Regulars delight in telling each other that the bar was imported from Venice.Darling, can you squeeze me in?: The maitre d’ is Nino. The cognoscenti, however, ask for the chef patron, Aldo Zilli.Fables: During the Saatchi and Saatchi split, both sides were regular lunchers in Zilli’s. It serves upmarket Italian with spaghetti and fresh lobster; sea bass and roasted suckling pig are permanently on the menu. Lunches come to pounds 35 per head in the restaurant and pounds 15 in the brasserie. If you’re drinking hard, ask for an Americano, a Negroni or a buck’s fizz.Decor: Sort of rococo Venetian.

Alongside Michael Caine, part-owner and a regular luncher, you can find Peter Mead from Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Michael Greenlees from GGT and Tony Vickers from BSkyB, who has his own table.Decor: Big room, well lit and somehow cosy.Darling, can you squeeze me in?: Ask for the maitre d’, Michael Henry, or the restaurant manager, Gratiano Oregano.Fables: Woolworth’s marketing director, Mike Cousins, was holding forth about how he was on the point of sacking his agency, Allen Brady Marsh, although they didn’t know it yet. Sadly, a reporter from the trade magazine Campaign was at the other tableYour bill, sir: Twice a week for a year – pounds 9,400.Signor Zilli’sIt’s been open for eight years and is already legend; you’ll find the likes of Graham Fink, most of Saatchi’s and well, anyone who has worked in advertising has eaten at Zilli’s. The late owner, Peter Langan, gained favour with the Fat Boys when he threw up at one of his own tables in front of Jonathan Durden. He charged the lunch to PR but the incoming chairman, Tim Delaney, took a dim view.

Booth-Clibborn later moved on.Your bill, sir: Twice a week for a year – pounds 8,320.Langan’s BrasserieLunch is pounds 42 per head. The modern European menu ranges from bangers and mash to venison with ratatouille, which should be washed down with gin and tonic, kir royale, pouilly fume and Langan’s chablis. Ten minutes later, Christopher’s in Convent Garden rang his office asking where Mr Burkitt was – his table awaited. Alas, the client had already departed.And, Dame Rumour states, the Ivy saw Edward Booth-Clibborn, life president of the Designer’s and Art Designer’s Association, rack up a bill for pounds 488 for two – including a half bottle of wine for pounds 126.

His secretary assured him she had made the booking and he left, muttering vivid imprecations. Winston Fletcher loves it, Mark Wnek is a regular, and most of WCRS visit, as did most of Leo Burnett’s until they moved to Knightsbridge.Decor: Slightly Deco, with oak finish.Darling, can you squeeze me in?: Maitre d’s are David Bernard, Caroline Cathcart and Fernando Pierre.Fables: Hugh Burkitt, chairman of Burkitt Edwards Martin, once caused a scene when he arrived with a client for his reserved table, found none was to be had and demanded all sorts of recompense. A straw poll of agency dinners revealed in the last week alone the following star-spots – Hanif Kureishi, Terence Stamp, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones Ad types range from the young and funky to agency bosses. New members have to foot the bill for the first meal they attend (the last Fat Boys lunch, at Christmas, cost pounds 2,000).”The lunches can be a nightmare,” says Jonathan “Barf Boy” Durden, managing partner at Pattison Horswell Durden, who acquired his tag after throwing up at every single meeting.But where do they eat when they lunch in style? Why, they go to …The IvyThe six-year-old Ivy serves modern British food costing pounds 20 to pounds 40 a head (the Caesar salad/salmon fishcake combo is legend, and the chargrilled fish of the day is always popular) Adland loves it because the celebs love it. It has a quorum of 55 stone – members have to average 15.8 stone each or the club disbands – and they are each issued with ludicrous names and expansive tracksuits.

The advertising lunch is back.Ask the Fat Boys lunching club. This coagulation of eight of the industry’s liveliest – and largest – includes Dominic Proctor, chief exeuctive of J Walter Thompson; Peter Howard Williams, Pa-pa-pa-Pearl and Dean’s managing director; Rupert Howell, a partner at Tango’s agency, Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury; and Malcolm Wall, Meridian Television’s managing director.Set up in the dark days of the recession in memory of a more glorious era, the Fat Boys are dedicated to excess. “During the recession, the waiters would have already cleared the tables.”
But that happy band of brothers who are sneaking back to Soho at 1pm are slowly increasing in number. Agency staff would get in early to dispose of their day’s work before midday, as a swift meal could last until eight in the evening Then recession. Long, lean-cuisine years of single-course meals and sparkling mineral water beckoned. “In the Eighties you could look into a restaurant at 4.30pm and all the tables would still be full,” says Tim Mellors, chairman and creative director at Mellors Reay and partners.