mid-range restaurant in central London for grown up dinner?

[hatwoman]

no kids involved. somewhere around waterloo, holborn, covent garden, tottenham court road type areas.

Depends what you mean by mid-range, but what about either

Anchor and Hope in Waterloo.

Mon Plaisir in Covent Garden.

There are loads of OK restaurants down The Cut in Waterloo if Anchor and Hope doesn't take your fancy.

Chez Gerard in Covent Garden is nice. Although part of the chain, it is in a stunning setting, esp if you have a table in the Opera Terrace (large conservatory type thing overlooking Covent Garden).

I've never been to a Chez Gerard - might try it. I've been to the Anchor and Hope a few times and didn;t think the food was great. ok but nothing to get excited about (and the lack of booking would be a pain). Mon Plaisir looks lovely but for the purposes of the evening might just tip over into expensive, not sure really. there is (or used to be) a lovely middle eastern place somewhere near Centre Point...the name of which I can;t remember. anyone know it?

I would also recommend Mon Plasir - such gorgeous food (if you like French food of course!).
For a bit cheaper but still quite nice, Cafe Koha on St Martin's court (bu Leicester Square tube always does the job nicely. The Cork & Bottle on Leicester Square is pretty good too...

Not sure if this is too expensive, but Arbutus is my favourite. It's in Soho on the Tottenham Court Road side. Three course meal, with wine, tends to come to less than £50 per head, which for Michelin starred is pretty good I think. Obviously much less if you stick to only two courses or less wine - you can buy all wine by the carafe at exactly 1/3 of bottle price so that works well.
Arbutus

Chez Gerard's setting is lovely, but the food is only OK and the service pretty hit and miss.

there are 3 bistro's in the west end, serve lovely home cooked meals in a quaint setting www.bistro1.co.uk/ 2 courses 9.90 and 3 courses 10.90!

cafe emm is similar www.cafeemm.com/

have fun!

Livebait and Tas, both on The Cut, Waterloo, are OK (fish and Turkish, respectively).

Mon Plaisir is lovely, but it can get unaccountably expensive.