Surf back to the Eighties

"New Boom in House Prices" and "£73m world record for one painting" were two headlines this week. The heady days of the Eighties are back with us, and if further proof were needed, a visit to the refurbished Christopher's American Bar & Grill in Covent Garden provides it.

Within this pompous Victorian dining room I uncovered the huge popularity of the world's most preposterous dish: surf 'n' turf. To choose a 10oz rib-eye steak and half a Maine lobster (£29) on the same plate is a concept of unfathomable vulgarity synonymous with the gluttony of the "greed is good" decade.

Not only is it a reckless culinary exercise (like eating caviar and chocolate cake together) but to order it is to proclaim your extravagance. It is the Versace frock of dishes.

Christopher's was full when I arrived on a midweek evening. There were eight tables of men, with claret cheeks to match their braces and socks, chomping surf 'n' turf. Some had even opted for a grotesque-sounding surf 'n' turf burger (£22).

The conversation from the American and British crowd was deal-making and guffawing. I took a friend who has recently been made a chief executive. I thought he might like the bombast. He didn't.

First, we had a drink in the bar downstairs. The martini menu is suitably OTT including a Tutti Frutti (vanilla vodka, sugar syrup and muddled mixed fruits). I had a straightforward vodka and tonic, which was excellent, and my guest had a passable martini.

I had hoped it might resemble the impeccable Bemelman's in The Carlyle Hotel in New York, a chic Art Deco cocktail bar. But with plum walls and tacky wooden counter (already scuffed) it was more like the departure lounge for a mid-range airline.

The restaurant upstairs is grand - it was formerly a brothel and London's first licensed casino - but the new chairs are steel-framed and garden-centre awful, and the windows have silvery drapes that billow out like those on a Kate Bush video. If you get the right tables you can glimpse Waterloo Bridge, which sounds more romantic than it is.

I ordered the New York shrimp cocktail (£12.50) and my friend had the Maryland crab cake with red-pepper mayo and rocket (£10.50).

The cocktail was three plump prawns on ice. I despair of shellfish on ice as the intense cold destroys the flavour and, besides, three prawns on ice with a Bloody Mary-type dip does not a shrimp cocktail make. Where's the thousand island? The shredded iceberg? The prawns themselves were tasty, though, firm and meaty. The crab cake was fresh and moreish and the mayo neatly piquant.