Gordon Ramsay, the volatile and outspoken Scotsman who once played soccer for the Glasgow Rangers, is the hottest high-octane chef in London today, racing back and forth between this restaurant and his Chelsea restaurant, called Gordon Ramsay . Ramsay's sarcasm, vulgar swearing, and macho posturing enthrall some food critics and appall the more faint-hearted. He once kicked Joan Collins out of his restaurant. Ramsay now rules at the staid, traditional Claridge's hotel, which has been legendary ever since 1860, when Queen Victoria stopped by for tea with Empress Eugenie. The famed Art Deco dining room still retains many of its original architectural features, but the cuisine is hardly the same. In "bad boy" Ramsay's own words, he "got rid of the dribble mats and the waltzing." Victoria most definitely wasn't served the amuse-bouche of pumpkin soup laced with truffle oil and studded with truffles, which you can enjoy.

When we recently visited for lunch, we were dazzled by the set menu, which is relatively reasonably priced. Although the menu changes frequently, memorable culinary highlights of our lunch included roast monkfish tails served on a bed of lobster and crushed potatoes with a creamy coriander-laced lemon-grass sauce, and pot-roasted belly of pork with an eggplant caviar and baby spinach. The three-course dinner was spectacular, featuring such delights as filet of sea bass wrapped in fresh basil leaves and served with a caviar sauce, and roast Scottish baby lobster cooked slowly in lime butter and served with tomato couscous. The desserts are among our favorites in London, including the likes of a bread-and-butter brioche pudding with clotted-cream ice cream, and a prune and Armagnac vanilla tart with fromage blanc in cream. Only fixed-price menus are served here.