Café Fare

Rashmi Uday Singh’s Good Food Guide

What a choice! Plenty of new choices too. A baffling buffet of cuisines, a mind-blowing range of creativity, prices to suit every wallet and dishes tuned to every palate. This is your Mecca! London beckons! I am just back after days of dedicated eating at brand new restaurants. All I can say is `foodies,' this way please! In this cosmopolitan cocktail of Third and First Worlds, menus of cuisine from more than 50 major countries, 36 Michelin star rated restaurants jostle for attention. This year alone, 133 new restaurant openings, is the official figure. There is Japanese, Spanish, Chinese…you name it. Interestingly, two of the new openings are dedicated to recreating Café food. I love this kind of fare for the sheer feeling of familiarity and comfort that it gives.

HOMAGE

An appropriate setting for a restaurant paying tribute to the grand cafes of Europe. It's the hundred year old classic Waldorf Hotel, which has morphed into a distinctly elegant yet avant-garde Waldorf Hilton `avatar.' Since its opening in 1908, the hotel has dominated the Aldwych skyline, surviving two World Wars and many social changes.

I recommend you take in a play in the neighbouring theatre district (I saw Kabir Bedi's, Far Pavilions) and then book a table for a meal. Opened at the beginning of this year, it is designed to be relaxed and glamorous. Created by Roy Ackerman, Homage provides an elegant setting to eat, drink and socialise from breakfast right through to late evenings. Check it out for it's high tea. Great meal idea too. It's Nicoise salad, pan fried fillet of sea bass spinach and lobster mash, are well rendered and the wine list is accessible and affordable. I go as much to soak in the history and the timelessly modern beauty of this hotel as to have a good meal.

THE WOLSELEY

Go to this hot happening place, but remember to make a booking. It's become quite the place for people watching, packed as it is with celebs. Of course you could take a chance and pop in for breakfast or tea. Open through the day and centrally located the restaurant serves superlative European café style food. Chef Chris Galvin, (ex-executive chef of Conran Restaurants) and Claire Clark, the UK's leading pastry chef excel themselves. Their European classics are brilliantly rendered and happily, in a non-fussy way. Outstanding all day menu, too…from Cumbrae Scottish Rock oysters, caviar omelet to Wiener Schnitzel and steak and salads. I trip out on the Swiss soufflé and outstanding chocolate dessert Delice with Espresso and ice-cream.

Simply plated and generously served. Since I was not allowed to take any photographs of the high-ceilinged, large restaurant, I bring back a photo of the exterior.

	Homage Waldorf Hilton, Aldwych, London Ph +44 (0) 20 7836 2400 The Wolseley 160 Piccadilly, W1J 9EB 020 7499 6996