Top 5 for eating in the bar

A seat at the bar at Fino gives a view into the kitchen.
10 April 2012

From grazing at Gordon Ramsay's Maze to a view of the shellfish sizzling on the plancha at stylish Spanish restaurant Fino,

Fay Maschler

MAZE
10-13 Grosvenor Square, W1 (020-7107 0000). Mon-Sun £60
****
Gordon Ramsay's newest enterprise - unless he has opened somewhere else this week - has Jason Atherton, a notably gifted, imaginative chef, leading the kitchen. The menu format of a long list of small, perfectly formed, moderately priced dishes is particularly well suited to bar eating. And the laudably egalitarian approach of the designers - making every restaurant table the worst in the room - makes the bar area an attractive location. Ingredients are combined with wit and wisdom and the execution of the dishes is mostly faultless. Don't skip dessert just because you're 'snacking'.

  • NICOLE'S158 New Bond Street, W1 (020-7499 8408). Mon-Sat £60***It's all too easy, I find, to give up on the rigours of clothes shopping and settle for lunch instead, thus ensuring an even tighter squeeze when the activity is resumed. A very agreeable compromise is eating at the glass-and-brushed-stainless-steel bar within the lower groundfloor restaurant of Nicole Farhi's Mayfair shop. A special two-course menu of sound, seasonal, elegant dishes is served, and many of the wines from their global list are available by the glass. Note that dinner is also served Monday to Friday.
  • LE CAPRICEArlington House, Arlington Street, SW1 (020-7629 2239). Mon-Sun £60***It will be interesting to see if the new ownership will make it any easier to get a table here. Meanwhile, eating at the bar remains a constant option if you possess neither forward-planning skills nor useful contacts. Much on the clever, with-something-for-everyone menu is well suited to a brisk meal at a perch that is perfect for people-watching. Eggs Benedict, steak tartare, Oscietra caviar with blinis are all treats and Sunday brunch delivers latebreakfast delicacies such as bagels with smoked salmon, kedgeree or devilled kidneys. Great service.
  • LE SUQUET104 Draycott Avenue, SW3 (020-7581 1785). Mon-Sun £65***An instant summer holiday in the South of France is a dozen oysters at the bar of this South Kensington fish restaurant, whose heart lies in La Croisette in Cannes. Much else on the menu is suited to luxurious, lowcalorie, selfish, shellfish eating: a plate of langoustines to fiddle with, a crab to pick over, some mussels to smooch from their shells or a plateau de fruits de mer that is best tackled alone with no conversation to interrupt excavation. Interestinglooking men who might be foreign correspondents often hang out here.
FINO
33 Charlotte Street (entrance Rathbone Street), W1 (020-7813 8010). Mon-Sat £70

Prices estimate the average cost of a bar meal for two with wine

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