Variety spices London dining scene

Author: By Richard P. Carpenter, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, July 7, 1996

Page: B4

Section: Travel

Not long ago, Leno noted on his late-night TV show that while visiting England, O.J. Simpson would be served a traditional British meal. ``At least,'' Leno quipped, ``the guy's getting some punishment! Cold mutton . . . mmmmm.''

Jay, you're behind the times. To begin with, traditional British dining has always had its virtues, as anyone who has enjoyed roast beef and Yorkshire pudding at Simpson's in-the-Strand will testify. What it didn't have was a lot of variety and, sometimes, consistency. But that was then. British dining today, as exemplified by the London restaurant scene, is anything but dull.

Cold mutton? How about roast fillet of lamb with aubergine and tomato? Or lobster tortellini in a pea and summer truffle broth? Or confit of duck? Or pan fried medallions of venison in a rich port sauce? Or shredded chicken steeped in yogurt and red spices?

London, you see, now counts itself among the world's leading gastronomic capitals, with 12,000 eating places and at least 50 kinds of cuisine. This hardly means that every meal or every restaurant will be a winner. But with a new generation of talented young chefs showing the way, at least 1,000 of those restaurants have won high praise from critics and guidebooks. And 36 have received the highly coveted but seldom awarded top rating in the Michelin Guide.

``It's amazing the revolution in dining that has gone on in the past decade,'' says Laurence Isaacson, deputy chairman of Groupe Chez Gerard, which operates 10 London restaurants. He should know: He's one of the revolutionaries.

Variety is his keynote, from the Chez Gerard itself, with four locations, to Cafe Fish, a favorite of seafoodies, to soho soho, a place that gives new meaning to the phrase ``upstairs, downstairs.''

Soho soho on Frith Street -- a favorite road for food lovers -- has two main dining areas. Downstairs at the rotisserie and bar, the atmosphere is casual, the clientele is overwhelmingly young (and London seems a wonderful city to be young in) and the buzz of conversation and clinking of glasses are constant.

Upstairs, the atmosphere is more sedate, the clientele is of various ages and the menu is Provencal French. A typical meal might start with tartlet of grilled scallops topped with thin slices of Bayonne ham, move on to roast baby corn-fed chicken with pancetta and roasted mashed potato and a rosemary jus and end with a lemon tart served with a roasted almond mousse.

That's one kind of restaurant, and an enjoyable one at that, but then again so are other types. One style growing in popularity is the converted pub, where the atmosphere is informal and cheery, the food is good and prixe fixe menus are available at reasonable prices. One shining example is the Abingdon, appropriately enough on Abingdon Road, where chef Brian Baker is fond of stepping out of the kitchen and greeting diners, many of them choosing to sit in the restaurant's big booths.

In addition to the regular menu, Baker's set three-course meals allow diners to mix and match from at least three appetizers, main courses and desserts. Thus, a meal might include iced soup of red peppers and cucumbers, pan fried fish cakes (made with three kinds of fish) with an avocado salad and a chocolate and coffee cappuccino mousse, served in a coffee cup and looking like the real thing.

On to the trendy. L'Odeon on Regent Street, overlooking Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus, opened last December to the cheers of restaurant buffs. The decor is ultra-modern with a grand sweeping staircase, an abundance of brass and polished plaster, and creams and yellows as the dominant colors.

The cuisine, under chef Bruno Loubet, is Modern British, which perhaps can best be defined as that created by chefs who are British born, French trained and internationally influenced. (Loubet, in fact, is one of the chefs considered to be at the forefront of London's dining revolution. Others include Marco Pierre White of The Restaurant at Hyde Park Hotel and The Criterion on Piccadilly Circus, Mark Holmes at Scotts, Gordon Ramsay at Aubergine and Steven Terry at Coast.) A meal at L'Odeon might include an appetizer of roast scallops and black pudding, followed by crab and smoked haddock lasagne and topped off with Bruno's chocolate fondant.

If you're a fan of ethnic foods, London won't disappoint you there, either. The city has a thriving Chinatown, as well as ZenW3, a stylish member of the Now and Zen international chain of Chinese restaurants. Thai, Indonesian, French, Italian and Greek restaurants are popular and, outside of India itself, London is considered the world capital of Indian food.

There are hundreds of family-run Indian restaurants with tasty but sometimes limited menus. But there is also the large (350 seats), festive La Porte des Indes, where the menu is extensive and the decor is literally splashy -- the centuries-old Indian artifacts include a marble wall with a waterfall splashing over it. Even the napkins are multicolored and folded so that they resemble party hats (but do not -- repeat, do not -- put them on your head).

The specialty here is Indo-French cuisine of French India and the Pondicherry region, and on any given day, fully half the customers may be Indian. As Chalngura Jahu, general manager of La Porte des Indes (and also the Blue Elephant Thai restaurant), puts it, ``Curry is fine with beer while watching football, but there is so much more to Indian cuisine. Our food is less oily, more refined and more varied.''

A dinner could start with a flaky pastry filled with lamb and green peas and served with a sweet and spicy creole sauce, then progress to a dish combining ocean prawns, mangoes, green chilies, ginger and poppy seeds and be accompanied by stuffed breads and aromatic Indian tea. For those unsure of what to order, there is a gourmet set menu and, at lunchtime, a buffet where you can let a variety of tastes tap dance across your tongue.

But you don't have to go the exotic route to dine ethnically. London has its share of Italian restaurants, and one of the new favorites is the year-old Zafferano on Lowndes Street, where the atmosphere is anything but fussy, with small tables and a brasserie-style wooden floor, and the cuisine under chef Giorgio Locatelli is modern Italian. That means flavorful dishes such as semolina gnocchi with smoked cheese, char-grilled veal with spinach, roast rabbit with polenta and, to finish, perhaps chocolate and coconut mold with caramel sauce.

Now for the traditional -- and in some ways this is saving the best for last. Most visitors want to try a country's indigenous cuisine, and in England that really does go beyond fish and chips, bubble and squeak and bangers and mash. In fact, nowadays many traditional dishes also can have a modern twist, such as those served at Lindsay House on Romilly Street in the heart of Soho. Here in a Georgian country house dating from the 1700s, meals are served over three floors, making it seem almost as if you're in a private dining room.

Roger Wren, a descendant of Christopher Wren and proprietor of Lindsay House and three other restaurants, is among those who will tell you that ``it's a misconception that English food is dreadful. There are lots of wonderful dishes!'' The proof is in the tasting: A meal might include smoked salmon, filet of Dover sole with crab and herb mousse and a lemon tart with whipped cream.

Let's end with a London institution, Simpon's-in-the-Strand, which dates to 1828, when it was opened as a coffeehouse and which is where Charles Dickens loved to dine. In this vast restaurant, the atmosphere is clublike (coats and ties for the gents, please) and the dishes are as traditional as you possibly could get, with the roast scotch beef traveling to your table in a silver-domed trolley and cut to order. For an added filip, try the beef with Simpson's nostril-searing homemade horseradish. A sampling of other dishes: cream of lobster soup, roast saddle of lamb with red currant jelly, steamed bream with tomato and basil and baked rum and raisin cheesecake. As the Simpson's slogan has it, ``There is nothing better than a real English meal -- when it is good!''

So, Jay Leno, the next time you're in London, dig in. And if you insist, maybe someone somewhere can scare up some cold mutton for you.

Londoners tend to dine later than Americans, having lunch, at about 1 or 1:30 p.m. and dinner beginning at 8:30 p.m. Most restaurants, however, are open well before those times, so it's up to you to decide how much company you want with your meal.

Londoners also dress up a bit more than Americans when dining out (which isn't difficult to do now that blue jeans and plaid shirts are seen even in nice American restaurants. Come on, folks: You're going to a restaurant, not a rodeo). ``Smart casual'' or better is appropriate in London. Do check as to whether service is included in your bill; if not, a 15 percent tip is standard.

As for the mad cow disease scare, many Britons will tell you that at this point it is just that -- a scare -- and that any beef in a restaurant will be fine. If you're still wary, however, there are myriad non-beef dishes.

London does have a full complement of McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's fast-food restaurants, but you didn't fly all the way across the pond to eat every meal at those, did you?

Restaurants mentioned in the accompanying article are but a sampling of the kinds of dining available. One popular guide to eating out in London is ``Harden's London Restaurants 1996'' (Harden Guides, $12), which is similar in concept to the Zagat guides in the United States.

L'Odeon Restaurant is at 65 Regent St, London W1 (entrance on Air Street); telephone 0171-287 1400.

The Abingdon is at 54 Abingdon Road, London W8; telephone 0171-937 3339.

La Porte des Indes is at 32 Bryanston St. (Marble Arch), London W1; telephone 0171-224 0055.

The Lindsay House is at 21 Romilly St., Soho, London W1; telephone 0171-439 0450.

Zafferano is at 15 Lowndes St., London SW1; telephone 0171-235 5800.

Simpson's-in-the-Strand is at 100 Strand, London WC2R; telephone 0171-836 9112.