Acorn House Restaurant

This extraordinary restaurant has been described as one of the most important events in London catering, and few would disagree with that. Set up by Arthur Potts Dawson whose cv reads like a roll of honour though some of the best restaurant names in London, he has taken as his theme Modern London. Try feeding that into the list of cuisines and see what happens. Backed by the Shoreditch Trust which delivers the training to the local community, the restaurant offers the staff of the Terence Higgins Trust glamorous fresh food in an eco-friendly way. The whole project smacks of a green approach to organised catering.

Acorn House opens at 8am with a wide range of good eating options, power shakes and smoothies, freshly baked bread, and hot dishes from a menu that incorporates the best of the season's ingredients. As you might expect the place is a paradise for vegetarians but by no means to the exclusion of those of us who persist in broadening the intake somewhat.

The dinner menu, for instance carries potato, porcini and chestnut soup, with starters of Dorset crab with grilled leeks, salsify and chives, a pasta of lobster linguini, followed by chargrilled butterfly mackerel fillet with cardamom and horseradish, or herb marinated sirloin steak, served with grated beetroot and sour cream.

The dessert menu kicks off cheese - nice reversal there - and positively encourages you go for the Somerset Calvados, before listing the "sweet stuff", which includes rice pudding, quince jam and almond milk.

A small, intelligent and reasonably priced wine list sounds like good news, particularly when supported by the rather terse "Alcohol spirits will be available on request". Isn't everything else?