The Chinese leaves were perfectly cooked, the whites still crisp The sweet potatoes were fine,the spicing good. But no Chinese cook would have served duck with the fat so badly rendered. This was a mistake.For dessert, biscotti – spicy, hard Italian biscuits – were wonderful. Another first course, “artichoke with garroxta goat’s cheese and rocket”, was, more simply put, a salad, and as a sum not quite as good as its parts. Wedges of ripe, salty Spanish goat’s cheese were not served to their best advantage at the bottom of dressed rocket and young artichoke hearts.Of the main courses, “baked cod fillet with saffron and tomato on creamy mustard mash” involved good fish (though slightly undercooked) on first- rate spuds, which are served as a side-dish and good enough to elicit tips of Ecstasy, mescaline and Prozac.Roast duck breast was served with stir-fried baak-choi, shiitake mushrooms and a mound of mashed sweet potato. Downstairs, the kitchen staff work in an open-plan kitchen; there are more tables and a particularly pretty garden. The staff are capable and pleasant, with an unflurried dignity remarkable for a new venue.

Best, there is no music.The night I ate, I could have chosen almost everything on the menu, though there was the awkward question of recognising some things – what, for example, are chilli labne croutons? But the menu pretty much spells out what will be coming your way: a first course listed as a “salt cod and chickpea fritter with cucumber and tomato salad” was just that, though it merits my adding that it was deftly spiced, crisp, good. Upstairs is smart and minimal: only when it is full does one notice the tight seating arrangements and wish to stuff one’s starchy, handsome napkin in the mouth of the film director blagging on about Los Angeles at the next table. In the event, he got together with two fellow New Zealanders, Ashley Sumner and Vivienne Hayman, and opened the Sugar Club.It is a double-decker job, the Sugar Club. Name a fashionable spot, and he seems to have done shifts there. But late last year, after being tipped with a gram of cocaine for a plate of chips, Mr Gordon nearly gave up on swinging London. Like Mr Little, Mr Gordon has developed a strong personal style. Also in common with Mr Little, he will be widely imitated – badly.
Flash media-types may already know his food.

It now appears in restaurant reviews more regularly than the words “companion” and “osso bucco”. Basically, it refers to restaurant food that is tricky to classify. This food always manages to cost pounds 30 a head, minimum – and is usually not worth it. The 32-year-old chef Peter Gordon is an unusual Modern British Cook in that he is a serious talent. Never mind that he is from Wanganui, New Zealand – what matters is that he is chef of a new restaurant in Notting Hill, west London, former stomping ground of Alastair Little (darling of MBC).

Question: What is “Modern British Cooking”? Answer: a catchphrase coined to market the 1987 Good Food Guide. Then, when ritual-conscious Americans swap linen suits for tweed (even if it is cut by Ralph Lauren), I shall drink a toast to stylish Scotland And stylish Scotch. The main course was a juniper-crusted venison chop, roasted and served with black olive mashed potatoes. The accompaniment to this dish was the Blood and Sand cocktail.I might try a Blood and Sand one day soon with an M&S roast duck in orange sauce. Grouse (the bird, not the whisky) needs to be hung before it can be eaten, and I shall not be ordering venison and Scotch at the Rainbow Room until after Thanksgiving.