Smoking seventies boozer

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't get this retro thing. As far as I can see, it's about donning rose-coloured spectacles and turning back the clock to a time that never really existed. Perhaps it's the peculiar irony of British humour that sees us replicating the style - crazypaved chimney breasts and kaleidoscope-patterned wallpaper - that accompanied the 1974 Winter Of Discontent, the three-day working week, power cuts and massive unemployment.

The design of Smoke Rooms harks back to this period with the refurbishment of the site formerly known as Cento, and more recently as 100, and the people behind this new venture also own and operate the Smoke Bar & Diner --Tooting Bec's only contemporary style bar.

Smoke Rooms is bravely positioned between two top-quality style bars - Sand and the White House - but is competing with neither. Here they've tried to create an understated bar that isn't a million miles removed from the workaday pub it once was. The contemporary look comes with the predictable brown leather furnishings and a deeply annoying plasma TV screen that seems permanently tuned in (with muted volume) to one of the satellite channels. A nice patio sits in front of the pub, which will afford terrific views of the traffic thundering past on those warm days.

A proud selection of draught beers is on tap - Staropramen, Leffe Blonde, Pilsner Urquell - and the selection of bottled beers includes Pilsner Urquell, Steinlager and Sol. The list of 18 wines includes six by the glass, covers most of the bases and is priced between £10.95 for an unchallenging Embleme d'Argent (Colombard or Syrah Grenache), and £27.95 for a 2000 Santenay Vielles Vignes Domaine de Choupette, a good, if expensive, Burgundy.

Burgers seem to be big sellers on the food menu - one ordered rare and another well-done were identically cooked - that includes smoked salmon fettuccini (£8.50), bangers and mash (£8.50), rib-eye steak (£11.95) and confit duck leg (£10.95).

One of my visits included a Tuesday night, when I turned up to find a quiz about to start. It seemed churlish not to join in this trivial pursuit and I reckon my team of three would have won had it not been for the hapless quizmaster (are all quizmasters failed DJs who love the sound of their own voices?) who hadn't quite got all the correct answers to the relevant questions. But I wasn't bitter.

I probably will go back again, but not in a desperate hurry. The staff aren't quite as efficient as they are in Tooting - one of the girls had to be told that the people waiting at the bar were looking to get served - and the food isn't nearly as good, but they've made a fine enough stab at being a decent neighbourhood boozer.

Smoke Rooms
100 Clapham Park Road, SW4