Lots in store in South Molton

At the newly opened 43 South Molton, the public restaurant arm of an established private members' club, it was explained to us that the long wait for the food we'd ordered was due to the existence of a private party. Oh well, that's all right then.

While we twiddled our thumbs, we were able to study at length the products on the shelves arranged to look like a general store in a Third World country. Listerine, Brasso, one-shot instant drain cleaner shared space with Twinings tea and bags of sugar.

The menu comes with a price list for these and other products and objects. This could be useful if, for example, you have a squeaky hinge at home that is driving you so crazy you don't mind paying over the odds for a can of WD-40.

Rough, unfinished carpentry with lavish use of gaffer tape to hold things together may or may not be part of the style apparently conceived by "leading fashion designer Russell Sage". The black wooden chairs, which I suspect are a legacy from the previous restaurant, Khew, on this site, are jolly uncomfortable, particularly when there is a private party on.

Chef Juri Ravagnli, who was previously cooking at Drones Club, has created a menu with an eye to the fashion followers of South Molton Street, but it is a list from which you can also extract a substantial three-course meal.

Items such as mussels with white wine, shallots and cream, hearty veal stew with mashed potatoes and crunchy vegetables, and pan-fried monkfish with chillied spinach and bacon revealed Ravagnli's skills rather better than his attempt to create a healthy salad with raspberry vinaigrette which included unwanted ingredients such as cold sugar snap peas, cold broccoli and cold peas. It was like some life-denying diet from a slimming magazine.

Rack of lamb was beautiful meat, but the accompanying wasabi mash was unnecessarily tricksy and flavour-trouncing.

Sliced mango was a nice dessert. I wish more restaurants would offer prepared fresh fruit. The crème brûlée for those who relish loads of calories in their pudding was good, although according to my sister, the crème brûlée expert, it is better if the custard is not baked.

The small size and corridor shape of 43 South Molton make it a place to use casually rather than as a destination, unless, of course, you suddenly need to buy a cup of sugar.

43 South Molton Street
43 South Molton Street, W1