The honour system

It's a risky proposition, but Vasos Michael has successfully run his restaurant with no prices for more than 15 years. Jane Baker went to find out how it all works.

Picture the scene: you have just enjoyed a pleasant three-course meal and a bottle of wine in romantic surroundings, with crisp napery, fresh roses and candles. You are presented with the bill - but there are no prices. Instead, there is a request for you to pay what you feel the meal is worth.

This is how Vasos Michael runs his restaurant, Just Around The Corner. He's been asking customers to decide the prices of their meals for the past 15 years - and he has no intention of changing. "When I decided to open a restaurant, I wanted something different, so I thought of this idea," says Michael, who claims that his is the only French restaurant in the world with such a pricing policy. "I know it seems like a risk, but all business is a risk, and if you're giving something good, there's always a market."

Cypriot-born Michael came to London in 1977 and worked as chef, waiter and manager with several restaurants including Anemos and Le Savarin in the West End. During this time he also studied a two-year course in French cuisine at the city's Southgate College after deciding that French cooking was more stylish than his homeland's Greek food.

In 1986 he opened Just Around The Corner, so named because it is situated at a junction. He spent £70,000 renovating and refurbishing the premises, which had previously been a café-style eaterie, and another £25,000 on publicity and funding. The interior was furnished with antiques and old wooden panelling, which has not been changed since, except for the occasional coat of varnish to keep it looking fresh.

Michael planned to see how business went for six months and then simply print the prices if the concept failed. In fact, he made a profit in the first year and has not looked back since. He now has shares in three other London restaurants: Jigsaw at Battersea Bridge, which opened in 1989; Casino in Sloane Square, which opened in 1990; and Le Mercury in Islington, which opened in 1996. These restaurants are all priced conventionally and, although he would not reveal figures, Michael claims that their takings are the same as at Just Around The Corner.

Sandwiched between an Indian take-away and an estate agent at the busy junction of Finchley Road and Cricklewood Lane, Just Around The Corner does not look like a promising place for a French restaurant, yet Michael claims he chose the site carefully.

"There are no other French restaurants in the area. We're near Golders Green, Hampstead and Swiss Cottage, and people are wealthy," he says. He began by renting the property and then bought the freehold in 1994 for £324,000. Customers consist mainly of business people aged over 40, although the restaurant also attracts a younger set from the neighbourhood.

Early reaction to his pricing policy was, perhaps, predictable. "People went crazy, and we appeared on TV and in magazines all over the world," Michael says. And he still enjoys the publicity, such as appearing on Channel 4's Dinner Date programme, where the restaurant rated an unusually high 27 points out of 30.

"Most people know the price of the food and, although we might get the occasional customer who pays less, we don't have a problem," says Michael. He admits that there are occasions when he senses customers are deliberately offering very low prices. When this happens, he returns their money with the gracious wish that he would not want to spoil their evening by letting them pay. "I don't want a restaurant full of these people," he adds, guessing correctly that most never return and those that do pay a fair price next time.

Occasionally, customers offer over the odds, like the party of four Americans who Michael fitted in for New Year's dinner at the last minute. When the time came to pay the bill, they offered him £600 with the query: "Is this enough?" Did he take it? "Of course," he replies. "You think I'd turn this down?"

Tourists might need help in judging the cost of a meal, but people generally tend to pay a fair price of about £3.50-£4 for a starter such as avocado with raspberry dressing; £10-£12 for a main course such as chicken suprême with tarragon and juniper sauce; and £2.50 for dessert such as the house speciality - freshly made pancakes.

Customers must also guess the price of wine. Diners usually pay from £12.50 for house wine to £25 for the more expensive bottles.

The cuisine is French, although the chef, Vado Vlcevski, comes from Macedonia. He has been with Michael for 10 years and took the same course at Southgate College.

Not unnaturally, the restaurant attracts visitors from around the world, but 85% of customers are regulars. Covers on Monday to Thursday vary from 20 to 35 a night, rising to 50 on Fridays and 100 on Saturdays, when Michael does two sittings, one at 7pm and another at 9.30pm.

The restaurant is open for Sunday lunch, offering the regular menu plus one or two roasts, depending on how busy the restaurant is. Covers are between 12 and 15, but this, says Michael, is because most people don't know the restaurant is open at this time. "I like to open on a Sunday even if business is slow," he says. "It gives the locals somewhere to eat."

There are special Christmas menus running from early to late December, but the eccentric pricing policy remains - you pay what you feel the meal is worth. This also applies to New Year's Eve and special functions held in the room above the restaurant.

Has he any plans for opening another "price-less" restaurant? "No," he states. "I wanted my restaurant to be original, and if I started another one like this, people wouldn't be so keen to come, because there would be two."

Sample menu

Profiteroles filled with crab served with hollandaise sauce
Prawn cocktail
Salad of tomatoes, artichokes and Gruyère cheese
Roast lamb with garlic and lardons in mustard sauce
Escalope of veal with mushroom and white wine sauce
Pancakes filled with ratatouille, covered in mornay sauce
Cheesecake
Fresh pancakes
Sorbets

Just Around The Corner

446 Finchley Road, London NW2 2HY
Tel: 020 7431 3300

Open: 6pm-midnight every day; Sunday lunch, noon-4pm
Seats: 50, plus 40 in private dining room
Covers: 20-35 Mondays to Thursdays; 50 on Fridays; 100 on Saturdays; 12-15 on Sundays
Average spend: food, £15-£20 per person; wine, £12.50-£25 per bottle
Staff: five