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£15 menu helps Arbutus win top title
By Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard 19.09.06
Top table: Head chef Anthony Demetre at Arbutus
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Arbutus in Soho has been named as London's best new restaurant. The Frith Street establishment has been awarded the accolade in the new Time Out Eating and Drinking Guide.
To book online and for details of special offers at Arbutus click here.
Under head chef Anthony Demetre, Arbutus offers diners a lunch or pre-theatre three-course meal for £15, while the a la carte menu is £25 per person. The food is French and European.
Other restaurants to be recognised in the guide include Gaucho Piccadilly, The Table in Southwark and Sam's Brasserie in Chiswick.
However, in a blow to the prestige of the capital's top restaurants, all of last night's awards went to a line-up of relatively unknown eating places and bars without a Michelin star between them. As well as celebrating the best of London's cuisine, the guide also names the restaurants which can sometimes make booking a table seem difficult.
Gordon Ramsay at 68 Royal Hospital Road, The Ivy and Tom Aikens are the worst offenders when it comes to an awkward reservations policy. Their tricks include "bizarre booking procedures, automated answer phones or inexplicably short sitting time frames". The guide lists the top ploys as:
• Only being allowed to book a table exactly two months in advance to the day.
• Reservation lines that are permanently engaged or only let you get through to an answering machine.
• Being told on which date and time you have to eat, regardless of whether or not it is convenient.
• Setting "cheeky" cancellation charges that scare off many people just in case they have to pull out; Gordon Ramsay at 68 Royal Hospital Road charges £150 per person and Tom Aikens £65.
Guy Dimond, Time Out's restaurant critic, said it was time people realised there was more to top dining than the well-known restaurants. He said: "There are lots of restaurants in London that are just as good or even better but don't have these ridiculous waiting lists."
The guide applauds the more "democratic" restaurants such as Le Gavroche, Foliage and the Greenhouse, "which welcome all kinds of guests no matter who they know, or how much they earn".
Getting a table at these dining rooms is virtually guaranteed even on a Friday or Saturday night if you ring a few days in advance. Other top restaurants earning plaudits include Nobu, which does not book its sushi bar so there is always room for " walk- in" customers.
The Wolseley also allocates a third of tables for immediate custom while The River Café does not take bookings for the terrace, allowing 15 seats to be freed up inside whenever it is warm enough to eat outside.
Jo Harris, spokeswoman for The Ivy, defended its reservations policy, saying it was just responding to demand. She said: "We get as many as 1,200 calls a day. We do what we can by opening our books six months in advance."
She added: "There is an automated line but that is just because so many people want information such as directions." No one at Gordon Ramsay or Tom Aikens was available for comment.
To book online and for details of special offers at Arbutus click here.
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