Slice of sunshine

This is one of those restaurants that you want to be rude about but, try as you might, you just can't. To begin with, 202 is located on Westbourne Grove, that rat run of designer boutiques known as the Bond Street of Notting Hill. Even well-heeled investment bankers with five-storey houses on Blenheim Crescent have been known to complain about the number of Yuppies on Westbourne Grove.

Then there's the fact that everything in 202 is for sale. Indeed, it's not really a restaurant at all. It's more of a honey trap designed to lure unsuspecting shoppers into what must be the most expensive shop on the street. 202 is owned by Stephen Marks, the retail tycoon who also owns Nicole Farhi, and once you've sat down at your table it gradually dawns on you that the secondhand mirror you're gazing at is a 'Nicole Farhi antique mirror' that sells for £6,750, the cane chair you're sitting on is £334 and the oak table you're eating off is £1,000.

Nicole Farhi is one of those educated, uppermiddle-class entrepreneurs whose radical credentials remain untarnished no matter how successful they become. (If you look up the term 'woolly liberal' in the dictionary there's a picture of Michael Palin in a Nicole Farhi sweater.) Her home furnishings - and I have to confess to owning a couple of items myself - have become a byword for left-of-centre good taste. They somehow manage to give the impression that, in addition to sympathising with Guatemalan coffee pickers, you're really rather posh.

Interestingly, though, the sort of people who flock to 202 don't allow their concern for the fate of the planet to extend to their choice of vehicles. To judge from the cars parked outside the restaurant last Saturday, 202 was playing host to a convention of gangster rappers. Yummy mummies who in every other respect were perfect world citizens, right down to the Peruvian headgear of their newborn babies, would leave the restaurant and jump into BMW X5s and Mercedes ML320s as if they were about to appear in an episode of Footballers' Wives.

However, the restaurant itself is impossible to fault. In spite of only having room for 80 people, over 500 covers are served on a typical Saturday, a number that's all the more remarkable considering it isn't open in the evenings. Nevertheless, an atmosphere of calm efficiency prevails, thanks largely to the even-tempered good humour of manager Gil Reddick.

My party of four was seated almost immediately and our 'brunch' - the only meal that's served all day - arrived after about 20 minutes. I had French toast with bacon and maple syrup, while my wife had a Greek salad that she said was one of the nicest she'd ever tasted. With its airy, well-lit atmosphere and simple American food, 202 reminded me of one of those upscale bistros that's situated on that stretch of Sunset Boulevard known as Sunset Plaza. It's a little slice of California in the middle of Notting Hill.

After spending a couple of hours in 202 you'd be forgiven for thinking that the zeitgeist has taken up residence in this particular corner of West London. It's the sort of place you expect to see A-list celebrities doing a spot of afternoon shopping and, as if to confirm this, Minnie Driver strolled in with her mum and sat down at the nextdoor table.

If your wife's nine months pregnant, your house is mortgaged to the hilt and your idea of heaven is a brand-new Range Rover, I recommend 202. Instead of feeling middleaged and bourgeois you might come away thinking of yourself as quite hip. In my case, it was a feeling that lasted all of five minutes. Then I got in my Skoda and drove back to Shepherd's Bush.

202, 202 Westbourne Grove, W11 (020 7727 2722)