If your face fits

Being an old goat who is given to curmudgeonly tendencies, I never answer my door at home unless I know who it is (appointments always necessary) or I can see that it's my postman, heavily laden with promising-looking parcels. I don't encourage casual callers, but then again I am not relying on the arrival of unexpected guests for my income.

When I turned up at Maida Vale's newest bar Graze (previously a barcumrestaurant known as Otto), I had to go through the rigmarole of ringing a doorbell then waiting for the unsmiling bird at the other side of the glass door to give her visual approval and buzz me inside. This she did, and I was very grateful.

The vast, first-floor bar makes for an elegant drinking arena, with rows of comfortable booths and wellspaced clusters of robust lounge furniture. It looks every inch a superior quality style bar operation and a perfect place to graze over a glass or two of something wicked.

Four quid is a bit steep for a bottle of beer, though, and this might go some way to explaining why the place was virtually empty on both of my midweek visits. The wine list is prohibitively expensive to many budgets too. The cheapest white wine on the list is a mediocre Pinot Grigio at £17 a bottle, with the majority of the rest in the £20-£40 category.

The cocktails are of exceptional standard and there is evidence of mild restraint in the pricing, with most running in around the £7 mark. And the list is helpfully divided into neat sub-sections - long drinks, Martinis, short drinks etc --with useful, detailed descriptions of each.

Snacks at the bar include soft shell crab (£8.50), steak sandwich (£8), and a plate of chorizo with red wine jus and onions (£5.50). There is a restaurant on one side of the building serving a full menu of modern European dishes.

The man behind Graze is the dynamic Dane Soren Jessen, who is also behind One Lombard Street in the City and Noble Rot in the West End --both excellent venues, with a faithful following of City types and media moguls with fewer budgetary constraints.

However, Maida Vale is a very different geographic beast, almost totally residential. Friends who live there love this exciting new addition to the social circuit but confess they will only be able to afford to use it on special occasions.

I know what they mean. Even though DJs liven things up a little at weekends (a 1am license also helps), Graze is just not cutting it as a destination venue. I would love to go back but I'm not certain this place will still be around the next time I have an occasion special enough to revisit Maida Vale. Shame.

Graze
215 Sutherland Avenue, W9