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In these distressing times, when lay offs are happening, bonuses disappearing and foreign tourism at a low, what do restaurateurs do?

Last year it was difficult to get a table at anywhere decent without a reservation.In a city like Mumbai with high fixed costs, it may be difficult to slash prices for quality restaurants.Imported ingredients and wines do not come any cheaper as the tax forms a substantial component of costs.

One thing would be to offer better value through fixed price menus, particularly at lunchtime, when many restaurants are half empty.It is a source of wonderment why restaurants like the Indigo and Wasabi do not offer such deals.

The Zodiac Grill apparently offers a fixed price lunch which is not of particularly good value; the restaurant is grossly overpriced to begin with. Two restaurants I visited this week which offer excellent value at lunch time are Henry’s at Colaba and San-qi at the Two Seasons.

Henry’s, situated opposite the Yacht Club, has almost disappeared off the gastronomic radar. It started out a few years ago with a nouvelle style of Chinese cuisine, ‘My Humble House’, experimental Chinese from Singapore which is now proudly showcased in Delhi at the Maurya.

This had miso soup, wasabi prawns, Japanese and South East Asian influences. It was plated food served course wise, innovative and expensive. It was also a little boring as the menus did not change much.

Henry’s saw the decline in interest and began to promote the bar, finger food, and live music to keep the cash registers ringing. What remains of the legacy is the set lunch, an excellent value for money.

There were various menus with irritating names such as ‘Swimmers in the Silver Sea’ and ‘Peace of the Tao’ but what is on offer is extraordinary. You start with the soup, having a choice between a thick broth like soup and a delicate clear soup. This is followed by a well-conceived selection of dim sums — chicken sums, plum and jade wontoIns, suimai crab wraps, though the dough was rather tough.

Then comes the third course. For non-vegetarians there is a choice between prawn and duck, I had a duck roll with hoisin and plum sauce.

This is followed by a main course, which in my case was a most delicate and exquisite seamed chicken with asparagus, a choice of noodles, burnt rice and a most delightful egg concoction, poached and fried with shrimps, to give it a kick. Dessert was a coconut ice cream.

The price was around Rs550 per menu except the Tao which costs around Rs950.For that you get exotica such as scallops, Chilean sea bass and lobster, admittedly, in the most microscopic portions as befits nouvelle cuisine, but beautifully presented nonetheless.

An institution by contrast, which was pullulating with custom, was the San-qi, pronounced Sanchee. This restaurant offers three cuisines, Indian, Chinese and Japanese packaged very well as lunch options.

The Indian came in the form of a thali, for the non vegetarian, a Lucknowi thali with the classic nehari korma as the centrepiece, and the creamy maa ki daal, rice with two vegetable, a chicken tikka/ kabab, all for Rs750.

The Japanese lunch was ensconced in a rather attractive bento box with the mandatory sushi, sashimi and assorted nibbles alongside the miso soup; very healthy.

As none of us ordered Chinese, I cannot comment, but the menu looked interesting and the price was the same.