fusion dishes such as BBQ
fresh garden vegetables, 4.50 marinated in classic tandoori masala;
pistachio and saffron lamb £11.95 or baked salmon £12.95 marinated in
chili garlic dill and lemon juice and served with acumin potato hash. You
can wash this down with wines specially selected from new World makers.
Café Lazeez, 88 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1M 4EH.
1 Lombard Street opened on 12th August
There seem to be a lot of ones lately, what with One Lawn Terrace,
Number One Aldwych, No 1 Poultry and now 1 Lombard Street, "a truly European restaurant",
so say its publicists. main mover and shaker is banker Soren Jessen backer
of Oliver Peyton's Mash and a director of Atlantic Bar & Grill.
Both menu and decor have been inspired by Titian's Rape of Europa, though
I can't remember much that was truly edible on that particular canvas!
Yet another grand banking hall has been turned into a dining room, this
time by London based Swedish architects Orefelt Associates. Yet more
exciting is the reappearance of Austrian born Herbert Berger who has two
separate Michelin stars behind him. He has been head chef at the
Mirabelle and the Café Royal. Apart from the restaurant there is also to be a
brasserie under the direction of Marc Sanford Jensen of River Café
fame.
Fay Maschler of the Evening Standard visited the Brasserie and was clearly
delighted, saying that she hadn't enjoyed herself so much for a long
time. Look out for the pig's trotter galette and the blackened wood
pigeon. Brochettes of lamb's kidneys, sweetbreads and bacon are probably a
bit outré for most North Americans. Now there's a challenge fellas,
hoof along to Lombard Street and prove me wrong!
1 Lombard Street, 020 7929 6611
Le Coq d'Argent takes on the City
Yes, another restaurant opened in the City in the August.
le Coq d'Argent is the Conran Group's first venture
into this territory. The site at No 1 Poultry is brand new and the
restaurant occupies the whole of the roof space, giving 130 covers with
twice that number sunning itself on the terrace. The name is a very clever
conceit: the site on the corner of Poultry was formerly that of the
famous
jeweller and silversmith Mappin and Webb - are you with me? Anyway,
Chef Stephen Goodlad
cooked at The Dorchester and Grosvenor House and early reports suggest
that the style is a bit Park Lane grand hotel.
Coq d'Argent, 1 Poultry EC2 tel: 020 7395 5000
City Rhodes showed us the way
Gary Rhodes kicked off in partnership with Gardner Merchant in January
1997 and exactly a year later City Rhodes was awarded its first Michelin Star.
Executive Chef Gary Rhodes has many successful media interests as
well as
his recently opened Pimlico restaurant Rhodes in the Square to look
after. The restaurant is open Monday to Friday from noon to
2.30pm, and from 6pm until last orders at 9pm. Gary was one of the
pioneers of Modern British cooking, so expect dishes like layered foie
gras and artichokes in sweet pepper sauce, or pressed tomato cake with
peppered goat's cheese for starters. For main course you could have rolled
saddle
of rabbit and ceps with a sweet garlic tart, or roast tournedos of lamb
with lettuce onion peas and bacon. Puddings are legendary here, don't miss
the great British pudding plate, or Gary's famous bread and butter pudding.
City Rhodes, 1 New Street Square, EC4 Tel: 020 7583 1313
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