Restaurants

With rustic breads on shop-window boards where butcher Albert Medcalf's meats used to be displayed, this namesake bar is an exercise in practical good taste. A main room of scuffed wooden tables (each with a small white dish of salt and dwarf pepper grinder) leads to a square bar lounge and an adjoining decked terrace (five sought-after tables and splashes of shrubbery). Back in the main room, bare bulbs hang over a high bar, beside which a side room with a Shoreditch feel stages DJs, exhibitions and casual daytime chess games. The bar's short and sweet menu attracts a stream of diners with the likes of roast pumpkin soup (£4.50), barbary duck breast (£14.50) and honey roast black figs (£5). Five wines by the glass include an unusual Marqués de Aleila pensa blanca (£4.30/£15.75) from Barcelona; a classy Guitton Michel Chablis (£35) shines among the 30 bottles. There's plenty of choice by way of draught beer too, with Paulaner, Erdinger and Brugse Zot from across the Channel, Old Speckled Hen from Greene King in Suffolk, and Meantime from Greenwich. Vedett, Blanche de Bruxelles and Negra Modelo are the pick of the bottles. Booking is advised if you want to sample the food.

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008/9