Novikov is rammed to the hilt not with Euro Trash but with Global Trash. It heaves new money not old money, Non-dom not dom, second wife not first wife, 80s boom not 2012 recession, decadence not restraint.

Bucket loads of Russian money has been poured into the refit and it works. The route down to the basement bar with the view of the Italian restaurant and wine racks to the right is impressive.

We ate in the Asian restaurant and the food was a little below Nobu/Zuma but not by a lot. The Dim Sums were especially well executive and I enjoyed the Chilian Sea Bass cooked as chunks of fillets rather than on the bone. The classic ‘Black cod’ at £35 was pricy, a little small but excellent.

The waitress was too keen to take me up the list – she recommend Dim Sum at £45 rather than any of the others at £9 and pushed very hard for us to ‘go to the market’ and pick out fish we wanted to eat – a sure fast bill-expander (we declined).

The worst thing is the very load piped music. It is almost impossible to hear anything in the downstairs bar – rather a pity but with 2 beers, glass of wine and non-alcoholic cocktail costing £40 it was a good excuse to leave. Even the restaurant has excessively load music – they simply don’t need it but I suppose if you are in the mating game it helps when conversation falters.

In short I think this is a great fun place – if you don’t play dumb with your choices from the menu then the price is not as bad as it could have been. We were £70 per head for great food, moderate service but atmosphere that gives you a fill-good factor. Sadly you then walk out of the door and realise the recession has not gone away.