Christopher's

18 Wellington Street
London WC2E 7DD

020 7240 4222

I haven't been to the restaurant of Christopher's 'the American bar and grill' as it calls itself for a long time. It used to be rather fashionable though never a 'foodie' place. I like the bar. They make good martinis and its a place to meet in crowded Covent garden. It was freezing cold and we'd just been to a film and presentation at the LSE on the other side of the Aldwych. We decided to stop at Christopher's walking from the Aldwych down the Strand. Sad. Its completely lost the plot. Its a lovely building with great views down past the Lyceum theatre and across Waterloo bridge and beautiful staircase leading from the ground floor up to the restaurant. The menu offers lots of seafood, steak, lobster; its an American grill. We just had one course: breast of barberry duck, roast citrus fennel, black olive tapenade £16.75. L.O. quite liked it. I thought the duck sauce was too sweet, gelatinous with little pools of oil and small canned bits of grapefruit. The fennel was overcooked. It was also cold. But I'm not so charitable. To be fair the duck itself was tender and not overcooked. The problem was everything that went with it. We had a sharp not great bottle of Argentine Piropo Malbec for £19.75. The total bill including 'discretionary' service was £64.69. The restaurant was almost empty or at any rate less than a third full mid week in the evening. Two couples had been put next door to each other in a row of tables for two against the back wall presumably to create an impression of greater business than if they had been placed far apart. I won't go back; or only to the bar.