A fresco delight

I was in a foul mood when I went to the Belsize, which makes it all the more admirable, for I ended up feeling happy and attractive on a bad hair day. Service was kindly but a bit patchy from a selection of peculiarly tall waiters and one smiley waitress. The food was a bit of an international hotchpotch, but although the menu needed refining, no dish reached that all important point of being not good enough.

Jerusalem artichoke soup with truffle oil was enfeebled by too much cream. I barely made a dent in it - too damn rich spoils soup and Paris Hilton. Crisp fried duck was cooked just so, crunchy and tenderly ragged as it should be. It came with some melon which, as is the case so often in this country, suffered from a lack of indigenous sunshine. Confit lemon and balsamic jus did not provide a sufficient amount of flavour to enhance the duck.

There were four of us girls round the pleasingly large table. Lemon and thyme-breaded cod with mushy peas came out on top for us all, a fat piece of moist cod in a thin and crispy shell of fine breadcrumbs. Rib eye with roasted red and white chicory and pancetta was 'good but not great'. Mussels with leeks, parsley, white wine and cream suffered from the same overbearing content of the soup. The mussels were decently fresh, though.

The Belsize does exceptional chips - hand-cut potatoes, hot, crispy and soft in all the right places. We also liked the seabass, which was grilled and moist. It came with sweet potato boulangere which was an interesting mix with the fish. However, the more concentrated sugar in the burnt bits would have been fun and tasty on their own - but didn't help the seabass that much. A dollop of aubergine caviar was a little solid and unseasoned and frankly weird sitting there on top of the fish - ditto some rather shrivelly hot olives.

My super-stylish friend Derek often comes round to watch me getting ready to go out, the pervert. He always advises 'take off the last thing you put on, it's too much', which is funny when it's my trousers. But I think this fashion maxim might work well for the menu at the Belsize.

The Belsize is much more than food, though. The whole place is decorated in a coherent but not humourless Art Nouveau style. The floral fresco, the colour scheme, the light fittings, some shabby but terribly chic mirrors all feel, and possibly are, authentic. The lighting is impeccable - each of us girls commented on how flattering it was. The chairs are cushioned and comfortable. The pleasure of the decor increases the deeper you go into the building. Snuck round a corner in a divinely lit and beautiful little side room we find the Belsize's biggest hurrah. With just a few tables, the room is private, cosy and feels special. A collection of Victorian watercolours of Indian tribes are genuinely get-up-and-have-a-peer interesting.

This is a gastro for girls and lovers. Make sure you score a table in that room.

The Belsize
29 Belsize Lane, NW3 5AS