Golden opportunity

From the darkness of a winter's evening, new London restaurant Nine Golden Square catches the eye with its blue-light candles on each table and the warm glow enveloping its contented diners. Until the past few weeks, Golden Square held only a cyber café. Now there's the newly opened Circus and Nine Golden Square, determined to be unpretentious and long-lived.

The plan for manager Nick Weaver, co-owner with his father and brothers, is to woo the cash-rich local business community so that they will use the 90-cover venue for both lunch and supper. There are also vague hopes to attract the theatre crowd but, in reality, this will be a destination restaurant for those happy to spend around £30 per head.

"The site might not seem the best now in winter but, come summer, we'll offer street dining and a view over the square," explains Weaver.

His CV spans waiting and customer care at the Savoy and aboard the QE2, as well as at Antony Worrall Thompson's Atrium, in London, where he worked with his right-hand man and head chef, Harry Greenhalgh. They met at college and have worked together, on and off, at the Blenheim Group as well as at the Atrium. Greenhalgh has also done stints at 190 Queens Gate and dell'Ugo.

The Worrall Thompson stamp is clearly imprinted on Greenhalgh and he talks with disarming affection of the man. "Antony always looks ahead," says Greenhalgh. "He's very focused on publicity yet he still cooks and still concentrates on prime ingredients. He has made me think ahead. Before I worked with him, I was into classical cooking. Now I prefer tasty, rustic, unpretentious cooking."

That's the flavour of Nine Golden Square. "I call it British soul food," says Greenhalgh. "I take the idea of Gary Rhodes's modern British food and mix it with how I cook, which is totally from my soul."

His passion is for fish dishes and the menu offers starters such as seared Szechuan peppered tuna loin (£5.95); mains such as smoked Finnan haddock, Cheddar cheese mash, soft poached egg, mustard sauce (£10.45); and salmon and crab fishcakes, wilted spinach, parsley sauce (£10.25).

Punters are plumping in large numbers for his fish options and for his special risottos of the day. Other favourites are comfort foods such as the popular deep-fried corned-beef hash, green tomato chutney, mustard cress salad (£9.95).

Pudding is the traditional focus for the ultimate comfort food fantasy. With pastry chef Alex Learmonth at the helm, Greenhalgh says: "We sell more desserts here than anywhere else I've worked. I'd recommend Alex's favourite of lemon polenta cake with autumn berry compote at £4.50".

Nine Golden Square, 9 Golden Square, London W1. Tel: 0171-439 2424.