Wolseley, The

The Wolseley heralds the long-awaited return of Jeremy King and Christopher Corbin, founders of Le Caprice and The Ivy, to the London restaurant scene. At the AA Awards 2004 the Wolseley received the accolade of 'AA London Restaurant of the Year', and was also awarded one rosette.

It is a Restaurant-Cafe in the grand European tradition. The café menu has breakfast, morning pastries, afternoon tea, snacks and salads - whilst the main menu is very much in the brasserie tradition offering a broad range of classic European dishes. The place is open from early to late, and the choice has been kept deliberately simple, from eggs Benedict to chicken soup with dumplings or spit roasted shoulder of lamb.

It is a former Wolseley car showroom, hence the name, which was home recently to the short lived Chinahouse. They have had it restored by designer David Collins, who has made full use of the magnificent 30 foot high pillars.

However, Jeremy and Chris have sensibly brought in certain other parties to help run it, namely Ed Wilson as Head Chef and a good quality pastry chef. Enormously successful right from the start, and then who knows what might follow. One thing is the Restaurant of the Year Award from Harpers and Moet Restaurant Awards, 2005.

Matthew Fort for The Guardian said about his visit: "The black pudding at breakfast was outstanding and the sausage very good. The hot chocolate at elevenses was the best I have ever had. You would be hard- pressed to find a finer frisee aux lardon in Lyons, and Tucker said the Wiener schnitzel was textbook stuff.

The coupe liegeois was to die for - literally, as well as figuratively. There was real tea in the teapot, a timer to ensure it brewed for long enough, and sticky cakes to put a further gloss on death. At dinner, the steak tartare, spit-roasted suckling pig and skate were exemplary. Rating: 17 out of 20."