+VP
Magno's and Manzi's
WHEN two people get together to arrange a lunch in London they often decide on Covent Garden. The Covent Garden PR job has fooled almost everyone, it seems. People meet there because it styles itself a meeting-place — but where one is sup- Posed to be able to sit and wait for anyone comfortably is beyond me. And what about its other point, the shopping? The `Piazza' has spawned many over-priced and undermining clothes-shops; but you try actually buying anything. Hobbs apart, it is identical skinny-rib bin-liners, with gussets all the way. Still, few can avoid Covent Garden: it does seem to be about equally inconve- nient for everyone, after all. And it has its saving graces — one of them in the form of Magno's Brasserie (836 6077) at the Drury Lane end of Long Acre. Magno's is not actually a brasserie, but a welcomingly- French French restaurant with a fashion- able menu that is accomplished rather than absurd.
Prices are not low but even so the clientele does not give the impression of being exclusively expense-account (though lunchtime could do with a bit of leaven- ing). The first thing, indeed, that strikes You about Magno's is its popularity. This can prove a drawback, as it may get very noisy, but mostly the buzzing excitability of the place is a tonic.
There is a smallish menu, supplemented with one which changes daily, comprising three starters and three main courses, usually fish and always taking rich advan- tage of whatever might be in season. Their regular starters — celeriac mousse with a sweet red pepper coulis, salmon `airdried' with fresh herbs, guinea-fowl terrine served warm with an orange sauce --- have never, in my experience, been quite up to their plats du jour, which might include a warm salad of smoked chicken, duck and Pigeon; steamed calamari filled with veget- able mousses and served on a watercress sauce; or a scallop and leek salad with a Warm truffle vinaigrette. The calamari rings of white filled with the carrot and swede gold-coloured mousses — were arranged like slices of hard-boiled egg; this far I find I can tolerate art-cuisine. The rib of beef with red wine and shallot sauce (at £16.95 for two) is, 1 think, one of their best main courses: the meat well- bought and respectfully cooked, its glossy sauce fragant with rich, sweetish jus. If two of you cannot agree on that, then I should choose something on the daily menu, like their steamed escalope of turbot filled with a Dover sole mousse, and with sea- asparagus, those beautiful forest-green spikes which look more like foliage from a surreal landscape.
There are various puddings — the sor- bets are excellent and the fruit salad as fresh as claimed — and a good cheese- board. The wine list is not cheap, but then, this is not a cheap restaurant: I would think it difficult to get out for under £20 a head. They do, however, have 'a pre-theatre menu — two courses, a glass of wine and coffee — for £8.45, the only catch being that they need the table back by eight o'clock. Still, I rather like the idea of going without lunch, having a delicious early dinner at Magno's and being in bed well before 8.30. A real favourite of mine for lunch is Manzi's in Leicester Street (734 0224/5/6). The fish is fresh, waiters friendly and surroundings lustily pretty. It is wise, though, to book first and ask for a table on the ground floor, preferably next to a window.
Start with their smoked tuna, which doesn't taste anything like fresh (or tinned) tuna but is deliciously woody, smoked to a pale cocoa-pink and would be perfect with scrambled eggs, unfortunately not on the menu. In winter or if you feel you need fortifying, try the eels in parsley sauce, which look appalling but have slimy charm. Depending on the season there are various types of fish, grilled, poached or mornay, halibut. Except they can do interesting things with ibu Except for the lemon sorbet with vodka, puddings are probably better avoided. There is a longish wine-list with a special section 'for the more discerning palate' but you could always brave the house wine at £4.95 a carafe.
Manzi's is never as cheap as you think it is going to be: expect to pay around £16 a head, more if you are indeed indulging a discerning palate.
If you feel like making an afternoon of it, the top floors are a hotel, though I wouldn't greatly relish staying above a fish restaurant, and rebuffed my companion's impertinent attempts to persuade me to do so.
Nigella Lawson
Previous page
