27A Hays Mews, W1 (Tel: 020 7499 3331)
Mon.-Sat noon - 2.30pm; 5.30pm-11pm; Sun 12.30pm-3pm; 5.30pm-10pm (no Sat lunch)
Hidden away from the masses in the heart of a quiet Mayfair mews near Berkeley Square and Shepherd's Market is the Greenhouse, a culinary gem offering fine wining and dining in stylish surroundings and intimate atmosphere. Although much of Mayfair has been taken over by businesses seeking a smart West End address, enough people still live here to enable such a treasure as the Greenhouse to flourish as a neighbourhood restaurant as well as living off the fat of PR expense account lunches.
Chef Paul Merrett's delicious cuisine, which might be described as fresh English fare fired with Afro-Asian highlights, is justly praised and prized by his devoted local clientele of which I am one. Such creative dishes as casserole of duck liver, snails and pork confit with foie gras ravioli, or panfried sea bass on sagaloo with onion bhajee and tomato pickle are presented with proud panache and brings to my mind exotic thoughts of a moonlit dalliance on a Mauritian lagoon at Le Touessrok. But that's another story.
On a recent visit my charming companion betrayed hitherto unremarked chocoholic tendencies and a sweet tooth by attacking Paul's signature pudding, chocolate fondant enriched with peanut butter ice-cream, with the delicate gusto she normally reserves for exercising her mount on Hyde Park's Rotten Row. I prefer to browse among the remarkably prolific Greenhouse cheese selection which must rank among London's finest.
I can't fault the reasonably priced and eclectic wine list which has been chosen with imagination. Greenhouse wines are served with suitable decorum by sommelier Mark Van der Goot. The once ubiquitous sommelier is a vanishing breed and now an endangered species on the gastronomic planet. His presence and discreet specialist advice at the table separates rare excellent restaurant service from the commonly indifferent.
Hussar's Sword of Honour for Fine Wining and Dining in style.
Capacity: 70.
Ambience: Smart
Prices for 2: Lunch from £48, Pre-theatre from £28, Chef's menu from £90. Wine list from £l4
Hacking in Hyde Park and Real Tennis
Despite her sweet tooth and dangerous fondness for champagne truffles from the Food Hall at Fortnum and Mason, (she recently bought a £39.75 box for 'Mummy' and scoffed the lot herself), Samantha, my dinner companion at The Greenhouse, maintains her lithe figure by horse riding and regular visits to the Harbour Club down near the Thames embankment. The club boasts the first Real Tennis court to be built since Victorian times, as well as a number of indoor and outdoor tennis courts of the Wimbledon version of the game. You can watch the quirky game of Real Tennis, which first gained popularity in pre-Revolution France, at Hampton Court Palace which has an original court.
