MOVING home last week I found, in one of many
cardboard boxes, a restaurant col- umn written in 1985, my first year of office, in which I lamented the impudent expen- siveness of restaurants. 'It has become almost impossible', I found myself indig- nantly reporting, 'to go anywhere where the bill does not nudge £50 for two.' Inno- cent days. For this £25-a-head phe- nomenon was to be found in London's fanciest places: why, these were the sort of prices Anton Mosimann charged, and at least he was Anton Mosimann.
You don't need me to tell you that the restaurants I was complaining about then are charging twice that now, at the very least. And perhaps more serious, mediocre joints seem unembarrassed to present a bill for £70-odd for a pallid lunch for two, with one on Perrier. Nevertheless, and just to show that all change is not change for the worse, restaurants are now beginning to change tack. There's not much evidence of already existing restaurants bringing down their prices (short of introducing set lunch- es) but new restaurants, and markedly those that have opened in the past few months, have been wise to the greater lure of the lower-priced. Had The Square, which opened recently in King Street, St James's, been launched a year back, no doubt the cost of an average dinner for two would have been nearer £100 than £70. As it is, it would not be unreasonable to think of dining there for around £30 a head. The point is not simply that people are not pre- pared to pay the once lofty prices: they are no longer impressed by them either. Restaurateurs are cottoning on to the fact, too. The Square, until practically the moment of its opening, was going to be called either Le Crocodil or Cartouche. Martin Saxon, the Maitre d', put his foot down and said that those names were too fancy and would make the place seem off- puttingly expensive. So The Square, because of its proximity to St James's, it became.
It is, then, coincidental that the design of the place makes stylised use of the square and cube. Square vases sit on gilt cubes on the walls, out of which spray the kind of flowers that adorned swimming cap and flip-flop in the Sixties. This is the period studiedly but successfully evoked by the place, with its geometrically arty and air- port-lounge spaciness. Imagine a set for a restaurant scene in an Antonioni film designed by Courreges, and you have about the measure of it.
Philip Howard, the chef, is of Bibendum by way of Harvey's, which is an impressive enough pedigree, and his performance does not disappoint. A scallop, oyster and mussel soup with noodles and chives is a voluptuary's dream. The lozenge-shaped mounds, two of avocado and two of crab mousses, with hot toast were perhaps not the wisest choice for a cold February night; but excellent, light and fragrant, they cried for summer and, I have to add, to be taken out of the fridge sooner. The Square Meal is at £11.50 a perfectly judged invention: the meat version is a kind of upmarket mixed grill, with steak, lamb cutlets, brains, liver and kidney with fondant potatoes; the fish choice is a grilled assortment of what- ever fish is around and freshly caught — it might be red mullet, John Dory, salmon and scallops, and this will come with a green salad. This is so much of the time: can you imagine any snazzy restaurant offering anything as plain five years ago? Other main courses on the menu might be a rib-eye of beef with shallots and red wine, rump of veal with puréed artichokes or calves' brains and tongue, soft and pink, none of the all-too customary stringiness and toughness, with savoy cabbage.
If the Tarte Tatin is on the menu when you go, I cannot do more than plead with you to have it. It was perfect, the pastry below crisp as spring, with the just- caramelised fruit still tart as it made aro- matic inroads into it. House wine is good, at £8.50 a bottle, and many of the more expensive wines are nonetheless cheaper
than you might have seen elsewhere. Din- ner for two should cost you between £55 and £70, a light lunch less: and this is in a restaurant with an excellent chef and one of the best Maitre d's around.
The Square, 32 King Street, London SW!; tel 071 839 8787
Nigella Lawson
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