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Five to try: Clubs without subs
29.04.09
Posh nosh: Bellamy’s is fit for the Queen
RIVA
169 Church Road, SW13 (020 8748 0434) £50
To those who say that friends of proprietor Andrea Riva have a better time, I reply: “Keep visiting and in time you will be a friend.” It is true that off‑piste bottles of wine or ingredients Andrea has just brought over from his home province of Lombardy come the way of regulars and, also, that for them he delivers that ultimate treat of orchestrating the menu. But the advice works: new faces appear each year at his Christmas lock-in.
ANDREW EDMUNDS
46 Lexington Street, W1 (020 7437 5708) £38
If you are not friends with the people at the next table, proximity may ensure it by the end of the meal. The basement especially requires elbows-in eating but like-minded souls who appreciate the Dickensian surroundings, the daily changing straightforward menu and the brusque, intelligent service make up the core of regulars, many working locally. A definite lure is the wine list, embellished by antique print dealer Mr Edmunds's buys at auction.
BROMPTON BAR & GRILL
243 Brompton Road, SW3 (020 7589 8005) £40
When the younger generation takes over the reins, as François O'Neill has done from his father Lord Rathcavan, who ran the restaurant as Brasserie St Quentin, it is to be expected that the house is suddenly full of new friends, different pictures, laughter and music — in this case jazz piano in the basement. Gary Durrant cooks an appealingly unfussy menu, including popular “pudding pots” at £3.50. Modest mark-ups on wine add to the conviviality.
BELLAMY'S
18 Bruton Place, W1 (020 7491 2727) £60
The Queen celebrated a friend's birthday here, but many of Gavin Rankin's regulars know him from his days (or nights) at Mark Birley's clubs. As Toby Young has admiringly observed, the place is posh; I would add raffish. Franglais charm resides in the décor and brilliant poster art, but also in Stephane Pacoud's menu that includes oeuf en gelée, Bellamy's fish fingers, sweetbreads meuniere, a baby veal burger and a wonderful coeur de laitue salad.
CAMBIO DE TERCIO
161 Old Brompton Road, SW5 (020 7244 8970) £50
Vibrant colours of the traditions of the bullfight distinguish Abel Lusa's 14‑year-old Spanish restaurant. Drama is also apparent in the cooking, which could be defined as nueva cocina but comes with an unusual intensity of flavour and without many foams and furbelows. Graze or go the three-course route but don't miss octopus and suckling pig. The wine list is a whole other world to explore. Restaurant critics are one gang who hang out here.
Prices estimate a meal with wine for one.
