Restaurant Gordon Ramsay

Mr Ramsay is not a man to let the grass grow, with the most recent openings including Bread Street Kitchen in the City (see entry), and a new venture in Montreal, and of course, the telly shows continue unabated. In an era of austerity-led belt tightening, globally-branded superchefs may seem a bit passé, but Ramsay Holdings still runs a dozen operations in London alone, although the man whose name is above the door of the Royal Hospital Road flagship leaves the work to protégée Clare Smyth and her team these days. And that task is to interpret the Ramsay take on classic French haute cuisine. Since it opened in 1998, this address has become one of London's gastronomic institutions. The place has the presence of an exclusive establishment with its 15 or so tables in a setting of quiet refinement - and the prices have always been at the vanguard of UK restaurant pricing structure, to put it nicely. But this is not every-day eating, what you are paying for is clearly on display, from the quality of the cooking to the peerless service lead by maître d' Jean-Claude Breton. The food is not about showboating or pushing the envelope with outlandish propositions of taste and texture: what is on offer is top-level technical precision that delivers refinement and balance, and it is all veneered with a lightness and assurance of touch. By all means go for broke with the full-dress menu prestige, but the set lunch is a good entry level route, and a relatively affordable deal when you're eating at this level. In autumn, that means opening with pan-fried Isle of Skye scallops with peas, broad beans, quail's egg, crispy pancetta and baby gem lettuce. The sheer quality of the raw materials is again stunning in a main course that delivers the compelling flavour combinations of roasted fillet of turbot with coco beans, earthy girolles, fresh almonds, punchy Morteau sausage, fennel pollen, and a deeply intense chicken jus. The pace-setting standards continue through to a dessert of banoffee pie soufflé matched with banana and salted caramel crumble. The wine list offers mind-bending stuff from France and the world's top producers, with prices to match, but does not sideline those who want to drink on a more accessible level.