Smithfield's taste of gastro

There's one way the proprietors of the Sutton Arms pub and dining room could improve their upstairs restaurant out of all recognition. What they should do is pile up all the chairs on the pavement and set fire to them.

The Sutton Arms is a pleasantly pubby sort of pub that lies between Smithfield Market and the Barbican. Downstairs there's an old-fashioned bar with an elegant barrelshaped glass window bellying on to the pavement, upstairs there is a small dining room seating about 30.

The awful chairs are those small, hard numbers that have a box for hymnbooks on the back and were obviously salvaged from a strict Methodist chapel. At religious venues, such chairs were highly prized as they kept bored parishioners wriggling and awake during long sermons.

Comfort notwithstanding, the food at the Sutton is very good. This is a pub that sends out an amuse gueule - a tasty little canape. The menu changes daily and is blessedly seasonal. Starters such as pigeon terrine, beetroot pickle and toast are hard to improve upon - good chunky terrine, well-seasoned and not too bitterly 'fridge-cold'. A starter of skate with French beans, bitter leaves and green sauce is exemplary. Or how about cured sea trout, samphire and creme fraiche? There is a good cook at work here and the kitchen knows the importance of buying carefully. Mains are also well-handled - veal involtini with anchovy, capers and parmesan comes with fried potatoes (good) and a salad (also good). A grand dish with an array of strident flavours.

Or there may be a pea-and-mint risotto. In the grilled ox tongue, horseradish mash and beetroot, the mash is good and the tongue goes well with the earthy notes of the beetroot. Other mains include roast lamb with ratatouille and sea bass with fennel-and-courgette salad, sauce vierge. These are grown-up dishes.

To round the meal off, there is a black forest gateau (or rather a modern take on the theme), gooseberry fool or Neal's Yard cheeses. The wine list is interesting and the service is friendly and informal. If the chairs were more comfortable, this would be a wonderful place to while away a meal time.

The Sutton Arms
6 Carthusian Street, EC1M 6EB