St. John Bar & Restaurant - Smithfield

Stark décor of bare floorboards, cream walls and large tables in straight rows, leaves the real spotlight deservedly on the food. This is a place where diehard carnivores can get there teeth into a really meaty menu with dishes such as their signature roast marrow bone and parsley salad, to the likes of rolled pig's spleen and bacon. There are a couple of fish dishes and a choice of rabbit or guinea fowl but whatever you do check that anyone you bring to St John isn't vegetarian, as they won't thank you for you choice no matter how well the food is cooked.

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Fergus Henderson's 'offally' clever restaurant just off Smithfield Market uses some of the more esoteric cuts of meat, not normally found on mainstream menus, despite the fact that it is not to everybody's taste, it has continued to grow in deserved popularity.

Though it has won fame - and probably now fortune, as a cookbook has followed - for displaying more of the insides of an animal than the average butcher's counter, Fergus is also an extremely adept chef, and even if some of the dishes might turn stronger stomachs than mine, there are enough 'normal' choices to please most diners.

The menu changes every day, but Superb Isle of Man kippers might vie with pork chops from the Gloucester Old Spot breed, and puddings could include a prune suet pudding and Dorset apple cake; all relatively normal, while the sourcing is excellent, demonstrating the care that Fergus takes to create genuine individuality.

Once a smokehouse, they have cleverly kept the white stone walled setting intact, which some people find a bit plain, but others praise the atmosphere. Though obviously it is mainly a meat eater's paradise, they serve surprisingly excellent bread from their own in-house bakery.

The Cookbook is entitled, "Nose to Tail Eating - A Kind of British Cooking" by Fegus Henderson, and costs £14.99.

Richard Bradford