Heavenly treats on top of a shopping precinct

In this frenetic world, one of our biggest luxuries is time. That's why there's been such a massive growth in the catering industry and why we're willing to pay more to eat out. Someone else to source it, cook it and clear away the mess; we'll fork out loads for convenience.

The London restaurant scene currently feels a bit like Premiership football, with a small band of superchefs dominating the scene. These celebrity cooks are able to command huge transfer fees, with backers willing to pour resources into opening up new destination eating places. The latest of these chefs is Rowley Leigh, best known for his work at Kensington Place. He's renowned in the business for being a wunderkind, and he's just opened Le Café Anglais at the top of Whiteleys.

The last thing you would imagine busy, bustling Queensway needs is another restaurant - the place is already wall-to-wall with them. It's a eclectic street where East meets West, studded with Moroccan and Turkish cafés. People were sitting outside smoking hubble-bubbles the night I was there and it was cold.

A bold move, then, from Mr Rowley to set up shop in an overcrowded market, and in a shopping precinct to boot. But it's a concept that echoes the hugely popular Le Marché Victor Hugo centre in Toulouse, which has a number of superb, working restaurants in a rather scruffy setting directly above the market.

Le Café Anglais has two entrances: a discreet, non-entrance off the street, or direct access from the busy shopping mall itself. (If you're taking a date, I'd use the former.) Inside, however, it's one giant and unified space - a beautiful proletariat whole.

They just don't build interiors like this any more, with acres of space and Art Deco windows that by day produce the most wonderful light. The décor is beige (a colour I normally detest, since it symbolises safety and mediocrity), but oddly enough, I loved it. And whoever does the flowers deserves some sort of plaudit. It's a very open room and my romantic-novelist guest pointed out that it would be the last place you'd come if you wanted an assignation.

Assignation? The tables are much too close together for anything risqué and illicit. And anyway, with a menu like this, who could be bothered with romance? It has the most interesting and original combinations of food I've seen in ages and choosing what not to have was more taxing than Alistair Darling. Unusually, there's an hors d'oeuvres section and we started with parmesan custard and anchovy toasts. These were heavenly: the creamy, cheesy custard just the right consistency for dipping the sophisticated soldiers in. The endive that accompanied the rabbit rillettes had a surprising and tantalising whisper of cinnamon. Definitely not something you'd make at home.

First courses were just as unusual. Eel and bacon salad slid down a salty treat, and fonduta with salsify was covered with a hillock of shaved white truffle. Truffle is always a luxury, the novelist decided, as she deftly scooped up the last mouthful.

The mains were a touch disappointing. The Dover sole was advertised as 'plain', so why did it arrive via the White Cliffs in a sea of butter, especially as there was a sauce béarnaise on the side? And the mallard with orange and red onion salad just had too much going on, including tiny, potentially tooth-cracking olives the size of capers. Unfortunately, the apple charlotte tasted like overcooked fried bread, but the bitter chocolate soufflé with a teeny spoonful of pistachio ice cream is set to become the signature pudding. It was perfect.

Service was a bit hit and miss, but you get the sense that everyone is just settling into their roles, the staff displaying the same kind of eager and nervous sweetness as new parents. The restaurant was busy the evening we were there, and is fully booked for the immediate future. With 150 covers, this is pretty impressive.

I stepped outside into a night that felt as if all the furies were descending in a torrent of cold, driving rain, but blissfully the novelist pulled from her bag an umbrella she'd bought earlier for £2.99. Cheap umbrellas and shopping malls. Sometimes you can find luxury in the most surprising places.

Le Café Anglais
8 Porchester Gardens, W2 4YQ