Pre- (5.30-7pm) and post-theatre (9.30pm-last orders), two-course dinner pounds 11 Major credit cards, not Amex or Diners. What do the following have in common: Gatwick Airport, good continental restaurants, and the afterlife? Answer: the absence of that abomination, musical wallpaper, which is about as abusive as the dreaded sound, “Hi folks, this is your captain speaking.”
Why is it as soon as the first customer arrives in a restaurant, the equivalent of Manuel gets up and turns on his hotch- potch of: (in Greece) a loop of bazouki, (in Spain) faux flamenco, (in Italy) the kind of Neapolitan song that gives the nation a bad name, and (elsewhere) some discreet Vivaldi or Telemann?
We are, of course – thanks to that most insidious of American exports – surrounded by musical noise everywhere we go. Last month it beat them all to win Time Out’s Best New Restaurant award.Livebait is not for a big night out: it isn’t slick; it serves only fish; it doesn’t serve a simply grilled Dover sole; it has an outside lav – but it is a winning restaurant. The monkfish and crevette in beer batter with fries, tartare sauce and mountain rocket was a top class, crisply covered bit of fish, though softer flesh might have been better in batter than the chewy monk. Let’s hope it can keep that up and keep the prices downLivebait, 43 The Cut, SE1 (0171-928 7211) Open lunch Mon-Fri, dinner Mon-Sat About pounds 25 for three courses and coffee. The few and rather floppy chips suggested that the heart of the restaurant lies more in the traditions of the Mediterranean than in the English seaside.Cheering puddings include chocolate brownie with a plum inside – a gratifying combination of gritty and gooey – and mango mousse with wild strawberries and cream.
A mug of tea wouldn’t be out of place here, but the espresso, in creamy, Fifties crockery, hits the spot.Just when it seemed as if London’s swaggeringly big restaurants might blow others out of the water, Livebait shows that small, specialised, idiosyncratic places can hold their own. A piquant underlay of finely chopped coriander, onion and tomato as a warm salsa cleverly matched various elements – Moroccan spicing, Indian relish and Med veg – without conflict. A perfectly cooked and seasoned piece of tuna with okra and red pepper ragout and half a boiled egg was another starter; the egg earned its place here by being cooked with as much split-second timing as the fish.Beneath the couscous, a generous, dazzlingly white piece of hake was garnished with tender strips of pink cuttlefish and served with spinach and green lentils – organic, apparently. Market traders dropped by for seafood stall standbys: whelks, winkles and cockles, for a couple of quid a pint.Before we’d started on the fish dishes, the cooking showed its colours with splendid bread flavoured with golden turmeric and black pepper, garlic and thyme – even a pink, beetroot dough.Then king scallops came gently spiced and tinted with turmeric, cucumber raita, roast tomatoes and endive.
the restaurant’s decor avoids both nautical kitsch and silver-plated fishknife gentility. It looks like a cleaned-up eel, pie and mash shop, with its dark seaweed green and white chequered tiles, bench seating and ribbed glass screens Prices are keen, for food that demands precision cooking Starters are about pounds 5, main courses double that Cheaper still is the pounds 11 pre- and post-theatre deal. Customers are a varied bunch, thanks to Livebait’s down-to-earth appeal and its mixed catchment area, where southeast London meets the centre of town.The Young Vic is over the road; it’s a programme’s wave away from the Old Vic and within dining distance of the South Bank. During the day the nearby street market, college, council housing and off-West End businesses provide a different culture. When I visited, elderly shopkeepers were lunching on fruits de mer at one table; at another, sub-Ab Fab women from a nearby magazine empire drank Veuve Clicquot and ate turbot.
Other helpful suppers include pasta sauces: home- made pesto, a tomato sauce with olives and anchovies, or a creamy wild mushroom sauce – take the uncooked pasta round, too, and some French bread spread with herb butter to bung in the oven A lasagne comes in the same mould. My own choice would be for spinach and ricotta, a deliciously slippery mass of spinach leaves, pasta and bechamel.If you don’t have time for any of this, I think one of the most useful presents for anybody housebound is smoked salmon, which will see them through endless delectable sandwiches and bagels, as well as scrambled eggs, or it can be eaten with an avocado salad or ratatouille. And it’s the perfect answer to the question of what topeople dropping in unexpectedly.In the case of a party, simply pretend you are a caterer. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes tend to be more practical than anything rich and French. I would also obey the Tupperware rule, choosing food that can be transported in a closed container, or a dish covered with cling film. And avoid elaborately assembled delicacies that will be damaged if you have to brake suddenly while driving.