London offers a wide variety of ethnic restaurants, and if we listed even half of them, this book would be in two volumes. Instead, we're going to be selective, starting with establishments that make a point of offering the best of British cuisine and then moving on to the best of the rest. In all of the places we list, gentlemen must wear tie and jacket, and in the evenings it's advisable to wear a suit. Ladies enjoy more latitude in their dress. Even so, the emphasis in fashionable London is on elegance, or at least formality.
Reservations are essential at most listed restaurants. Some may ask for your credit card number before granting you a table. Others don't take plastic, so it's a good idea to check (we don't list the holdouts because policies change).
Lunch is still the business meal; dinner tends to be more social. The business breakfast is increasingly used to lengthen the working day and is usually eaten at a hotel; few other good restaurants are yet willing to open their doors before lunchtime. Among those that are: Fox and Anchor pub, 115 Charterhouse Street, ECI, open from 6:00 a.m.; La Brasserie, 272 Brompton Road, SW3, open from 8:00 a.m.; and Langan's Bar and Grill, 7 Down Street, WI, also open from 8:00 a.m.
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Manzi's, I Leicester Street, WC2. Tel.: 734-0024. One of the oldest se&-
food restaurants, always bustling; in the heart of the theater district.
Friendly, informal atmosphere; better for social than business occasions.
Rule's, 35 Maiden Lane, WC2. Tel.: 836-5314. A collection of crowded rooms upstairs and downstairs. Seasonal specialties include jugged hare (hare stewed in an earthenware pot), game birds, and venison; steak-andkidney pie is a staple. As English as English could be, except for the staff.
Savoy Grill, The Strand, WC2. Tel.: 836-4343. Open a Who's Who, either American or British (or even international), pick a name at random, and almost certainly he or she has eaten at the Grill. We haven't seen Gorbachev here lately, but he's been busy with glasnost, perestroika, and other pressing matters. Speaking of which, the Grill does a great pressed duck.
Savoy Restaurant, The Strand, WC2. Tel.: 836-4343. We've spent many enjoyable lunchtimes and evenings here. The restaurant is rather cavernous, but if you can grab one of the window tables, you'll have a superb view of the Thames. Very nice for a relaxed Sunday lunch.
Simpson's-in-the-Strand, 100 The Strand, WC2. Tel.: 836-9112. Dignified men carve joints (roasts) on the trolley with loving care and load clients with enough carbohydrates and cholesterol-inducing foods to keep a convention of cardiologists happy until retirement. Author J.B. Priestley ate here often but did not succumb until the age of 90.
