A decadent den

When I first came to London, 100 years ago, I used to drink in a rough old boozer on All Saints Road. I stopped going there because of a guy who used to stand in the corner of the room playing darts - trouble was the pub didn't have a dartboard. The pub eventually closed down.

Along the road a little was a shebeen called Mangrove, a place where the police would have easy pickings late at night. It survived for a couple of decades until the early Nineties when pseudo-gentrification took hold, and Trustafarians began to do naughty things but in smarter surroundings. The Portobello Dining Rooms was born, which grew into the Mas Cafe, and then to Manor.

Ruby & Sequoia is its latest appellation, this time under the ownership of those responsible for the Ruby Lounges at Waterloo and King's Cross, and Ruby-Lo on Orchard Street, near Marble Arch. It has a dual personality, with a bar and restaurant operation on the ground floor, and a clubby bar in the basement.

The basement bar is a glamorous, drop-dead gorgeous den that oozes decadence. It's all low-slung dark leather furnishings, tiled and wooden panelled walls, and shimmering objets d'art. DJs dictate the beat, which increases with the vibe late into the evening.

On the ground floor bar you'll find an altogether more sedentary, yet comfortable, atmosphere in the bar and restaurant. There are two extremely large, leather-clad drinking booths, several stools around the bar, and a couple of rows of more formal furniture for dining.

They have an applaudably good cocktail list, and £6 shows restraint. The wine list merits similar praise, is much longer than I would have expected, covers all the bases countrywise, and includes informative tasting notes. Budvar beer is available by the bottle at £3 - my only negative comment on the entire drinks list is that it sells Kronenbourg 1664 on draught, at an horrendously high £4 price tag.

The chef must collect the ingredients for his dishes like an operative on an assembly line - there's nothing wrong with this, it means that the food is straightforward. I lapped up a substantial salad of cooked vegetables as a starter (£5.50), while my mate Steve had what was supposed to be English asparagus with Hollandaise, but turned out to be Spanish asparagus in a cheese sauce.

From the mains of burgers, steaks, chicken and fish dishes, I chose salmon and haddock fish cakes (£9.50) - nice, but not fishy enough. Steve's braised rabbit (£12.50) was wonderfully succulent and flavoursome.

Ruby & Sequoia isn't the best venue I've ever been to, but it is the best thing that's happened to this much-changed site. Good luck to it, I say. I'll be happy to return.

Ruby & Sequoia Bar
6-8 All Saints Road, W11 1HH