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Robert Hardman
AT LAST, the architects of Cool Britannia have a local canteen of which they can be proud, a Westminster restaurant fit for our most style-obsessed legislators. No longer will pony-tailed life peers be forced to plot their Internet flotations over nursery food in a faded parliamentary dining-room. Modernising MPs, pining for something cutting-edge at lunchtime, now have an alternative to the grimy Victoria trattoria. In fact, anyone with any reason to dine in the vicinity of Westminster or Victoria will be grateful for the arrival of Zander, Lon- don's latest mega-restaurant. The few acres which lie between Big Ben and Bucking- ham Palace may be the nerve-centre of the nation but they have traditionally been a dire place for a meal. After two years of building work and £4 million of interior design, the area has suddenly gone up in the food world. Zander boasts the longest bar in Europe, an excel- lent menu and, from next month, a 3 a.m. closing time. Lobby journalists, take note: this place is a natural gossip factory. If it has not spawned a decent scandal by the end of the year, then my name is Pamella Bordes. The entrance leads into what looks like yet another low-lit, trendy cocktail joint until you go round the corner. It is quite a sight to see the bar stretching away 150 feet into the distance beneath a vaulted ceiling of violet and green. A small plane could land on this. No wondet they employ a cocktail-shaking team of ten. At the far end, the cavernous interior opens into a bright eating area with a large glass conservatory built out towards a small patch of greenery. I had a vague sense of déjà vu. Zander has been designed by Julyan Wickham, the man who created my favourite local, Kensington Place, and there is the odd similarity — curvy grey ceiling panels, lots of glass, a revolving door and see-through 'pri- vate' rooms. My friend, Catherine, noticed it instantly, but then her previous home had been designed by Wickham. 'It's just like being back in my old kitchen,' she said, spot- ting a familiar wall unit.
Zander takes its name from the Euro- pean freshwater fish, otherwise known as the 'pike-perch', and was chosen to reflect the management's origins. It is the latest venture of the Bank Group, which started life as a fish wholesaler before going on to start up restaurants such as Bank and Fish!. `We wanted a fishy name which did not make us sound like a purely fish restau- rant,' explained a manager. 'Like Kensing- ton Plaice?' I joked. Blank looks all round. The menu, billed as 'modern classic', is evenly balanced with a few quirky prospects thrown in. Were I a pigeon fan, I might have tried the 'roast Anjou pigeon with truffle macaroni'. Vegetarian options include an aubergine hotpot — perfect for the herbivorous MP with a constituency in Lancashire.
I started with a juicy carpaccio accompa- nied by a slightly eggy ravigote sauce. Catherine was not terribly impressed by her rocket salad. Too salty,' she declared. The main courses, on the other hand, were first-rate. Catherine is not a great meat-eater but, having just bragged of a pre- vious incarnation as a cordon bleu cook, felt she ought to be adventurous. She ordered the ham hock faggot with roasted parsnips, half-expecting a great shank of boiled pig. An exquisite mould of wonderfully tender ham offset with a mild red-onion stuffing had her cooing. 'Part gammony, part sausagey,' she mused, 'a very sophisticated variation on honey-glazed ham.'
Less imaginatively, I ordered the `zander of the day', in this case a pan-fried slice of the stuff on a bed of potatoes cooked with goose fat. The fish was meaty and ostenta- tiously fresh, the spuds deliciously unhealthy.
After a long break, we decided to share a mascarpone, banana and toffee parfait in the name of gluttony, It was a ridiculously rich thing to order, low on banana, long on toffee, but an excellent pudding nonetheless.
The staff were attentive without being fussy, although I suspect they have yet to be fully tested. Having only just opened, Zan- der was less than half full on a Saturday night. Most of those in the restaurant seemed to be tourists from the neighbouring hotel, while the bar contained a small crowd stocking up on cocktails before a busy night's clubbing. But when the place starts heaving, as it surely will, Zander should be able to cope. The management have looted many of the top staff from Bank — includ- ing head chef Stephen Carter — to make sure that this works from the outset.
The wine is priced on the high side. Apart from a £12.50 house Merlot, most of the cheaper bottles hover around the £20 mark. In most London restaurants you can find a 1997 Argentinian Norton Malbec Reserva for less than £19.
At £120 for two, including service, a £17.60 Bulletin Place Shiraz and four glasses of Pinot Grigio, it is not cheap. It is certainly not as cheap as lamb cutlets in the Peers' Dining Room up the road. But all those political animals dining at someone else's expense will not be too bothered about that.
The prices match those at the new wave of corporate eating enclaves on the other side of St James's Park. And Zander is that much closer to the political action. When the bleeper starts vibrating with Spin Com- mand's latest order to vote or to spout a soundbite to the BBC, it is not far to go.
It cannot be long before Zander takes a reservation from Downing Street. But there may also be a certain amount of interest from the other big house in the neighbour- hood. When all the royal families of Europe joined the Queen and Prince Philip for their golden wedding anniversary dinner in 1997, it was Stephen Carter who did the cooking.
Zander, 45 Buckingham Gate, London SW1; tel: 020 7378 3838. Breakfast: Monday-Sun- day, 6 to 11.30 a.m.; Lunch: Monday-Friday noon to 3 p.m.; Brunch: Saturday-Sunday, 11.30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Dinner: Monday-Satur- day 5.30 to 11.30 p.m., Sunday: 5.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Bar until 3 a.m., Monday to Saturday.
Robert Hardman is a columnist and corre- spondent for the Daily Telegraph.
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