Costly entry to Tatler list

It opened three years behind schedule, cost more than £12 million and dinner for two will get you little change out of £450.

But for Sketch - the giddily ambitious project in Conduit Street - it has been worth the wait.

The fine-dining restaurant, patisserie, bars and video art gallery which opened in December can already claim to be a success.

Two of its three restaurants - The Gallery and The Lecture Room and Library - have been nominated for best room and best kitchen in the prestigious Tatler Restaurant Awards, which will be held tonight at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mayfair.

The awards will not just rely on the quality of the food. Judges have been marking the capital's restaurants in several categories - from the excellence of the surroundings to the quiet efficiency of the service. Despite its lofty prices, where starters set you back up to £48 and cheese is £30, Sketch has made an indelible mark in only two months. Tatler restaurant critic Jeremy Wayne called it "a magnet for extraordinary people". Twentyninevenues have been nominated in five categories in the awards: best kitchen, best newcomer, best room, best maitre d'hotel and best "out of town" restaurant. The two other categories are restaurant of the year and the readers' favourite - both to be announced tonight.

Nick Scade, chairman of the Restaurant Association, said: "A Tatler award is definitely something people want to win. It's good that they are having separate awards for design and front-ofhouse. You can have great cooking but, if the atmosphere isn't right, the experience can be spoiled." A small restaurant, Thyme, in Clapham is hot favourite for best newcomer. Its chefs, Adam Byatt and Adam Oates, serve some of the best food in the capital. Mr Wayne said: "What they are doing is incredible."