The Lanesborough
REALLY the Lanesborough, which is the old St George's Hospital on Hyde Park Corner roundabout, should have been called the St George's Hotel. But I can only presume the St George's Hotel in Langharn Place objected, or that it was thought that it would give rise to confusion. Of course, this is not a major upset, but names are impor- tant and there is something of the mock- portentous about the `Lanesborough' — grand English in the American manner.
Still, I didn't let that put me off, for Paul Gayler is one of a few chefs I would follow anywhere. Obviously many others feel the same way, for on the two occasions I went, during its first few days of opening, last week, the joint was jumping; its two restau- rants were busier than most restaurateurs have had the heart to hope for during these past long months. Naturally, there is always heightened interest in new projects, and the reputed £160 million-odd spent on the three-year-long conversion has generated awed publicity, particularly in the tabloids. But I should say it would be a mistake to ascribe its popularity purely to hype, or to judge it a necessarily short-lived novelty splurge. There is something just right about the Lanesborough: it all works, and it looks ravishing, with its wonderful Regency colours and exquisite Biedermeier pieces.
There are two restaurants. In the Dining Room, all old-rose pink and Napoleonic bees, the menu is Gayler-reformulated British; in the Conservatory, inspired, apparently, by the Brighton Pavilion, with its glassy arching, its dandy orientalism and cake-icing colours, the menu is Eastern-led eclecticism. Paul Gayler's version of British food is not of the culinarily hip, Italianate school, but refers, indirectly perhaps, to an earlier era. To describe Gayler's dishes as a delicate reworking of Eliza Acton would probably be accurate; but that might also make them sound namby-pamby or preten- tious, and they are neither. Gayler is a spice man rather than a herb man, and that, too, is fitting to the period. One of his distinguishing features is the aromatic draw of his cooking. Gayler insists on assaulting, oh so voluptuously, our sense of smell. His kedgeree wafts boskily from the plate: bas- mati rice, braised in wild mushroom stock, is stirred with a dice of wild mushrooms and smoked salmon and topped with a just- grilled escalope of salmon, dribbled with butter infused with ginger and cardamom. The Norfolk duckling with oysters and sweetbreads is redolent of cinnamon and cloves and musky black pepper. For pud- ding, there is a smokily fragrant tea blanc- mange: milk and cream are infused with Earl Grey, strained and whipped with gela- tine and cream. To borrow from Kenneth Tynan, I could not love anyone who hated this.
If I had to choose from the Conservatory menu the one, pre-eminent dish you should order, it would be the herb basmati risotto with seafood. The fish is poached in white wine, fish stock and cream, then removed. To the liquor the rice is added, along with chives and tarragon, chervil and parsley, to which the fish is later returned with butter and parmesan, I have always insisted on the use of arborio rice for risottos; this dish with its seed-pearls of basmati — 'the fra- grant one' — offers an alternative against which I now have no desire to argue. Try the chicken with Thai spices, the gentle, white meat smeared with a paste of red, green and yellow peppers, garlic, cinna- mon, cumin, ginger and coconut milk, or the calves' liver with cracked pepper and sage and creamy, buttery, garlic-infused mashed potatoes. Thank God, the tea blancmange is on this menu, too. Though there is competition: iced espresso soufflé with chocolate sauce, spiced apple and wal- nut crumble with rhubarb ice cream. There is an excellent wine-list for both restau- rants, from which you could have a good bottle of house white for £13 or rampage through some grands vins for a lot more.
In the Dining Room, the average price for starters is about £10, for main courses £20, and there is .a prix-fixe three-course lunch for £24, five-course dinner for £43 and four-course vegetarian mend for £26.50. You can go for a prix fixe in the Conservatory, where the a la carte prices are lower than in the Dining Room, but you are, anyway, not expected to eat the whole whack. If you want just the basmati risotto and a glass of wine for lunch, then that's fine.
All prices include VAT and service, which makes things easier. It might seem odd to, describe the clamorously launched Lanesborough as a real find, but that's what it feels like.
1 Lanesborough Place SW1; tel 071 259 5599
Nigella Lawson
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