Notting Hill Brasserie

Three Edwardian houses have been re-modelled to make the romantic Notting Hill Brasserie - although this is not a brasserie in the conventional sense of the word. Call first at No 92 and perch on a high stool at the cocktail bar to a soundtrack of live easy-listening jazz before moving on to the warren of intimate, low-lit dining rooms, where linen-clad tables are dressed to impress, and soothing shades of mushroom and café crème walls go with period plasterwork and...African artefacts. The lunch menu du jour is a wallet-friendly way in to chef Karl Burdock's inventive modern European cooking, otherwise, take a deep breath and plunge into the carte. Dishes are well conceived, and deliver the advertised flavours and textures with panache, starting along the lines of lobster and prawn cannelloni with cauliflower purée and lemongrass velouté, and leading to meaty mains such as duck magret with Savoy cabbage, bacon, pumpkin purée and confit potatoes. Fish gets similarly unfussy treatment, as in pan-fried cod fillet with artichoke purée, wild mushrooms, salsify and red wine sauce, while desserts end with a classic tarte Tatin with crème fraîche and Calvados sauce. Add in polished service, and jazz-themed lunches on Sunday for the kind of neighbourhood restaurant we'd all welcome on our patch.