Starry night at Tom Aikens

At first, I couldn't find Tom Aikens. As if to emphasise that this new establishment is for serious foodies only, the restaurant's name is almost impossible to see. I walked up and down Elystan Street several times before eventually figuring out that it must be the brown, box-like building on the corner of Marlborough Street. Clearly, time wasters need not apply.

Tom Aikens the chef, by contrast, is a little easier to spot. A redhead with a temper to match, he emerged from his kitchen after the last lunch had been served looking like a distempered pit bull. Before opening this restaurant, Aikens was famous for two things. The first was being the youngest-ever chef to be awarded two Michelin stars, a distinction he earned while heading up the kitchen at Pied à Terre aged 26. The second was for leaving Pied à Terre in slightly dubious circumstances, having been accused of attacking a 19-year-old trainee in a fit of anger.

It took him and his wife four years to come up with the money to open a place of their own but last May they threw open the doors to this converted pub in Chelsea. It came as no surprise to learn that Anouska Hempel had been 'consulted' over the interior. The former actress is famous for having once used 26 shades of white to decorate the foyer of Blakes Hotel in Amsterdam and, in the case of Tom Aikens, she appears to have used 26 shades of black. Even Laura, the cool blonde who plays Venus to her husband's Vulcan, was dressed in black. For a second I thought I was back in the East Village.

My lunch began, as it often does, with a bit of argy-bargy about the menu. It offered three options: the tasting menu for £59; a three-course à la carte lunch for £49; and a set lunch for £24.50. 'What if I wanted to go for the à la carte option but only have two courses?' 'You'll still be charged £49, I'm afraid,' explained Laura. 'What if I opted for the £24.50 lunch but went off piste for one course?' 'Still £49,' she said. That was bad news since my wife is a vegetarian and there were only two main-course choices if we went down the cheap road: John Dory or lamb. Then again, there wasn't a single vegetarian dish on the more extensive menu, either. What were we going to do?

Laura excused herself to go and have a word with Tom. 'Uh-oh,' I thought. 'These top chefs can get awfully sniffy about vegetarians. What if he loses his temper?' My wife is no shrinking violet at the best of times and, being nine months pregnant, she was in no mood to be messed about with. I imagined some horrible row ending with my wife going into labour. Presumably, after the baby arrived, we'd be told in no uncertain terms that we'd have to pay an extra cover charge.

To my relief, Laura emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later without her husband. 'Tom can do a selection of vegetables and you'll still only be charged the set lunch price,' she said sweetly. Phew.

The food, when it arrived, was absolutely top of the range. I started with a tomato dish that came complete with a little microscopic cucumber with a yellow flower on the end and followed up with the John Dory in a red wine sauce. This is modern French cooking of the very highest standard and I'd be amazed if Tom Aikens doesn't win back his two Michelin stars. Compared to Gordon Ramsay's flagship restaurant, also in Chelsea, it's not even that expensive. 'It's a bargain,' snorted Tom when he did eventually come out of his kitchen.

My wife and I went on a Tuesday lunchtime and we were two of only about 20 customers, all of them wellfed gourmands. However, don't be fooled by this seasonal lull. Tom Aikens is usually very crowded and you'll need to book well in advance to secure a table, particularly if one of you is pregnant. Provided you don't get on the wrong side of the chef, though, you won't regret it.