Stanza Restaurant & Bar

To my mind Stanza represents one of the most exciting additions to the West End eating-out scene for quite a while. A celebration of English cuisine it triumphantly produces some of our best classic dishes with a faultless aplomb, well deserving the press comment that has favoured its launch

First though, the décor, very much an art-deco inspired riot of ostrich leather, Venetian glass and beautiful woods. The designers have hit just the right note.

An à la carte menu leads off with curried parsnip soup, conference pear and Devonshire blue cheese, or terrine of Yorkshire game. Main course dishes are of noble proportions and pedigree, starting with royal fish pie of day-boat caught fish, brown shrimp, lobster sauce and potato crust, Yorkshire venison sausage served with celeriac mash and cranberry gravy, or for two people a 35 day aged Aberdeen Angus rib of beef with triple cooked chips, grill garnish and béarnaise sauce.

Old hands will rejoice to find colonial vegetable curry with raita and okra pakora, something your average British curry house is not always too good at producing.

Desserts are exciting and therefore provocative and cheese buffs with a sweet tooth will have some tough choices to make. Let me just tip the scales slightly by murmuring 'two hoots Barkham blue', not to mention the Duchy oatcakes.