River Café banished from top 50 restaurants list

For 20 years, the River Café has been an acclaimed presence on the British restaurant scene, serving classic Italian food and nurturing chefs who have gone on to develop stellar careers.

Its proprietors, Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, wife of the award-winning architect Lord Rogers of Riverside, have written six best-selling books and trained, among others, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

In the past few months, though, fate has not smiled on the River Café and last night the London restaurant – which has been closed for over two weeks because of a fire – was digesting another piece of bad news, the loss of its place in a list of world's top restaurants.

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The Hammersmith establishment slid from 44 in 2007 to 58 in Restaurant magazine's annual top 50, displaced by newer arrivals whose experimental cooking impressed an international panel of judges. Last night, Lady Rogers and Ms Gray expressed their disappointment at their ejection from the top 50, which they have been in for all but two of the previous six years, but insisted their spirits were high despite the fire, which has forced them to cancel hundreds of bookings.

The blaze on 5 April began in the kitchens as the River Café was filling with customers for dinner. By the time it was out, around 10 per cent of the ground floor was gutted.

Lady Rogers was confident that the restaurant would bounce back. "This year has been the busiest year in our 21-year history," she said. "The bookings have been massive." Ms Gray added: "When we were included in the top 50 we were surprised and pleased, but surprised more than anything, because it is down to fashion. We're beyond fashion; we're one of the established restaurants of London."

The blaze and the loss of the top 50 place are not the only misfortunes to afflict the restuarant in recent months. In December, Lord Rogers' former business partner Marco Goldschmied acquired the former oil depot housing the café and Rogers' architectural practice, after a £10m legal battle, prompting Building Design magazine to speculate that Rogers could one day be forced to leave the building.

The restaurant's exclusion cut UK representation in the top 50 to six (it scored 14 in 2005). But Britain remained the third best-performing nation after France (10) and the US (8). Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck retained second place behind El Bulli, the Catalan restaurant run by Ferran Adria. Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Chelsea was the next highest British entry at 13, ahead of Le Gavroche and Nobu.

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