Lunch in the Afternoon
| BANQUETTE The Savoy, Strand, WC2 (020 7592 1600). Open all afternoon. Approx Ј25 per person. This first-floor resto aims to be the accessible face of the Savoy, although it is served by the same Marcus Wareing-run kitchen as The Grill Room downstairs. The room is laid out like a diner, only smarter. The menu offers simple dishes like pickled sardines on toasted sourdough, Eggs Benedict, fishcakes and even Shepherd’s Pie. It’s a good spot for a late lunch. |
RULES 35 Maiden Lane, WC2 (020 7836 5314). Open all afternoon. Approx Ј30 per person. Rules is London’s oldest restaurant which makes the enlightened attitude to mealtimes remarkable. Sit down at 4 o’clock and you can still go through the card – smoked salmon, Dover sole, gave in season (from the owner’s estate in the High Pennines), steak and kidney pie, puddings and a whole Stilton cheese. This is a lunch place to be reckoned with. |
| LA BRASSERIE 272 Brompton Road, SW3 (020 7581 3089). Open all afternoon. Approx Ј20 per person. The Brasserie opened in 1972 and doesn’t look as if it has changed much since. This is a comfortable, old-fashioned sort of place. Cast your mind back a couple of decades, think French and you’ll get the idea. It serves classic Bourgeois French dishes, steak tartare, Boeuf Bourguignon and good frites. The Gallic waiters are extremely so and the kitchen offers steady rather than great cooking. |
MELA 152-156 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2 (020 7836 8635). Open all afternoon. Approx Ј12 per person. Mela is a surprising place on several levels: even for an Indian restaurant, it is agreeable laid-back, the cooking is agreeably homely and the prices are low – there is a set lunch option priced around the Ј4 mark (particularly good value when you consider the West End location). Also the breads are stunning, and look out for the handkerchief breads called roomalis. |
| YAUATCHA 15 Broadwick Street, W1 (020 7494 8888). Open all afternoon. Approx Ј18 per person. In this new building by Richard Rogers, Hakkasan’s creator, wunderkind Alan Yau has created a sophisticated take on a Dim Sum restaurant. The elegant dining room and superb Dim Sum would be enough, but the realistic prices are a bonus, and the venison puffs are well worth travelling for. There’s slightly less booking pressure when the main lunch rush as abated. |
ZILLI FISH 36-40 Brewer Street, W1 (020 7734 8649). Open all afternoon. Approx Ј25 per person. Zilli Fish has long been a favourite of ‘meeja’ types (probably for those lunches that start at noon and end at 6 o’clock), but the lobster with spaghetti and sound fish dishes are available all afternoon. So you can start a late lunch at 4 o’clock, with the only conundrum in deciding whether to return to your office afterwards or not. |
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