The restaurant is a buzzy, elegant long room with the bar at the far end, allowing time to walk the tables with a swift nose at what others have ordered if you are so inclined. Glam like Cecconi's (but not so noisy), like Corrigans (but a bit more intimate), and more compact than both. Lovely friendly, informal yet very professional staff. Menu with plenty of choice but still coherent, and nicely seasonal in parts (loved the minted Jersey Royals – must be the warm March weather bringing them along rather early).

Our table for four was rather alarmingly jammed next to a piano & musical bits which materialised as a jazz trio for short bursts through the meal, but despite our proximity the volume was very acceptable – I would have preferred a little distance however.

The food overall was very good, we ordered 4 different starters and 4 different mains so experienced a good cross-section of the menu.

My only gripe was over a salad described as ‘salt duck and pomelo with pickled ginger dressing’ which shouted to my tastebuds “pick me!” – but the dish consisted of only green chicory, separated into a pretty heap of leaves, in which nestled tasty slivers of duck and pomelo, dressed with a clean,asian-style dressing and a little scatter of purple micro-leaves…as chicory was actually the main ingredient and only real ‘salad’ component of the dish, it would have been good to know this in case you hated chicory (fortunately I don't – but chicory does suffer from the Marmite effect: a love or hate thing) and also a whole plate of the stuff was just a bit dull to eat as a consequence once I'd scoffed the tasty bits.

The others had the seared beef & noodle salad which was generous and smelled amazing, the grilled octopus & chorizo that smelled even more tantalising, and a tortellini primavera that looked very appealing but was being served at the far side of the table, too far for me to keep tabs on as we were enjoying our chat and catching up as well as chomping the food. The mains… More