The grill room
Open the door to the Grill Room at London's Café Royal, and you enter a historic den. With deep red furnishings, gilded ceiling moulding and endless mirrors still intact, the restaurant has reopened after three years of closure, ready to uphold the rococo opulence that seduced London's fashionable set when it opened in 1865.
With the ghosts of former regulars such as Winston Churchill haunting him, executive head chef Andy Campbell says the decision to serve British classics was an obvious one. "The room dictates it," he says, "plus the wish to have a seasonally led menu."
Campbell first learned to cook as a 19-year-old when he lived in Australia during the 1980s and, before some recent consultancy work, was head chef for Aldo Zilli at his eponymous Italian restaurant in London. That said, he is eager to promote British produce.
A recent trip to North Uist in Scotland's Outer Hebrides led Campbell, a keen fisherman, to one best seller on his nine-strong starter menu, the peat-smoked sea trout (£7).
The fish is from the island's Hebridean Smoke House. "They don't smoke the fish with too much oil so the flesh doesn't become over-greasy," he says. The earthy-flavoured trout comes with crème fraîche blended with the classic accompaniment of horseradish.
Another cold favourite is a starter of Cornish crab (£8), served with a home-made dill crispbread underneath and the white meat mixed with cucumber, tomato and herbs.
More old-fashioned classics feature among the mains, with lobster thermidor (£26) and whole Dover sole (£28), grilled or meunière.
Campbell gets his venison and beef from the Denham Estate in Suffolk, which specialises in rearing the small Dexter breed of cattle at what he calls a natural pace.
"They aren't transported up and down the country in trucks as the farmer has his own abattoir on the farm. The meat fibres are much tighter, not watery," he explains. The meat is also hung for a minimum of three weeks.
Another advantage is that Campbell has access to all the cuts, thereby preventing waste. This keeps the farmer's costs down and therefore Campbell's, too - savings that he can then pass on to the customer.
It also means he can be versatile with his specials on the weekly-changing menu du jour. "Today, we're using the shin, braised in Barolo to make a very rich, Burgundy-like dish, finished with glazed button mushrooms, pearl onions and carrot."
The flexibility of the menu du jour gives Campbell, who has five chefs in the kitchen, a chance to experiment with dishes for the main menu. It offers two courses for £17.50 or three for £19.50, and is available at lunch and pre-theatre until 7pm.
It's not all strictly British, however. Cannelloni of scallops (£15) is popular, a dish evolved from croquant St Jacques in which Campbell substitutes Jerusalem artichoke pur‚e in the pasta instead of mashed potato.
In the dessert zone, Campbell's ice-creams have pride of place. Flavours such as saffron and almond or quince ripple stand alongside unusual sorbets including one flavoured with mulled wine (£6).
Five other desserts are listed, including sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream (£6). Each one is matched with a dessert wine suggestion. Average spend in the evening is about £35 without wine.
The Grill Room, Café Royal, 68 Regent Street, London W1B 5EL.
Tel: 020 7439 1865
What's on the menu
** Six Native oysters natural or grilled with orange hollandaise sauce, £7
* Ironbark pumpkin soup, whipped cream and cèpes, £8
* Beer-battered cod, hand-cut chips, minted pea purée, £12.50
* Denham Estate venison, red cabbage and glazed parsnip, £18
* Pear délice with raspberry coulis, £6.50
\ Chocolate marquise with cinnamon ice-cream,** £6.50
Chef's cheat
If you have hundreds of oysters that need opening in a short time, such as at film première parties, use a specialised oyster opener. Campbell has a little gadget from Rossmore Oysters which looks like a pair of pliers at the front and clips the edge of the oyster before sliding a blade around the shellfish to open it. It saves muscles and fingers.
