Tamarind: shining bright?

It must be galling to be one of the only two-Michelin-starred restaurants in Britain and then to lose your award-winning chef. The powers-that-be at Tamarind must be as sour as their eponymous fruit. And when your award-winning chef (in this case, Atul Kochhar, who's run the Tamarind kitchen for seven years) decamps to open his own gaff virtually on your doorstep, you must be feeling somewhat jittery. So what to do? Close down for a couple of weeks, splash out on a £250,000 refurb and open with a new chef and menu, is the answer in Tamarind's case.

The food is still very, very good - though whether the famously reactionary Michelin bunch will let them retain their star is anyone's guess. It's a subdued, hushed reverence kind of place: sophisticated and very, very Mayfair.

Prices are high, but there's a set lunch menu at £14.50, which represents magnificent value. For this modest sum, I ate tender, sparkily spiced chicken livers on a fluffy cloud of naan; creamy, soothing dhal; a potent sludge of minced lamb vibrant with ginger and spring onion; buttery, minted paratha; perfect basmati studded with vegetables and chunks of paneer; spiced fresh vegetables; and two immaculate sorbets of mango and raspberry.

My more upscale date ordered a la carte: her spiced patties of minced lamb were almost preternaturally light (and, with cinnamon and coriander, distinctly different from my lamb). Generous chunks of swordfish and monkfish, the first marinated in vivid, green spicing with mint and coriander, the other in a mellow, tikka-ish blend; both smokily toasted from the tandoor, were piscine paragons.

Service was a little hiccupy - we had to beg for our wine - but Tamarind just oozes class, star or no star.

20 Queen Street W1. Tel: 020 7629 3561. Tube: Green Park