This year has arguably been marked by more varied restaurant openings in London's West End than ever before. And, because of increased competition and a market spoilt for choice, these new restaurants have to perform better than ever.
But behind the four openings highlighted below lie two facts of restaurant life. The first is that for each opening there is invariably a closure, and all of these have risen from the ashes of a former operator: Pollen Street Social was a Pitcher & Piano; the Riding House Café, Da Polpo and Cây Tre were once respectively Indian, Thai and Korean restaurants.
The second is that restaurants, unlike most retail operations, do not lose sales to the internet. What they offer cannot be shipped through cyberspace. If you want to experience them, you have to put on your glad rags, go out and enjoy the bricks and mortar.
RIDING HOUSE CAFÉ
43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London W1, 020 7927 0840, ridinghousecafe.co.uk
Clive Watson and Adam White, having worked their magic on The Garrison and Village East in Bermondsey, have brought to life a large site five minutes north of Oxford Circus. Their approach is simple and effective: an original bar, an informal eating area alongside a more formal one, friendly service and a fairly priced, seasonal menu that emanates from an open kitchen. Highlights include sea trout with crab and fennel salad, chorizo hash browns and a plum and pear crumble with custard.
CAY TRE
42-43 Dean Street, London W1, 020 7317 9118, caytresoho.co.uk
Hieu Trung Bui came from Ho Chi Minh City to London initially to study finance. Instead, he opened the original Cây Tre, Viet Grill and Kêu! in Shoreditch, the epicentre of London's Vietnamese restaurants, and has now opened the second Cây Tre in Soho. It is a great place for a quick meal before or after the theatre.
Thanks to architect David Archer, the long, narrow room has a light, airy feel to it, and a menu doubles as the place mat, which tends to ensure immediate interaction with a waitress. Cold Vietnamese beers are an excellent introduction to dishes that get progressively hotter. Paper-thin rice rolls stuffed with prawns or veg and thin slices of beef, as well as shrimp cakes and pork dumplings lead on to squid with lemon grass, prawn curry and pork belly in caramelised coconut juice. There is also a range of pho, the Vietnamese noodle dish in broth. Great fun and great value.
DA POLPO
6 Maiden Lane, London
 WC2, 020 7836 8448, dapolpo.co.uk
A combination of fun and value, as well as a passion for the food of Venice and the wines of northeast Italy, have driven Russell Norman to open his fourth restaurant, Da Polpo, in Covent Garden (the original Polpo is in Beak Street, the smaller Polpetto in Frith Street, while Spuntino is in Rupert Street) in the past two years.
Norman's inspiration is the bacari, or wine bars, of La Serenissima, where gondoliers and tourists intermingle for a quick espresso, glass of wine
or a few cichetti. These small snacks, which include anchovy and chickpeas, artichoke and prosciutto and chopped chicken livers, are augmented by plates of pasta, deep fried squid, mackerel tartare with horseradish and vanilla ice cream topped with an espresso. At the end of all this, and a couple of Campari sodas, a trip to Venice seems like an excellent idea.
POLLEN STREET SOCIAL
8-10 Pollen Street, London W1, 020 7290 7600, pollenstreetsocial.com
Jason Atherton was the first British chef to work at El Bulli in Spain before a long stint as head chef at Maze. Now he has gone solo, taking inspiration from his northern roots. Atherton appreciates that as well as good food, wine and service, his discriminating customers want a friendly place to sit in, hence the name. PSS, as it is known, has several attractions: a long bar with an extensive tapas menu, a more expensive 60-seater restaurant with views into the open kitchen, and a dessert bar at which you can watch the pastry chefs assemble their creations. Highlights have included salt and pepper chipirones and red prawns in chilli at the bar, halibut with Catalan paella in the restaurant, rice pudding with lime jelly at the dessert counter and well-chosen Loire wines.
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