Diners spend big to help top restaurants beat recession

London's top restaurants proved today that diners are still splashing out for the best gastronomic experiences.

Richard Caring's empire, Caprice Holdings, which includes The Ivy, Scott's and Le Caprice, saw pre-tax profits leap 38 per cent to £8.4 million in the year to June.

Sales surged 16 per cent to £39.6 million, boosted by the opening of The Ivy's drinking and dining members' establishment, The Club, and an oyster bar at fish specialist J Sheekey. Comparative sales at its established eateries have also risen.

Mr Caring said trading was even stronger in the last six months of 2009: "People were hesitant in the first half of last year about buying that really expensive bottle of wine, but confidence came back when people realised we were not facing total economic disaster. But the days when Russians and Arabs would spend £20,000 on a bottle of wine are gone — those customers have mostly disappeared."

He also pledged to continue the company's expansion, with another three venues opening in London this year and four overseas, although he declined to give details.

Mr Caring, who also owns private members' club Annabel's in Mayfair, paid himself a dividend of £4 million last year after foregoing a payout in 2008, according to accounts just filed at Companies House.

Other restaurants reflected Mr Caring's confidence. At Michelin-starred Roussillon in Pimlico — which was fully-booked every day over Christmas — general manager Michael Lear said: "There's no recession here — we've never been busier."

Marcus Wareing has revealed that it is impossible to get a table at his eponymous restaurant in the Berkeley hotel this month — despite January traditionally being the toughest time for the industry.

Mr Wareing, one of the brightest stars of the London restaurant scene, told Bloomberg: "We're receiving 250 to 300 calls a day." He is taking on more staff and installing a new kitchen to cope with demand.

Russell Norman, Mr Caring's former operations director who opened Soho's Polpo last year, is looking for a second site, likely to be in Covent Garden.

But the picture is not entirely happy. Diners at Texture in Marylebone have been invited to bring a bottle of wine along, with no charge, to increase bookings; and Gordon Ramsay's empire — which experts say expanded too fast — was almost a casualty of the recession. The TV chef faced his own kitchen nightmare last year when he was forced to pump in his own cash to keep the business afloat.