Trinity Restaurant

Situated in the Polygon on the north side of the Common, Adam Byatt's Trinity is a neighbourhood restaurant and then some. In a cool atmosphere of smartly dressed tables, cane chairs and windows that open up to the pavement for when the sun shines on Clapham, some astonishing culinary magic is being worked. This is the kind of quality that's worth the Tube ride from some distant part of the capital. Byatt enjoys the juxtapositional approach of the modern British culinary movement, in which previously unacquainted ingredients are introduced harmoniously to each other, in presentations that look neat and polished. A starter of pig's trotter on sourdough comes with fried quail's eggs, sauce gribiche and crackling for a mix of refined and earthy flavours, not to mention textural excitement, while more pig (from the other end this time) could be teamed with smoked eel in a warm salad dressed in a beetroot and apple vinaigrette. The sense of sharpness and high definition continues into mains such as crisp-skinned black bream fillet, which arrives with charred cuttlefish, a potato salad and tartare dressing, or slow-cooked duck breast with a Lyonnaise tarte fine and 'scotched' duck egg. The combinatorial approach sees cheeses paired with an appropriate partner (who's for Beenleigh Blue with drunken apricots?), while desserts again mobilise the zestier flavours of rhubarb and pineapple, although there is Valrhona chocolate too, perhaps as a 'hotpot' with blood orange ripple ice cream, for those in need of their fix. It all comes with a fine selection of wines by the glass.