Chiswell Street Dining Rooms

Offering an all-day menu to smart City types, Chiswell Dining Rooms puts on a splendid variety show. The menus celebrate contemporary British flavours with carefully sourced produce, seasonal dishes and simple cooking styles.

Full-on breakfast fry-ups, classy lunchtime pub meals, cream scones for afternoon tea and even dinners for elastic expense accounts are all available.

Throw in a doorstopper of a wine list, snazzy cocktails and speciality British beers, and if feels like the complete package.

Chiswell Street is the latest addition to Tom and Ed Martin's group of gastropubs, which includes The Gun, Cadogan Arms and The Botanist.

This site sprawls across three knocked-together rooms that were once a Whitbread Brewery building. Cream-coloured wall panelling in the dining area is enlivened by shades of lime-yellow upholstered seating and biscuity-hued banquettes.

This place also has a decent, if noisy, watering hole - although the vibe is more of a buzzy bar than a typical traditional boozer. The service on our visit was seamless, attentive and friendly.

Tables are quite close together - great for eavesdropping, but not recommended for a romantic tryst over a plate of oysters. If privacy is paramount, there's a spread of rooms where you can savour such delights as seared foie gras and Herefordshire snails, well out of earshot of nosy neighbours.

White onion and sage soup, enriched with robust chicken stock, scored top marks for infusing herby mildness into a subtly sweet and creamy onion base. The delicacy of Lincolnshire smoked eel morsels also won us over, their texture contrasting with the crunch of shredded celeriac dressed in lemony mayonnaise.

Main courses were splendid. Cornish lemon sole, lightly fried with the barest hint of a crust, sauced with citrus dill butter, was cooked to perfection.

And a trio of plump lamb chops were a triumph of succulence. The meatiness was well-matched with a summery spin on cassoulet - broad beans, tender peas and butter beans flecked with diced tomatoes.

Puddings include such classics as posh knickerbocker glory, crème caramel, sticky toffee pudding and big fat sundaes. And there's a monthly cheeseboard featuring the artisan movers and shakers of regional cheesemaking.

Yet it wasn't all smooth sailing. A summer pudding was overshadowed by too much bread in proportion to squishy berries - it was redeemed only by tiny, refreshing scoops of apple parfait and gooseberry sorbet.

That said, the Martin Brothers have done it again, creating a destination restaurant where you'd least expect to find one.