I was treated to a preview lunch at Novikov last month, the Mayfair dining extravaganza with a reported £14 million makeover. I gave my three allotted guests (all very busy people) less than 24 hours notice to see if they could join me and they all abandoned their previous plans to take up this very hot ticket. There are about 300 seats across the two beautifully designed restaurants within the space and they are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even by conservative estimates they may expect to serve 1000 people a day.

Less than a minute’s walk away The Wolseley serves more people than that and around the corner from there fashionistas climb over each other to get a table at Cecconi. Up the road from there the new Hakkasan is taking nearly twice the earnings of the first one less than half a mile away. Round the corner from that the newly re-jigged Dover Street Arts Club has apparently 2000 on its waiting list and is close to meltdown.

Tomorrow I’m going to 34, Richard Caring’s new place off Grosvenor Square doing steaks just like Maze Grill on the square itself and just like the new Wolfgang Puck Cut restaurant round the corner on Park Lane. With the exception of The Wolseley (I haven’t been as a paying customer yet to Novikov) they are all crazily priced and yet we all go and pay those crazy prices. I hear there are more restaurants due to open in the neighbourhood soon in the new year too.

If they’re not cannibalising each other – and they don’t appear to be – we must conclude that in these precarious times more of us are dining out more often. This is not just good news for us restaurateur folk but also for diners being given more choices and in particular for London’s economy. More restaurants means more jobs, more taxes being paid, less people on benefit. So go out, dine and help London buck the national trend.