Square meal is lighter at lunch

I haven't seen Spider-Man 3 yet, but I've read the extensive reviews (on the web, of course) and I like the idea that the superhero has an alter ego. A dark, unknown side, which is just scrabbling to come out.

I often think that parts of London have split personalities. Clerkenwell and Smithfield, where we live, are bustling with energy and colour during the weekdays; at night the area is full of human snakes curling patiently around corners as they await the opening of clubs and trendy bars. But at the weekend, the area is like a ghost town: the restaurants mostly closed, the meat market like an abandoned film set and the young people departed for Vauxhall or Brixton.

Some of London's restaurants have a dual-character aspect, too, and The Square in Mayfair is one of them. Dear old Mayfair. Did you know that 'My Fair Lady' is a cockney pun on 'Mayfair Lady'? It's where I imagine Eliza Doolittle's Freddy would have lived, and is home to three of the mighty squares of the city - Grosvenor, Hanover and Berkeley - which is no doubt where The Square takes its name from.

I've been to The Square (which isn't in a square at all, but in Bruton Street) before, but always in the evening - the first time soon after it opened, when I was taken by a newspaper editor whose restaurant critic thought it fantastic. I didn't, really. It was too complex, too stuffy, too formal and full of too many very middleaged men looking far too pleased with themselves. Which was a shame, because the food was fantastic and the staff a delight. It just didn't encourage any feeling of comfort, fun or relaxation.

Over the years, I've been back there from time to time and it still hadn't shaken off its slightly time-warped and quasi-clubby feel. Not that there was anything ungraceful about it (unlike many restaurants in that part of Mayfair), but for me it just didn't come together in a way that felt right.

Until, that is, I went there for lunch this week --and what a difference a few hours makes. At lunchtime, The Square is full of energy, with a much more diverse crowd of people. Maybe its liveliness is a spillover of customers from its award-winning sister restaurant, The Ledbury, which opened in Notting Hill a couple of years ago.

The service was swift (perfect for a business lunch) but that came in tandem with a cushion of unhurried composure. The slightly self-important fuss that I always sense there in the evenings is completely absent at lunchtime and I can't work out why. Is it the lighting? Does daylight scare off the more ponderous customers? Particularly since The Square employs the most incredible staff, who are among the most polite and charming ever experienced in a London restaurant. Maybe they get covered in sticky black stuff, Spider-man-style, once darkness descends.

The food was, quite simply, stunning. We both went for the lunchtime menu - you can have two courses for £25 or three for £30 - sharing delicious roasted smoked salmon followed by some wonderful plaice. We indulged ourselves with perfect bread, and there was just the right amount of those little 'extra' courses that enable the kitchen to show off its talents to those who have decided to play safe with the menu.

The wine list is famously one of the most expensive in London but, being lunchtime, we kept to water. And so, by the look of it, did nearly everyone else. Waistline vanity and genuine employment fears have had their toll on the drinking habits of London's professional classes. The days of the three-hour lunch fuelled by buckets of booze have been replaced by the search for one perfect glassful and The Square cleverly caters for this trend with its vast and delicious selection of wines sold by the glass.

When I stepped out on to the street, I almost wished I'd had a hat to doff. Never mind. I climbed into the back of the cab and began to hum a few lines from "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" instead, delighted that I'd found the bright side of The Square's personality.

The Square
Bruton Street, London, W1J 6PU