In London, Three Kinds of Cool

There's something very London about a 150-year-old fish restaurant being dubbed the "coolest" in town, as Scott's recently was by the Harper's Bazaar restaurant guide for 2008. Scott's was established in 1851, moved to its present address in Mayfair in 1968, then closed a couple of years ago. In late 2006 it was redesigned and reinvigorated -- just in time for Mount Street's own transformation from merely prosperous to chic.

Everything here sparkles in an indefinably retro way, with lots of chrome and polished stone; the back dining room is wood-paneled and leather-upholstered, though without seeming clubby. Especially with the dollar down in Davy Jones's locker, good fish restaurants are expensive, and Scott's is no exception. By ordering carefully, you could eat three courses and drink a glass of wine for about $80, but the menu is so varied and so tempting that being careful would amount to self-flagellation: Count on spending more like $130 a head. (All prices include service.)

The menu has it all, from four or five kinds of oysters to grilled Dover sole, to skate with capers and periwinkles, to smoked haddock with poached egg. It has appetizers of cods' tongues with wild mushrooms, and fried fresh sprats, and wood pigeon on toast. It has game in season and it has pork chops. It has, for heaven's sake, the Cornish specialty stargazy pie, with the little fishes' heads poking out of the crust peering skyward. Everything we ate at a couple of dinners and an afternoon snack at the bar was impeccable: excellent fresh ingredients and careful cooking. And golly: People say it's the coolest restaurant in London.

With lots of pre-opening buzz last year, I'm sure that St. Alban in Piccadilly was gunning for that title, too. But for us, the cool thing is that it takes reservations until midnight, meaning we could eat after the theater without rushing. Given the London taste for decors that evoke past elegance, the spacious dining room is a surprise: It seems to suggest a somewhat futuristic, airporty version of the 1970s, with the big difference that the seating, mostly on curved banquettes, is wonderfully comfortable.

The menu writers had one eye on the Mediterranean and one on the Anglo-French comfort food that has made more than one fortune on the British restaurant scene, and our ordering took in both vistas: We had a flavorful, olive-oil-slicked eggplant parmigiana, and a plate of run-of-the-mill linguine with clams, which was almost ruined by an excess of thyme that overwhelmed the other ingredients.

On the comfort-food side, slow-roasted pork belly with turnip tops and mashed sweet potatoes was about as good as such things get -- very, very good -- with crackling crisp skin and meltingly tender flesh. For dessert, a deep chocolate tartufo (ice cream truffle) did not come inedibly hard from the freezer; it easily yielded to the spoon. And pistachio ice cream that tasted vividly of pistachios was dressed with espresso and a light sabayon. Our meal cost us about $70 apiece, with glasses of wine from a nicely chosen list.

There was a different kind of buzz at Tapas Brindisa, right near Borough Market on the South Bank of the Thames: the buzz of a bar-restaurant full of people really happy to be there. Brindisa is an importer, wholesaler and retailer of top-quality Spanish products, and that is what marks its no-reservations tapas joint: The Spanish hams, sausages, olives and cheeses were the best I've had outside Spain, and better than most I've eaten there.

Cooked dishes, too, were bright in flavor and not so elaborate that the fine ingredients were submerged. Lots of chefs talk about showcasing their produce, but Brindisa actually does it. Snacky things including olives and crisp spiced fava beans start at about $2; a platter of hams and sausages costs just under $20; a big, thick slice of potato omelet is about $7. Hot dishes run about 10 bucks unless you feel -- as you should -- like sauteed foie gras with lentils ($19). Excellent wine comes by the glass or bottle, or you can have a beer.

It's hard to say how much you'll spend here; it's easy to get carried away because all these little dishes are so good. We went nuts and had them bring what seemed like everything on the menu, and we drank a great deal (I think eight of us managed seven bottles of wine, plus dessert wine); the bill was huge, about $90 each. For a more normal tapas meal with a more normal alcohol intake, I doubt that we would have spent more than $45 or $50 apiece.

-- Edward Schneider

* Scott's, 20 Mount St., telephone 011-44-20-7495-7309, http://www.scotts-restaurant.com. Tube: Green Park or Bond Street.

* St. Alban, 4-12 Lower Regent St., 011-44-20-7499-8558, http://www.stalban.net. Tube: Piccadilly Circus.

* Tapas Brindisa, 18-20 Southwark St., 011-44-20-7357-8880, http://www.brindisa.com/dining_about.asp. Tube: London Bridge.