THE Conran empire marches on. Sir Ter- ence has just
opened a huge new restaurant with Italian cooking and a sartorial theme — Sartoria — just opposite West End Cen- tral police station, and is due shortly to unveil another, specialising in spit-roasting, in the City of London. By then the emperor will have 11 London outlets, and thus be able to field a culinary football team at the next World Cup. As any Conran opening tends to be regarded as a major gastronom- ic event, it seemed imperative that I should go and taste Sartoria's Italian cooking with- out delay.
On this quest I took with me my old friend Flora Harvey, a discerning judge of a restaurant and its cooking, and together we taxied to Savile Row. The site, on the cor- ner of Savile Row and New Burlington Street, is on the ground floor and colossal: 8,560 square feet to house a bar, a 120-seat restaurant and two private dining-rooms. Decor is minimalist modern in muted shades, with spotlights in the ceiling and uplighting pedestals between tables. The floor is carpeted, so at least one can con- verse without damaging the eardrums. There are a quantity of artefacts to support the sartorial theme, such as tailors' dum- mies, tape-measure ashtrays, and button motifs looking like smily faces on plates and glasses. A little tacky, I felt.
The large, square room was virtually full for dinner, with that blend of low social aspiration and high financial achievement that seems to characterise the clientele of a Conran restaurant. Our pleasant young waitress promptly asked us on sitting down how we were feeling this evening. 'Hungry,' seemed the appropriate reply. Service oth- erwise was laudable, but attention needs to be given to the air-conditioning, which took several complaints and the arrival of our desserts before it began to function effec- tively. By then most of the male clientele were dining unattractively in shirt-sleeves.
The authentically Italian menu is pre- pared by a British head chef, Darren Simp- son, whose previous kitchens have included Bibendum, Richard Corrigen's and the River Café, where he spent two years. The menu is of reasonable dimensions, but prices are fairly high: soup and antipasti not less than £6, pastas and risottos £6.50 to £9 as starters, £11.50 to £15 as main cours- es, meat and fish £14 to £19, desserts around £6 and cheese f7 upwards. To begin, Flora chose a salad of artichokes, boiled salted lemons and roasted almonds, and I that old Italian staple, uova alla Fiorentina. Both were excellent. Flora's salad had diced artichoke hearts steeped in a delicious lemon dressing, scattered plenti- fully with almonds, and my baked egg was perfectly soft, athwart first-class fresh spinach covered with a fine cheesy sauce.
From this promising start we moved on to involtini di vitello in Flora's case, and risotto with rabbit, borlotti beans and rose- mary in mine. Flora received two good- sized tubes of veal escalope wrapped around a stuffing of sage, pounded anchovy and artichoke. They were enjoyable, though rather chewy, perhaps cooked a lit- tle too long, and the flavour of sage verged on the overpowering. My rabbit risotto was impeccably cooked, the rice texture perfect, with plump, juicy pieces of rabbit and excellent borlotti beans. It was plentifully served, but should it really have cost £15? Flora then greatly enjoyed her unusual dessert of green tomato tart with zabaglione, the tomatoes' sharpness per- fectly offsetting the zabaglione's richness, the fib pastry immaculate. My simpler chocolate sorbet was also pleasing, and we followed them with well-made though over- priced espressos at £2.40. With a bottle of red Montepulciano at £21 and 12.5 per cent service the bill came to just over £93, which for a good but not amazing meal in com- fortable but not remarkable surroundings seemed rather a lot.
That is, however, modest when set against the prices charged at Mark Birley's Harry's Bar, a dining club in Mayfair where fine Italian cooking is served in opu- lent, if brash and rather cramped surround- `What's a "pound?" What's "tuppeny?" What's "treacle?" ... ' ings, to an obviously extremely rich mem- bership and their guests. I was taken by an affluent lady member who had invited me to do my worst, confident that I would suc- cumb to the place. I did: Harry's prices may be over the moon — starters £16 to £27 for asparagus galantine with caviar, main courses £26 to £30, desserts £9.50, with an `economical' set lunch for £28 — but the quality of chef Alberico .Penati's cooking and the service under maitre d'hôtel Mario are unquestionably excellent. The prices clearly prove no disincentive: my hostess had reserved for dinner a fortnight in advance, and the room was full.
She started with a modest summer salad, and I chose one of the piatti di giorni, sauted salad leaves with scrambled eggs and crab: light, subtle, intense and deli- cious. My hostess, continuing to eat lightly, next chose one of the 'signature' pasta dish- es — tagliolini verdi gratinati al prosciutto: light, fresh pasta in a gorgeous cheese and ham sauce. I had another dish of the day strips of superb Charolais beef, grilled rare, and served with wonderful porcini mush- rooms and artichoke hearts, accompanied by another 'signature' dish: the thinnest, driest and lightest of deep-fried zucchini. With my perfect granita di caffe came chocolate coffee beans, bark, and other scrumptious petits fours amounting to another dessert. I left convinced that this was unquestionably, and by a long chalk, the finest Italian cooking in London. A pity it's for members only.
Another Italian restaurant has just opened, also in Mayfair: Teca in Brook's Mews, behind Claridge's. It belongs to the London-based Swiss banker Marco Buc- chetta, who has always yearned to own a restaurant. The spacious minimalist premises have large plate-glass windows looking out onto the rather bleak mews, and the lack of carpets means the noise level is high and conversation difficult. The two young chefs have both previously worked at Stefano Cavallini's restaurant in the Halkin among other places and, at a menu degustazione, offered to invited guests the day before the restaurant opened for business, the Cavallini influence showed. The menu of excellent carpaccio of sea bass, salad of quails with broad beans and pecorino, gnocchi stuffed with pesto and served with langoustines, medallions of monkfish with artichokes and roast saddle of rabbit with vegetables and pancetta were all skilfully cooked, but lacked the robust- ness of flavour one associates with Italian cooking. It may well find favour with May- fair diners, especially once the Causerie at Claridge's closes in the autumn. We shall see.
Sartoria: 20 Savile Row, London WI; tel: 0171 534 7000. Closed Sundays.
Harry's Bar (private club): 26 South Audley Street, London WI; tel: 0171 408 0844. Teca: 54 Brooks Mews, London WI; tel: 0171 495 4774. Open daily.
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