Worth the climb

They can grumble a bit, those folks in Belsize Park. Cries of derision could be heard from Primrose Hill a few years ago when the Load Of Hay pub got the Changing Rooms treatment and emerged as a designer bar-and-restaurant operation called The Hill. At the time there were complaints from punters, lamenting the passing of the traditional spit-and-sawdust pub. The pub had, in fact, lain derelict and abandoned for a few years prior to its reincarnation.

Reclusive bar proprietor Robert Newmark - the man initially behind Soho bars Mondo and Freedom, and currently behind $ Grills And Martinis in Exmouth Market - was responsible for The Hill and made a fist of making the place work, but its over-the-top, camp-kitsch interior obviously proved to be a design feature too far.

It closed a few months ago and reopened at the beginning of July, this time in the safe hands of Jo and Rupert Clevely - aka the Posh and Becks of the hospitality industry - who now run 16 contemporary pub and lounge-bar venues throughout the capital.

Although the press release promised 'a complete refurbishment' of The Hill, I detected few changes. Large picture windows, a central island bar hiding the smallest of kitchens, chandeliers, gilded mirrors and purple crushed-velvet furnishings remain in evidence.

A formal seating area to the right of the bar is the restaurant bit (curiously, I was told I couldn't eat in the bar area). Faux-antique chairs in the main bar look handsome but are wholly impractical for congregating over drinks and chatting with friends. A small ante-room has robust wooden furniture and is about the most comfortable place in the house. A beer garden with smart parasols will prove to be a boon on sunny days.

The drinks are interesting enough, though. Draught beers include the wonderful Budvar beer, Fuller's London Pride and Aspall cider (a dry cider from Suffolk). Bottled beers include Duckstein, Budvar, Tiger, Asahi and Scrumpy Jack cider.

La Croix is a lamentable French vin de pays that often pops up on wine lists as the 'house' offering. It's best to avoid it, particularly at £11.40 per bottle as charged here. Given that four of the 14 white wines offered are chardonnays - a style I don't favour - the choice is somewhat limiting.

A Louis Latour Chablis is optimistically priced at £22.

Moving into the restaurant area, I tucked into an agreeable bottle of Spanish rioja (Marqués de Griñon, 2001, £15.50) while assessing the food menu, which contains seriously grown-up modern British dishes, and at very grown-up prices.

But the food is a cut above and will raise the bar to stratospheric new heights. My chosen dish of roast duck breast (served with fondant potato and a rhubarb-and-ginger pureé) was a triumph of tenderness, succulence and flavour. This treat was charged at £12.95 and additional vegetables (£2.50) are required which, when I visited, were cauliflower and, rather carelessly, another portion of potatoes. A single egg Benedict as a starter is enthusiastically priced at £5.95. These are the prices we pay for gentrification.

I will probably return to The Hill again one day, as it has a relaxed, laid-back vibe, which seems to be proving to be a hit with mature, local residents. If the people of Belsize Park have a complaint about the place this time around, it will probably be to do with the fact that The Hill put the word 'astronomic' into 'gastronomic'.