Once the most glamorous oyster bar of London restaurants – Ian Fleming reputedly had his first Martini shaken not stirred here – Scott’s was opened by a passionate Scottish fishmonger in 1860, and was talk of the town for the next 100 years. Until, that is, the IRA bombed it in 1975, killing one and heralding the start of its dark decades when only curmudgeonly old buffers went there. A buyout in 2006 by owners of The Ivy, Caprice Holdings has sandblasted the barnacles off this London institution, commissioning artworks from YBAs Tracey Emin, Gary Hume and Michael Landy, and inviting Future Systems to design a ‘crustacean display’ (one for the CV, surely) which forms the centrepiece of its island oyster bar (a useful device for spying on the likes of Elton John, Jack Nicholson and Damien Hirst). But Scott’s doesn’t need to name-drop – its fresh, fresh fish does the talking (almost): there’s an ample choice of native oysters as well as a simple, people-pleasing menu of exquisite fish, meat and game. Liveried doormen, white-coated barmen and a perfect Mayfair postcode, plus the low-cal oyster option, has proved it irresistible to the Names.