It's all bright and modern, colourful paintings on white walls with a comfortablelooking fish tank built into the bar. I'm sure that's supposed to be ironic.

Because of its basement nature there are pillars and supporting walls all over the place so you hear more than you can see, always a sense that something's going on around the corner that's far more interesting. There were a few Friday postwork people drinking in the same area as us trying to talk quietly but failing. It all felt conspiratorial and a bit underground.

The menu is very French.

Lots of foie gras and shellfish, as one of my companions, currently pregnant, noted sadly. The same guy took our order in the bar, helping with the choice of wine from a list that starts out reasonable enough but very quickly bounces upwards into big numbers. He gave us a nod when they were ready and we went through to the table. We were brought bread, butter and pesto, all of which were notably good.

Baked St Marcellin came with a salsa of roast red peppers, black olives and tomato. St Marcellin is a soft white cows' milk cheese with a mild nutty flavour that here was accentuated by the process of baking.

The sweet acidity of a wellbalanced salsa cut the creamy richness nicely.

Braised boneless quail stuffed with foie gras and served with cabbage fondue was a hefty winter starter.

The quail was beautifully cooked, moist, tender and mildly gamey and the accompanying cabbage fondue provided good contrast in texture. The foie gras stuffing though was bland, under-seasoned maybe.

Gallette of crab and guacamole came in a pool of gazpacho, a blast of fresh summery flavours that contrasted with the richness of the other starters and the night outside.

Fried black sole fillets were served with a warm salad of new potato and beetroot dressed with horseradish and creme fraiche. The combination of the sweet earthiness of beetroot and potato with the tang of horseradish was fantastic, a great foil for the delicacy of the fish.

Squab pigeon came cooked two ways. Its tiny frail legs and wings had been slow-cooked and the meat was falling off the bones, full of sticky flavour.

The breast meat was grilled, served pink and juicy. It's easy for pigeon to dry out in the cooking process but both parts here were exactly as they should have been. They came with fried foie gras and black truffle mashed potato.

Rack of lamb had a very good herb crust and an intense rosemary jus. It was served with excellent mashed potato with grain mustard and a persillade of asparagus and salsify. Topquality meat with nice seasonal garnishes.

We had one ice cream selection . . . vanilla, white chocolate and rum and raisin. The vanilla and the rum and raisin were great;

the white chocolate had texture issues but good flavour.

The cheese selection was a generous mix of French and Irish. We had two glasses of a French Sauvignon Blanc and a spicy red Graves, as recommended, which we enjoyed. Service wobbled here and there, a sense of nervous uncertainty in some staff who we thought were probably new but we felt that we had been well looked after. The prices felt a bit higher than the comfortable informality might have suggested but the quality of the ingredients and the originality of the cooking has to be considered.