Texture

This classy new arrival (above right) brightens up a subdued corner of the West End close to Selfridges but it's not the place for a quick break from retail therapy. With adventurous cooking, a lavish interior, impressive wine list and first class service, Texture appeals to a savvy gourmets, expense accounts and well-heeled residents of discreet Marylebone. Chef Agnar Sverrisson and sommelier Xavier Rousset met at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons and have drawn many Oxfordshire colleagues into their new venture, hence the polish and sophistication rare from two such young entrepreneurs. The handsome high-ceiling space is cleverly divided to create an elegant restaurant and a comfortable bar with high stools, banquette seating and relaxed armchairs. The polished wooden floors, large windows and muted cream colour scheme hint at the chef's Icelandic origins, and those of the designer, his partner Tota Rafnsdottir. This is her first restaurant and it's a triumph. Sverrisson has worked in many fine kitchens but his style is his own: fresh, imaginative, experimental without being silly. Dishes arrive on plain white china or dark slate, the better to appreciate flavour and presentation. The lunch menu is a series of smallish dishes (don't call them tapas) all priced at £8.50 ranging from a light-as-air assembly of tomato, artichoke and olive, to a wonderfully savoury crisp belly of rare breed pork with spicy cabbage and squid. In the evening there is a more ambitious choice: a three-course a la carte menu at £45; a Fish Tasting Menu featuring tuna in variety of guises, Scottish scallops and Icelandic cod, £55, or with wines, £115; plus a seven-course broader Tasting Menu, £59. You'd be mad not ask Xavier's advice about wines given the 500-bin list and his track record as an award-winning sommelier. There's a mouth-watering connoisseurs' Champagne list including Salon '96, Gosset '98, Dom Pérignon '85, Perrier Jouët Belle Epoque '96 and lots of Ruinart, Pol Roger and Krug. There's a very good Henriot by the glass and six different Champagne cocktails including Texture Fizz with ginger, mint and lemongrass. You can be sure the man from Michelin is watching. 34 Portman Square, London W1 020 7224 0028 www.texture-restaurant.co.uk

 

Angelus

Thierry Thomasin is a happy man. After years making other people's restaurants a success, (head sommelier at Le Gavroche and general manager at Aubergine), he has one of his own (above left). Even working round the clock hasn't dampened his joie de vivre. Angelus is located in a quiet street just north of Hyde Park where the clip-clop of horses' hooves from the riding stables nearby is louder than any traffic. Thierry has created a picturesque French brasserie complete with art nouveau style mirrors and pictures, lace curtains, dark panelling, polished brass, glittering chandeliers, large windows with frosted glass and masses of flowers. There's an agreeable sense of theatricality - in tune with the owner's bubbly eccentricity - and no trace of the scruffy old pub that occupied the site. Now there's a small main restaurant connected to a decadent lounge (think crushed lilac velvet and a large fireplace), a south-facing terrace outside, and room for a private dining room downstairs. The cooking is modern French and, with the chef recruited from prestigious Hotel Scribe in Paris, it's far superior to any brasserie cliché. Even grilled sardines or duck terrine have a delicious elegance while foie gras crème brulée or lamb with Moroccan spice crust and lemon glazed carrots, or roast figs with gingerbread will have you groaning with pleasure. And you don't have to stick to normal mealtimes. Thierry wants people to drop in at any time for a plate of charcuterie, an omelette and a glass of wine, a small steak tartare and chips or, as he puts it in his inimitable French accent, "a rhum baba". Not surprisingly the wine list is exceptional and there's plenty of storage for nearly 600 bins, chiefly French, with more to come. The mark-ups are modest because he says "I don't want my wine to sleep in the cellar for 10 years". He is a generous, consummate host and the locals are very lucky to have Angelus on the doorstep. Many have already become regulars and it's on the hit-list of any serious gourmet. On a recent visit, I spotted three top chefs who clearly weren't rushing back to work. 4 Bathurst Street, London W2, 020 7402 0083 www.angelusrestaurant.co.uk

 

Camino

It takes nerves of steel to open in King's Cross but Richard Bigg is the man to do it. While others see a legacy of hookers, addicts and run-down boarding houses, he sees the future and it's looking good. The new Eurostar terminal, St Pancras station transformed into a super-slick hotel and desirable apartments, an ambitious scheme for wholesale urban renewal, and the imminent arrival of the Guardian and Observer newspapers mean energy, money, taste and people will be flooding into the area. So he's opened Camino (above centre), a Spanish restaurant and bar in what used to be Varnisher's Yard, an old industrial site that did what it says on the tin. Now reborn as Regent Quarter, this aims to be a carefree, pedestrian area for N1 yuppies to meet, drink, snack and network. You still have to fight your way past crazed Arsenal fans or BNP boys with pitbulls but I like Camino, the really good, authentic food and the tongue-in-cheek decor that marries Hola! with the corrida. Chef Miguel Masero is the real thing and his menu takes you through traditional Spanish dishes like regional hams and country bread rubbed with garlic and tomato, chunky monkfish served with rice blackened by octopus, and top-class meat grilled over charcoal. Make sure you try some sherry as well as wine - there's a good selection from tingling fino and manzanilla to opulent aged palo cortado. The clever folding menu acts as a map of Spain for food and wine, amusing and educational. Take one home for the kids. The whole area for bar, lounge and restaurant is huge but cleverly divided into different spaces to create intimacy. A large glass dome towers over the main restaurant which has a long bar down one side and an open kitchen at the end. The main bar which has a late licence, is dark and noisy with bags of atmosphere and sexy corners for after-work smooching couples, while in the open-air yard, unreformed smokers can have fag without being run over. Something for everyone. 3 Vanisher's Yard, The Regent Quarter, King's Cross, London N1, 020 7841 7330 www.barcamino.com

 

Great Queen Street

Here's a restaurant that champions traditional home-made British food, the type we've all forgotten how to make but which lingers in the national consciousness. It's a no-frills, pleasantly informal place with dried-blood red walls, simple wooden furniture, tumblers that could have come from a garage forecourt special offer, non-greedy prices, jugs of tap water and smiley staff. There's also a long bar where you can eat at high stools for meals and hunker down at for drinks (alcohol and more) between times. Beneath the casual surface, there's an obsession with proper food, seasonality, carefully sourced ingredients and committed cooking. Head chef Tom Norrington-Davies made his name at the Eagle in Farringdon and then took two years' sabbatical as a food writer for the Daily Telegraph and to publish two books. He returns to the stoves in partnership with the celebrated team from Anchor &Hope "sarf" of the river. (His new gaff has a huge advantage: you can book.) The gospel according to St Tom means buying an animal carcass at the beginning of the week and, like a thrifty housewife, turning it into delicious wholesome food for the next few days. Cutting out the middleman, he'll go straight to the farmer for a side of a cow, a couple of sheep and a pig and then just work through them. "The menu pretty well writes itself depending on which part of the animal you are on" he says. So over a week you might see braised leg of beef with field mushrooms; rib of beef with chips and béarnaise; potted tongue; steak and kidney pie; burgers with dripping toast and parsley salad; right down to nourishing beef broth. Now if the only the food-illiterate Brits could do that at home. 32 Great Queen Street, London WC2, 020 7242 0622

 

Something for the girls

As more women take on high-level corporate entertaining, they're looking for female-friendly ways to find their way round scary wine lists. One to look out for is the pioneering Ecole du Vin in Bordeaux which has weekend wine courses for British women with female tutors and chateaux owners. The course focuses on Bordeaux wines and includes in-depth tastings, food and wine pairing, and fool-proof advice on ordering wine for the home or in a restaurant. Enough time is factored into the weekend to enjoy the city of Bordeaux itself plus a busy farmer's market and the medieval charm of St. Emilion. The next trip is scheduled for 5 - 7 October with more planned. For more details visit http://ecole.vins-bordeaux.fr or email ecole@vins-bordeaux.fr

 

Will the bubble ever bust? Do Londoners ever eat at home? The capital's restaurant scene keeps getting better with newcomers for every budget. Here's a look at what's on the menu.

Must try...

Any old bubbles won't do any more. You must know Champagne by name and nothing marks the connoisseur from the amateur more than familiarity with recherché marques and small, rare vintages. Champagne G.H.Mumm, currently undergoing one of the most dramatic improvements the market has seen for some time, has launched the unique terroir-focused Cuvée R. Lalou 1998, last produced by the house in the mid '80s. It takes its name from Rene Lalou, chairman of Mumm from 1939 - 1973. The wine is produced in very small quantities and only in the best years, with grapes sourced from up to 12 of the very best grand Cru parcels, the "lieux dits" within the Mumm vineyard. For '98, only seven of these parcels were chosen and the wine is 50% pinot noir and 50% chardonnay. It's a rich, full-bodied Champagne with a citrusy mineral nose and a long finish. Only 200 cases are available in the UK. Cuvée R. Lalou '98 is available on the wine lists of a limited number of gastronomic restaurants and from October in Selfridges, £100 a bottle. It has not been bottled in magnums.

The autumn menu kicks in at the Ritz this month and as the briefest nod to democracy, they are introducing a small selection of fine wines from Bordeaux by the glass. The end of civilisation as we know it? Well no actually. Sommelier Bruno Murciano has plundered the wine list for prestige items that go particularly well with seasonal dishes and gives a chance to try some fabulous wines including Chateau Labegorze-Zede (£12); Chateau Leoville-Barton ( £23); Chateau Margaux (£45) and Saint Emilion Grand Cru Chateau Frombrauge (£16). There's even a legendary Chateau D'Yquem at an eye-watering £70 a glass but hey, you're never going to buy a bottle so go for it. Available 8 -14 October, The Ritz Restaurant, 150 Piccadilly, London W1, 020 7493 8181 www.theritzlondon.com

As a timely reminder that Gordon Ramsay is more than a TV personality, Quadrille are publishing a selection of 50 classic Ramsay recipes to reaffirm his status as London's only 3 Michelin star holder chef. Recipes from a 3*** Chef has a clever format. The first section shows the dishes as presented in the restaurant while the second half takes them into the domestic environment with full details of how to make them at home. The book is available at £40 but there's a limited edition of 1,000 copies for full-on fans. It comes with an aluminium slipcase, cloth binding and presented in a bespoke Perspex box. A snip at £200. Available from www.gordonramsay
3star.co.uk