The Barley Mow, 82 Duke Street, London W1K 6JG (020 4553 1414). Bar snacks and starters £8-£18, mains £19-£36, desserts £10-£12, wines from £29
A lot of money, and most of the world’s fairy lights, have gone into making London’s Mayfair look pretty at this time of year. Even so, the place just can’t help being ugly. Outside Berkeley Street’s Novikov – owned by a man who once boasted to me about being Vladimir Putin’s favourite caterer – the crowds are still clamouring to get through the twinkly light-crusted doors for £18 bowls of mediocre minestrone. Up on the other side of Berkeley Square is Bacchanalia, Richard Caring’s latest attempt to make Vegas look classy. It’s seemingly styled after a faux Greco-Roman knocking shop, complete with a Damien Hirst sculpture of “winged lovers embracing on a unicorn”. They have just posted their opening menu outside: a dozen oysters for £64? Or how about 125g of Beluga for £935? Sod it, have both.
