hush Brasserie

hush, one of West London's hidden hotspots, starts the day right with breakfast from 7.30 to 11.00 am. All the essentials are there for a first class healthy breakfast with, say,  a seasonal fruit platter with honey and Greek yogurt, muesli with freshly mixed berries, fruit juices that will really hit the spot, and that essential modern drink, the smoothie perhaps made of vanilla pod and honey.

Connoisseurs of the traditional will rejoice in the boiled eggs with toasted soldiers, good at any time but always a healthy start to the day. For those who must, the full English is there in all its wicked glory with eggs cooked to order and black pudding to back up the bacon. Until I went there I mistakenly thought I was the only man to have poached eggs with his fat juicy kippers, but I wager not.

The main menu is the à la carte, with a series of starters, the contents of which are more normally associated with larger courses, including rare roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and horseradish sauce, whole globe artichoke with hazelnut vinaigrette, organic salmon sashimi with hot sesame oil or perhaps a crispy duck salad with honey and mustard dressing.

For loyal patriots there are dishes that will be forever British, starting with a good steak and ale pie, through to Dorset crab and avocado. The hush hamburger is in a class of its own, and for those wanting something a little different the spiced fillet of salmon with steamed broccoli and soy dressing brings a new dimension to this popular fish now well within the reach of all.

The grill is an essential part of any brasserie's armoury and char-grilled rib-eye steak with watercress - and how well that flavour seems to link with a properly cooked and well-hung steak finished with Roquefort butter. Plenty of imagination is used in making those essential adjuncts to English dishes acceptable to the rebellious who had enough of them at school, so cumin and honey roasted carrots, French beans with garlic and lemon oil and parmesan  fried courgettes with chilli relish do much to embellish the gaiety of nations.

Given this laissez-faire approach to vegetables it would have come as no surprise to find Mars Bars on the dessert menu, but the blessed Bars appear only as part of a cheesecake, backed with praline ice-cream. Many would prefer their Earl Grey alongside some cucumber sarnies given life with a touch of gentleman's relish, but the Heston touch is applied here with sorbets of spiced pear, rhubarb and - yes - Earl Grey.

A series of set menus, at £35 and £40, offer combinations drawn mainly from the à la carte.

The wine list starts at £16.50 and contains some truly sensational contributions from New World vintages that speak well for the long term prospects of wines that not so very long ago were too prematurely treated with a curl of the sommelier lip.

Their Website is attractive, easy to handle and will inevitably attract further interest from those who liking their eating quite traditional but with the advantages of modern preparation and surroundings.