The wine list at Smithy's

And what are they coming to? A pub, a bar, a wine bar or a restaurant? The wooden cobbles on the floor and the horse ramp leading to the former stabling overhead gives the bar area a pubby feel; you can drink London Pride and Hoegaarden if you want. The walls, meanwhile, are covered in blackboards listing bin-end wines of relative grandeur though uncertain storage, a legacy of the previous owners-which partner Hugo Usher is clearingto make way for his own finds.

Stroll through the arch and you'll find yourself in a pleasantly plain bar environment, with tables on a raised area constituting a restaurant zone within the bar. It doesn't, of course, matter much what it is, provided it works, which, thanks to smiling and nimble waitresses, relatively quiet background music and the food described above by Charles Campion, it does.

Usher says his biggest wine problem is trying to wean evening drinkers off the house red and white (both from France, and only £10.50 a bottle, without any obligatory service charge added to your bill). Go on, Leeke Street lushes, try something different: there are 30 or more of both colours to chose from.

I began with a glass of the 2001 Viognier from Gèrard Bertrand, though not without mild foreboding. This grape variety, touted as the new Chardonnay, can produce wines with the scent of a gardenia-lover's conservatory and the unctuous weight of rendered pork fat.

Unlike Chardonnay, though, it loses much of its character when corners are cut, as they have to be if it is to end up in a King's Cross wine bar at £13 a bottle. It wasn't bad, actually: the blossom of a single bloom and some balancing acidity, too, though there wasn't much fat in evidence.

A glass of Jean Moutardier Champagne-at £5, was bland. My guest and I began with rillettes and kidneys, before going on to white bean bruschetta (odd but successful) and mackerel, which made choosing a single wine to accompany everything typically nightmarish. Hugo would have had us drinking Italian white wine which, as we discovered last week at Wimbledon's Light House, goes with everything and offends nothing; but we fancied red.

The '99 Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (spelled Montipluciano here) from Girelli looked a good buy at £13; at the other end of the spectrum, Hugo spoke highly of one of his bin ends, Cesari's 1993 Amarone for £40 and I lusted after Grand-Puy-Ducasse '96 at the same price.

Since I'm curious about the potential of Australian wines in restaurants, though, we went for the 1999 Billi Billi Creek from Mount Langi Ghiran at £22.50, with a tasting glass of the 1998 Tantalus Shiraz-Cab from Elderton (£4.65 or £18 a bottle) to compare.

The Elderton was torpid and dozy; the Langi Ghiran was a bit brighter though rather simple, with lots of fruit-pastille flavours; adequate but forgettable with the food.

On another occasion I'd try the £16, 1998 Cahors from Ch?teau Paillas in search of a bit more character - or, should anyone offer to buy my secrets, Renè Engel's '96 Vosne-Romanèe at £50 or the Gruaud-Larose '94 at £65.

Wine list scores 2 out of 5.