Stately gastrodomes

Yet if ever a restaurant opening was out of tune with the prevailing mood, this would be it. Just as the credit crunch bites, the expense account is reeled in and most of us are choosing comfort food over foams and fricassées, here is a temple of gastronomy, going all out for Michelin stars.

But Eastside Inn is not the only lavish opening. Michel Roux Jr has announced plans for a huge site in Parliament Square. Rainer Becker of Roka is to open a new branch in the autumn. John Torode of Smiths is shortly to unveil a vast new temple of butchery in Spitalfields.

Still more eye-catching is the Galvin brothers' plan to open what they hubristically call a 'gastrodome', a 110-cover restaurant in St Botolph's Hall in Spitalfields, with an additional glass-fronted bar, dining area and an all-day café attached.

Surely a chippy would be a more prudent operation? Or is the restaurant bubble, which has become a symbol of the excesses of the last ten years, more resistant to popping than we first thought? Certainly Chris Galvin, who lost his home and business in the last recession, is not a man his peers would describe as rash.

His and his brother Jeff's main concerns - Bistrot de Luxe and Galvin at Windows - are weathering the storm with lunch deals and internet promotions. People order steak frites instead of lobster, he says, but they're still coming in the door. 'We'll be up one week and down the next, but year on year, it's doing the same.' While the strong euro makes importing French produce uneconomical, it also makes for a huge increase in tourists: for foreign visitors, London is 40 per cent cheaper than last year.

As for the general cutting back on waste that all restaurants are having to go through, Galvin says he always found the extravagance distasteful anyway. And despite the fact he owns somewhere called Bistrot de Luxe, I believe him. Galvin made a strong impression on me two years ago, when my wife and I found ourselves crashing a private clients' dinner at Galvin at Windows.

The food was amazing, but there was something monstrous about our fellow diners: lonely bankers gobbling foie grasstued Anjou pigeon and complaining about the French. In the middle sat Galvin, likeable and uncomfortable enough among these men to whisper to my wife that, in fact, he was a socialist.

Nowadays he admits to relief that those days of indulging the overindulged are over. 'It reminded me of the last days of Pompeii, to be honest. We all got caught up in wanting more. There's something nicely masochistic in coming back down to earth.' So why is he risking it all on St Botolph's? In fact, the site was purchased two years ago, before the recession, with capital saved from the good times. 'We've been very prudent. Four years ago, when restaurants were going crazy, our business partner Ken Sanker told us to save for a rainy day - and that's come good now.'

The bit of his new venture that he is most excited about is not the fine dining part, but the all-day café. 'In Paris, traditionally, the working classes eat at little places they call bouchons, which are open all day,' he enthuses. 'We'll serve good-quality sliced meats with a punchy mustard dressing, daubes, inexpensive but solid food.'

The gastrodome concept - which was dreamed up by Terence Conran, under whom Galvin trained - is less megalomania than a way of hedging bets; if top-end clients don't come, you concentrate on the mid-market. It is a tactic Bjorn van der Horst has employed with Eastside Inn.

Across London, the picture is far from gloomy. 'Eating out as a pastime is now ingrained in Londoners' lifestyles. This has been the easiest recession the trade has had,' says Peter Harden who, with his brother Richard, runs Harden's restaurant survey. 'In the early Nineties, notable restaurant sites stayed "dark" for months. This time, they have worked hard to get bums on seats with internet offers and e-mails.'

The Galvins he sees as sensible operators, and the Roux venture as unlikely to be high-end: 'Though the Roux name carries cachet, it could be another mid-market place.' As for Eastside Inn, it may be the exception that proves the rule. 'Bjorn van der Horst is a chef from the "this is what I want to do" school. The temple of gastronomy tag sits on it pretty well.'

What it adds up to, everyone agrees, is a much-needed detox. The mediocre and overpriced will fail, while the skilled will work harder than ever to offer the consumer something memorable. One thing is for sure - there's never been a better time to go out to eat.