Banking on a good Xmas

Christmas comes but once a year, which makes it something of a make-or-break time for restaurateurs.

At each of the many autumnal restaurant openings the nervous proprietors will have laid plans to hitch a ride on the tide of goodwill, and wring every last penny from happy seasonal spendthrifts.

If restaurateurs had advent calendars there would be a bank manager behind every door. This is the time of year when at scores of new restaurants' maitre d's are watching the reservations book unblinkingly; if the dining rooms are not full in the run-up to Christmas, they never will be. And if they do fail to attract enough custom ... the bleak times of January and February lie in wait just around the corner.

MEHEK is a sharp Indian restaurant newly opened in sumptuous premises on London Wall. (Already warning bells should be sounding somewhere - commercial estate agents will cheerfully suggest that such premises are worth a rent of around £35 a square metre). The head chef is Ashok Kumar who worked with Atul Kochar for 12 years, most recently at highly rated Mayfair newcomer Benares, and Mehek's general manager is Mamun Ahmed, who worked at Tamarind. So, it is hard to fault the place on its pedigree.

The restaurant looks pretty good - comfortable seating, pleasant ambience, gentle lighting. The service is diligent and aims for sophistication - there are bus boys and dishes are presented with a flourish. The food can be roughly categorised as modern Indian and the menu reads well, which makes the disappointment to come even more acute.

The problem is a simple one. Even in laid-back, "pre-Christmas-jolly" mood, expensive dishes are just that - expensive. Sometimes you get exceptionally fine cooking, in which case high prices can seem a bargain, but when steady, or even mediocre dishes and mean portions attract chunky price tags, Christmas bonhomie evaporates briskly.

At Mehek you'll pay £5.50 for a large bottle of Cobra, a sum that will not daunt those celebrating a big deal with pink champagne, but can chill the heart of regular diners. The starters at Mehek hover around the £4 mark and the kaleji taka tak (pan-fried chicken livers) is sound if a little under-spiced.

Opt to start with kebabs and see your wallet cringe - four small tandoori lamb cutlets, in an indifferent marinade, weigh in at £14.95: that's nearly £3.75 a mouthful. A dish called "khargosh ka kalmi kebab" is a few ounces of rabbit marinated with "fried onion, cheese, cardamom and black pepper" and tasting of nothing much. It could have been chicken. No snip at £13.95.

The main-course curries also come in insultingly small portions. Rasedaar murgh is billed as "home-style chicken curry" - too little meat, too little spice, too little character and all for £9.95. Boiled rice is an extra £3.

A tandoori roti is £2.50. (A fairly steep price to pay for seven or eight pence worth of wholewheat flour). Kashmiri rogan josh is competent, but costs nearly £10. Venison cooked with pickling spices nudges the £11 mark.