All hands to the Pump

It's a pretty tall order given the competition, but even among chefs Johnnie Mountain could be considered seriously eccentric.

He has spent the past five years building up a restaurant empire - his first venture was Mosaica, sited within the Chocolate Factory in N22, the second was Mosaica At The Lock (located in another run-down factory, this time in Ferry Lane, N17).

For his latest mission he's upped the ante, and at the end of June opened The Pumphouse in Hornsey's New River Avenue development.

On the face of it, setting up restaurants in dodgy industrial sites across the wastelands of the high N postcodes is a fairly scary strategy, but Mountain has a pretty good idea of what his customers like to eat, of what they are prepared to pay, and of the kind of style they feel at home in.

The Pumphouse is a fabulous building, and the refurbishment must have cost a mighty sum. There's a huge, chic bar downstairs, with a restaurant and open kitchen to the rear, a mezzanine floor upstairs with many more restaurant tables and a terrace covered by awnings for eating al fresco. We are talking 270 covers!

The conversion has been done with an obsessive attention to detail and preserves just enough of the industrial feel - a few chains, hoists, pulleys and whathaveyou. The result is a majestic, double-height room with gleaming Victorian tiling, chunky furniture and a new floor.

Pick up the menu and check out the simple starters, four meat and four fish mains, pasta dishes and pizzas. You won't find anything wildly challenging, but then you won't find a host of dishes you don't want to eat.

What separates The Pumphouse from the scores of chain restaurants offering similar menus is the talent in the kitchen and the talent in the buying. Ingredients are carefully sourced and skilfully handled.

A starter like 'scallops with chilli jam' isn't original or brave, but offers four good-sized and perfectly cooked scallops at a fair price and it quickly becomes a must-have. A 'meat plate' is a bit like an assembly of the charcuterie that you can buy at Waitrose, but the quality is high, and it's dressed with a decent oil, some tiny capers and a small salad.

The pizzas from the obligatory Italian oven are also good - bufala mozzarella, rocket and oven-dried tomatoes. But charging £6 for 'roast garlic bread' is a bit lively. This is a wheel of buttery pizza bread topped with roast garlic cloves.