Ala Colthard/Signor Sassi & Jones Family Kitchen

Signor Sassi is one of those once fashionable Knightsbridge restaurants – you know, the sort where they have pictures of film stars and footballers on the wall?

Situated in an alleyway off Knightsbridge it’s not the most accessible location but its signature dish of spaghetti all’ aragosta (lobster) served in its shell is superb.

Five of us met for lunch there on Wednesday –  one an ex-footballer whose  photo is on the wall – and were informed that Fulham’s recent signing Willian was on another table.

We had a merry lunch of differing age groups who all got on well, washed down by several bottles of Pinot Grigio.

Before my spaghetti I ordered calamari fritti which Italian restaurants always cook well.

These were succulent.

At £133 per head it’s not cheap but London restaurants who have just got over Covid now face higher PAYE contributions which they are passing onto the customer.

I moved out of London 10 years ago and it’s now not the city that I  knew. The ex-footballer, who lives in Hertfordshire, had been thinking of relocating in central London once his two sons had flown the coop. Now he has abandoned this project and rarely visits the centre. London is expensive, dirty, gridlocked and lacking in sophistication.

Whether Signor Sassi will be around in 10 years time I cannot predict.

To prove that you can eat cheaply in London yesterday, I invited an old friend to The Jones Family Kitchen in Eccleston Yard, Victoria, where the set menu of soup, Onglet steak and ice cream was £27.

The food was fine, but my only beef was a woman breast-feeding her bawling babe. To me it’s strange that – whilst smoking is banned – breast feeding is not. Otherwise I had no cause for complaint and the service well above average.