The return of the wine bar

The original Jamies (perhaps it hadn't mislaid its apostrophe back then) opened in South Kensington in 1986. Now there are 15 of them - with more to come, too, using funds raised on the Alternative Investment Market. From a West End base, they've gone stomping straight into the City, thus proving that there's plenty of life left in the old wine-bar dog.

As indeed there should be; we're all wine lovers now. All it takes is a little imagination to get us in there and sipping.

Which, on the surface, is exactly what Jamies lacks. These places look unapologetically bland. The three I visited had pale yellow pictureless walls and mild red carpets. The bars themselves are plain, austere and (from waist height up) bottle-free. The tables and chairs wouldn't look out of place in a school common room. The speakers emit hair-salon music. At the end of a rainy evening, a passer-by hurrying home might spot a Jamies across the street, and suddenly recall the kind of rootless anonymity and last-dollar solitude Edward Hopper painted.

On, as I say, the surface. Owners Roger Preece and David Colbeck, though, are former brand marketeers with Bass and Whitbread; they have got some key things right, and the bars are unquestionably popular. The blandness, in the end, is cleverly unbothersome; no one, young or old, feels out of place here. Both wine and food are genuinely adventurous, though variable in quality. And the staff, based on my visits, seem bright, friendly, well motivated, well trained and welcoming.

The wine-buying, done by Roger Preece himself, is adventurous almost to the point of idiosyncrasy. There is lots to applaud: 36 wines served in two sizes of glass (of which the smaller is still a decent 175ml), including seven organic and a couple of biodynamic wines; magnums of champagne (Heidsieck Monopole) for under £40 between six and eight each evening; and there are wine flights with tasting notes plus a "fine wine shop" (top bottles at retail-style prices) on the way for the autumn.

Of the 11 wines my guests and I tried, one was outstanding (the dark and fleshy red 1998 Rennero from Monferrato at £5.15 for 175ml), and a couple were good (Richard Hamilton's red 1998 Gumprs Block Shiraz, £4.90, is cindery and salty-soft, while the white 1999 Albari-o Castel de Fornos from Bodegas Chaves, £4.65, is appropriately delicate, mineral and apple-scented).

I admired the sheer weirdness of the catty, musky 1999 Portuguese white Espiga from Quinta do Boavista (£3.65) and the big, buxom, orange-blossomy white 1999 Lagrima Virgen (£4.40), a Macabeu from Cari-ena. The 1998 Louis Latour Mâcon-Lugny Les Genevrières, though, was the dreariest example of this wine I've ever tried (£4.75), and the organic 1998 Sauvignon de Touraine from Château Gaillard was sadly weak and weedy (£4.20).

The "Good Ordinary Claret" from Berry Bros & Rudd was more ordinary than good, alas (£3.65); please could we pay a bit more and have something better? In the Kingsway branch, I was served a corked glass of the 1998 Montagny Premier Cru from Domaine Arnoux (£5.40) which the perambulating Sam Jackson replaced with a friendly "no problem" - only to be followed by a second one with exactly the same problem, though a new bottle had been opened. Again Sam cheerfully offered to replace it, but that was when, depressed and crestfallen, I decided to give the Mâcon a go.

You get real linen napkins with the cutlery, an investment I appreciated, and the use of organic beef and lamb is stressed. The short menu (served at lunch and in the evenings) is divided up into "something simple" and "something substantial". From the latter section, roast cod and horseradish fish cakes, served with rocket, skinned peppers and salty, thin chips was comforting enough (£8.75);

I guess it's hard to make an incandescent fish cake. A Ginger Rice Bowl of Hot & Sour Prawns was, regrettably, vinegar-sour rather than citrus-sour, with tough, hardboiled prawns; the accompanying stir-fried vegetables were very good though, with fine black-bean flecks (£9.75). Alas, the dish was not quite substantial enough, so I then needed a follow-up of "simple" Thai fish cakes with coriander, chilli and mango (£5.95).

Despite a rubbery carapace of extraordinary durability, the incising of which made my guest cower, they had some flavour pizzazz. The Meze Plate (£7.95) and the Oriental Plate (£15 for two), ordered by others, looked appealing. Raspberry Br?lée (£4.25) tasted nice but a mite cornfloury, and Jamies is missing a trick by not offering any glasses of dessert wine (port excepted). Lots of tweaks to make, then, but Jamies looks as if it's here for good.

Jamies branches are at 50-54 Kingsway, WC2; 53 Gresham St, EC2; 10 Whitechapel High St, E1; 155 Bishopsgate, EC2; 74 Charlotte St, W1; 25 Birchin Lane, EC3; 13 Philpot Lane, EC3; 43/44 Cloth Fair, EC1; 10 Devonshire Square, EC2; 119-121 The Minories, EC3; 5 Groveland Court, EC4; 107-112 Leadenhall St, EC3; Finsbury Circus Gardens, EC3; 64-66 West Smithfield, EC1; 34 Ludgate Hill. EC4.

Jamies
74 Charlotte Street, W1P 1LR