Nice, novel and new

Bethan Ryder10 April 2012
The Adam Street Restaurant and members' club

Calling the self-employed everywhere - there's a members' club especially for you, opening on 17 October. It should be sumptuous since Robert Adam designed the building in 1769. In addition to the library, two bars and meeting rooms, there is a 60-seat restaurant set up by Nick Tarayan and chef Alastair Ross, both formerly of Leith's. Non-members can lunch, but wannabe evening diners need to jack in that job and go freelance.

Babylon 99 Kensington High Street, W8 (020 7368 3993)

Sir Richard Branson's swanky rooftop restaurant, with an outdoor terrace that overlooks the gardens of the private members' Roof Gardens Club, opened in the summer. The Modern British food includes the corn-fed chicken sausage starter, notoriously likened to part of the male anatomy by one broadsheet critic. The dish has since, unfortunately, been given a makeover. Still, for around £50-a-head, there should be some thrills left.

The Common Room 18 High Street, Wimbledon, SW19 (020 8944 1909)

RIP the Hartford Group's Utah restaurant. It is to be replaced by the Common Room bar, which aims to seduce the locals with the usual: sofas, cocktails, bar snacks and a light brasserie menu. Its most appealing trick is the 'off-licence initiative' - if you like the wine, buy a bottle to take home. Opens at the end of October.

L'Escargot Marco Pierre White 48 Greek Street, W1 (020 7437 2679)

Marco Pierre White and business partner Jimmy Lahoud are keeping designer David Collins busy: this time he's given the Soho classic L'Escargot a makeover. It opened this month, and apparently the Picassos now have more prominence. There's a new chef, Jeff Galvin, and a small bar area, too. Will anyone bother using the new mouthful of a name though?

Conrad Gallagher 179, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (020 7836 3111)

Eponymous restaurant (with deli on the side) of top Irish chef and proprietor of critically acclaimed Dublin restaurant Peacock Alley. Prepare for the return of the cloche, with stunning food (Irish with Mediterranean influences, if you please) presented in a 'ta da' fashion. Don't bother with the bar - it looks like a car showroom.

Electric Cinema 191 Portobello Road, W11 (020 7727 9958)

The long arm of media den Soho House has now reached the Portobello Road. The Hozza has bought the UK's oldest purpose-built cinema, The Electric, which it plans to rev up for a relaunch in spring 2002. 'We're going to turn the upstairs into a members' bar and restaurant, and there'll be a brasserie on the ground floor,' says proprietor Nick Jones. So no more movies, then? Far from it, says Jones. 'The cinema will be like first class on an aeroplane, and will be open to everyone.'

e & o 14 Blenheim Crescent, W11 (020 7229 5454)

Will 'Antipodean-about-town' Ricker comes West this month with e & o (Eastern & Oriental), having successfully established other neighbourhood favourites Cicada in Clerkenwell and the Great Eastern Dining Rooms in Shoreditch. Already Mariella Frostrup's new local, it has the table-hopping W11 vibe. The Asian food is great for sharing, service is swift and the cocktail bar cosy. But alas, Robbie eats in the caf? next door.

Eyre Brothers Restaurant 70 Leonard Street, EC2 (020 7613 5346)

An instant hit with the critics when it opened last month. David 'The Eagle' Eyre (co-founder of the gastro-pub) and his brother Robert bring quality and style to Shoreditch with their restaurant designed by hip architects Waugh Thistleton. Robert says that the food is 'like going on holiday around the Mediterranean'. Lunch attracts City expense-account Suits, dinner (around £45-a-head) is rather more glam.

Mju, Millennium Hotel 17 Sloane Street, SW1 (020 7201 6330)

Hailed as the new Nobu since it opened last month (it's in a hotel, it has a strange name, fusion Japanese food and a United Designers' interior), but chef Tetsuya Wakuda's food has a substantial French influence. Ideal for the indecisive diner, there's a flexible set menu, a five-course lunch (£25) and a ten-course dinner (£50). Wakuda made his name with 'Tetsuya' in Sydney, he cooks here for one week each month.

Maquis 111, Hammersmith Grove, W6 (020 8846 3850)

Another restaurant with a deli on the side? Mais oui! Maquis will offer 'proper regional French cooking and a Mediterranean deli', says Rupert Maunsell, co-owner with partners Jason Mitra and Sam Clark of acclaimed Moro restaurant in Clerkenwell. Opens 29 September.

Pharmacy 150 Notting Hill Gate, W11 (020 7221 2442)

The medicinally-themed restaurant-cum-showcase for Damien Hirst's artwork is currently undergoing surgery. Although recently reopened, the refurbishment won't be fully complete until December. Bait your breath for the 'big piece' of artwork yet to arrive - is it a shark? is it a sheep?

Red Fort 77 Dean Street, W1 (020 7437 2525)

Soho Spice owner Amin Ali reopens Red Fort on 3 October, specialising in Mughal cuisine, formal Indian food from chef Mohammed Rias, who hails from the highly acclaimed Dum Pukht (no silent 'b', no joke) in Delhi. The basement, Akbar, sounds promising: intimate alcoves, Douglas Ankarah of LAB consulting and former Teatro manager Alain Decesse in charge.

Salon The House Hotel, 2 Rosslyn Hill, NW3 (020 7435 2828)

Opened last month, it's located in the House Hotel, a guesthouse recently revamped by owner Uri Nachoom. Salon's cosy interior is the design equivalent of 'world music', with crimson walls, Venetian glass mirrors and Moroccan touches. Chef Paul Holmes serves Modern British food - three courses at dinner for £25 - to NW3's most Vuitton-tanned.

West Street 13-15 West Street, WC2 (020 7010 8600)

Chris Bodker views his new super-restaurant, West Street, as 'a democratic members' club'. And if anyone can pull off an oxymoron, this man can. 'It's a new concept. I view it as a restaurant with rooms, but really it's a bit like a home, isn't it?' he says, 'somewhere you can eat, watch telly and sleep.' There's a slinky basement bar, a gently-priced, no-booking brasserie and a restaurant serving 'Modern British with a nod towards Italy', as well as a screening room, private dining room and three bedrooms on the upper floors. The two restaurants are called Upstairs and Downstairs and the bar is called, you've guessed it, The Bar. 'Oh we're simple folk, we can't think of good names,' says Bodker. West Street is on West Street, just down the road from the hallowed Ivy. Let battle commence.

Decent drinking dens

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