It's Notting special

Now here's a newcomer with a spectacular pedigree. Owned by Nigel Platts-Martin (The Square, La Trompette), it has a protégé of Michelin-starred Philip Howard in the kitchen (Aussie Brett Graham, a former Young Chef Of The Year).

It also boasts one of the highest-profile maitre d's in the business in the leggy, blonde form of the unforgettably titled Helena Hell.

It looks ravishing, too. In what used to be Dakota, they have created a dramatically monochrome room lit by intriguing chandeliers made from fluid droplets of smoky glass.

In warmer weather, when the massive glass windows open on to an attractive streetside terrace, it's going to be a stunner. No doubt these tables will become among the most hotly sought-after in town.

Just days after opening, the joint was jumping. When we arrived to a virtually empty room, an attempt was made to corral us into a positively Siberian table for two.

I remonstrated and the standard 'those other tables are for four' excuse was duly trotted out.

I remonstrated further, becoming unattractively Violet Elizabeth Bott: 'You're not likely to be fully booked... and I'll be grumpy.'

Ms Hell looked at me pityingly, graciously conceding a table. It's testament to this grace that, when the dining room filled to bustling capacity, she didn't feel moved to waft past us with a victorious: 'See?'

The clientele is of that older Notting Hill type - wealthy, vaguely media-ish, brayingly middle-class - that makes anyone but members of their own breed feel like the oikish gatecrasher at the party.

And the menu is as conservatively confident as the clientele: no surprises here. A waiter described it as 'modern French' but I reckon 'solid W11' would be closer to the mark. There are tarte fines, ballottines and all manner of traditionalism.

I confess to finding it a trifle dull. What did excite was an amuse: perfectly clear, limpid gelée tasting of concentrated tomato and basil, containing a depth charge of avocado and topped with flawless lime-and-coriander-scented tuna.