27 DECEMBER 1957, Page 9

Consuming Interest

SOME months ago I offered a list of recom- mended London restaurants to any Spectator reader who would like one. The list was really in tended for people who live in the country, and abroad, and only come to London occasionally, and I did not expect anything like the numbers of requests which eventually came in (and still are coming in) from Londoners as well as from elsewhere. Clearly there is a much greater hanker- ing after restaurants which offer good cooking and a congenial atmosphere than the traditional view of the English, as expressed by innumerable visitors since Voltaire, would suggest.

I have now compiled a revised list. It is in a different form from the last, which was divided into four categories by price; instead, I have given the restaurants by nationality—as people clearly like to experiment with different national dishes. The quality of meals in the great bulk of foreign restaurants here is erratic, even in some high- priced establishments; but I hope that the places I have listed will live up to their good reputations.

My new list excludes what I would call the `expense account' range of restaurants, where the main dishes run from 9s. upwards. It is not that they are bad; but they are simply not worth the prices charged. My own view is that apart from one or two (to be visited only. on expense-no- object evenings) it is best to avoid them and to concentrate, as I have done in my list, on the restaurants whose main dishes fall between Gs. and 9s.—though in most it is possible to get dishes outside this range; above, for special occasions, or below, to suit the purse.

I have also, reluctantly, excluded all hotels. Some of them—the Connaught and the Savoy Grill, for example—are admirable for lunch; but for dinner (and this is mainly a diner's list) I find them rather institutional.

Needless to say, a great many good restaurants are excluded simply because we have not had enough information about them to justify in- clusion. This is particularly true of several new ones. The fact is that most restaurants are good for a time when they open; the test comes after a year or two. Others, though usually good, have been found to be insufficiently reliable. Black marks have lodged against them as a result. By comparison with, say, Paris, this is regrettably true of almost all London restaurants; chefs tend to have inadequate replacements on their days off; or, in the absence of a head waiter, the ser- vice falters.

My list makes no pretensions at being ex- haustive. The best I can hope for is that it will send some of you to restaurants which you have not previously heard of; where, unless you are very unlucky, you will enjoy a reasonable meal and not be fleeced for it. The list will be sent out early in the New Year to everybody who had the last one, to those who have written for one since and to anybody else who writes time it now. As I hope to revise it again some tune next year I shall be grateful for any comments, criticisms and amendments; and may I take this opportunity of thanking those of you who have sent them in in the last few months?