Restaurants bounce back with host of new openings

Michel Roux Jr, who runs Le Gavroche in Mayfair, today became the latest high-profile figure to push on with a major new central London venue.

The 60-seat dining room, not yet named, will open in September in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' building by Parliament Square. It will serve French food "in a relaxed atmosphere with a very affordable lunch menu similar in concept to Le Gavroche, but a lower price bracket," said Roux.

It had been feared that the loss of City spending power would lay waste London's new reputation as a gastronomic powerhouse. Roux said: "Times are tough, but I don't think it is bad as the late Eighties and early Nineties. Le Gavroche has been chugging along OK."

Although the number of central openings has slowed, an expected mini-boom in the second half of this year and early next year has revived hopes.

Des Gunewardera, chairman and chief executive of D&D Restaurants, which operates 20 in London including Pont de la Tour and Kensington Place, said: "Without doubt since February we have seen a modest improvement. It may be something temporary but it's a fillip. We are ahead of our expectations and only slightly down on where we were last year."

He said the group was looking at one potential hotel and three restaurants and opening over the next three years.

The opening "season" starts next week when Bjorn van der Horst, former chef de patron at La Noisette, launches the Eastside Inn in Smithfield.

A huge venture in Regent Street is expected to be unveiled in the next few days. Hong Kong-based Aqua is to launch two restaurants and a bar in September on the fifth floor of the former Dickins & Jones department store. The complex would be called Aqua London.

Other big names to look out for include Sir Terence Conran, Jamie Oliver and the Galvin Brothers. Two Ramsay locations, Pétrus and the Savoy Grill, are due to make their return after closures.

Richard Harden, co-author of Harden's Restaurant Guide, said: "What seems to be happening is that well capitalised, serious people regard this as a blip and are making a long-term vote of confidence in London."