THE GOURMET While much of the excitement for London’s gourmets over the past couple years has been found in the re-emergence of the numerous villages from which the city grew, the last few months have seen the West End and the City bouncing back to life. Visitor numbers are soaring, hotels are filling up, theatres and galleries are buzzing once more, and reservations at the best restaurants are as tough to snag as they have ever been. The middle of London has always been a cosmopolitan citywithin-a-city, lived in and visited by an affluent international clientele for whom eating out is one of life’s great sports, and there is no shortage of restaurateurs willing to open more playgrounds for them. From Richard Caring’s latest extravaganza of kitsch in Mayfair and the renaissance of a much-loved bistro on the fringes of the City to a world-renowned caviar house’s new restaurant in South Kensington and a cracking joint serving Thai drinking food in Soho, the rejuvenation of central London’s restaurant scene continues with verve and joy. Nowhere is London’s new-found swagger more evident than in Mayfair, where a host of new dining options are pulling in the patrons. Take KOYN (koynrestaurants.com), for instance, the latest opening from Samyukta Nair (Bombay Bustle, Jamavar, MiMi Mei Fair), where chef Rhys Cattermoul takes his Nobu background and moves it all up a notch: opulent decor, sushi bar and cocktail bar on the ground floor, robata grill downstairs. Nair – rapidly becoming the restaurant queen of Mayfair – is also about to open a Provençal bistro, Socca (soccabistro.com), on South Audley Street with Bibendum chef/patron Claude Bosi. True Japanese purists, meanwhile, will flock to Albemarle Street for Takuya Watanabe’s omakase menus at the newly opened Taku Mayfair (takumayfair.com). With a stellar reputation built at the Michelin-starred Jin, in Paris, and just 16 covers, the competition for bar stools could be fierce. A more casual, East Coast vibe prevails at the first London outpost of Saltie Girl (saltiegirl.com), the Boston eatery famed for its lobster rolls, seafood towers and on-trend tinned fish. This side of the pond, on North Audley Street, expect all the above, plus Brittany snails, Shetland mussels and Devon black bass. Restaurateur Richard Caring (The Ivy, Sexy Fish) is not a man to do things by halves, and Bacchanalia (bacchanalia.co.uk), located in the old Porsche showroom on the northwest corner of Berkeley Square, is perhaps his most flamboyant restaurant yet. Opened just in time for the Christmas party crowd, the OTT decor features giant sculptures from Damien Hirst, while the menu, themed on Greco-Roman feasts, is heavy on prestigious protein: caviar, turbot, wagyu and the rest. A notch (but only a notch) down in the bling stakes, the hit LA “modern coastal Italian” restaurant Sparrow Italia (sparrowitalia. com; the coasts in question are the US’s, not Italy’s) has launched on Avery Row, with three floors of bars and dining rooms and a rooftop cigar terrace in the offing, plus a menu of comforting classics – cacio e pepe, chicken Milanese – alongside wagyu steaks and lobster linguini. On Piccadilly, a more restrained approach to Italian cuisine and design holds sway at celebrated chef Phil Howard’s new pasta bar, Notto (nottopastabar.com). Start with grapefruit negroni and feast on vitello tonnato and pappardelle with oxtail ragù. The new Mount St. Restaurant (mountstrestaurant.com) on the corner of South Audley Street occupies the first floor of the recently refurbished pub The Audley: new owner Artfarm (the hospitality arm of fine art titans Hauser & Wirth) has installed Jamie Shears (ex-45 Jermyn Street) as executive chef, offering a menu with a smart take on classic British cuisine – omelette Arnold Bennett, Portland crab mayonnaise, loin of Highland venison – served in a handsome, high-ceilinged, art-bedecked room. On the other side of Grosvenor Square is The Barley Mow (cubitthouse.co.uk), another lovingly restored Mayfair pub with a first-floor dining room. Chef and restaurateur Ben Tish’s menu is similarly British-inspired, from haggis Scotch eggs at the bar to roast rare-breed meats carved at the counter of the clubby restaurant upstairs. Sunday roasts, with all the trimmings, are a speciality. CAPITAL CHOICE Top row, from left to right: cocktail time at Bantof; a crab salad at Bacchanalia; inside at The Barley Mow; middle row; Fadi Kattan of Akub; a caviar martini at Saltie Girl; the bar at Dorian; bottom row wagyu tartare at St Barts; the eponymous chef at Studio Frantzén; Speedboat Bar’s tom yam mama# 80 NetJets
