Alphabet super!

Why? Because FO at the time was nothing fancy. Its owners opted instead for an environment akin to a sixth-form common room - understated, with ski chalet-style pleb-Med grub. Although full of lazy old duffers wasting their day with the horse-racing pages and TV, it has become a Chelsea institution.

When TV chef Brian Turner sold his eponymous restaurant in Chelsea's Walton Street a couple of years ago, he used his crock of gold to buy into FO. A branch soon emerged in Chatfield Road, Battersea - a fabulous venue with a very agreeable patio outside which deserves to shine when warmer days eventually arrive.

This City venue, conveniently located opposite the Tower Of London, is a natural outpost of FO HQ - for those who have proper jobs, that is. There's an ever-so-smart restaurant in the basement and a bar-cum-cafe operation on the ground floor. Like its sister venues, this place is underwhelming, but that's its charm - it's fashionable in a deeply unfashionable way.

Although the atmosphere in the evenings is end of term exuberance, lunchtimes are moderately sedate affairs, with grownup office boys and girls who look as though they might buy their clothes from Argos, and a smattering of rogue tourists who've strayed off the beaten track to the Tower and are pleased to find a place so typically London - if there is such a thing.

An extraordinary array of 12 international bottled beers is offered, along with one draught, Dortmunder Union lager. From the wine list (entry prices are £11.95 for the house red or white), the red Rivallana rioja seems reasonable value for money (considering this is the City, where prices are expected to be higher) at £17.75, as does the white Les Belles Vignes sancerre at £21.50. A limited cocktail list is offered, with prices starting at £4.95.

The unashamedly Modern British menu boasts the likes of eggs benedict, burgers, salmon fishcakes, cottage pie, shoulder of lamb hotpot, bangers and mash, and 'Scotch' (sic) steaks. And the majority of these simple yet substantial dishes can be had for less than £10.

In a city that provides us with so many alternatives, it's refreshing to find normality is still alive and well, and that there are still some decent venues which don't take themselves too seriously. Over and out.