Remembering Restaurants

Food in the memory is a tantalising thing, and all the worse when you simply can't go back again, since the venue, or indeed chef, has gone.

Here's my most missed/best remembered list:

Mary Rohan-Dominguez at the Pan Coast in Miami, late 90s sometime. A romantic dinner for two. Kate and I on our first proper holiday together. Delicious mahi-mahi. The chef bobbing in to check out the tiny dinning room. Perfect.

Loubet's flagship L'Odeon when Chef Anthony Demetre was there. I had one utterly horrible meal there (a rabbit stew that required serious perseverance) which was a small price for several stunning ones. Continues in theme, if not quite spirit, at the more sensibly sized Arbutus.

Alfred on Shaftesbury Ave (now replaced by the blah Nama). Heaped plates of whitebait were just one of the treats on offer at this underrated eatery. One day I stopped by on the off-chance for lunch and it was just gone. *choke*

Mezzo on Wardour Street - one of the classic neo-brasserie giants of the 90s, now a site reduced to tat and shtick by lost-the-plot Conran. Was the food ever all that special? Maybe not, but the sense of occasion surely was.