Smash hit

And the old guy wheeling round the carving trolley smiled, too. Though it was the gentle, hesitant smile of a man who has been wheeling that trolley round that room for so long his lips might have been twitching upwards as he recalled with fondness the day when the invention of the wheel turned his job into a doddle overnight. The joint he carved was a giant roasted rib of Glen Fyne beef and as good as I have eaten in years: a lovely, crispy, blackened end cut from the new joint and three fat, wobbling centre cuts from the one already halfway through; richly flavoured, full of grass and warm sun, and tender as the muffled nothing Bill Murray whispers in Scarlett Johansson’s ear at the end of Lost in Translation. Excellent Yorkshire pudding of the light-as-a-profiterole-with-a-hint-of-crisp variety, and golden roasted new potatoes.

Mark Hix left the Ivy-Caprice-Sheekey-Scott’s-blah-blah-boring-old-best-restaurants-in-town a few months ago to set up on his own, and that will happen soon in Spitalfields. This is a brief stopover to sprinkle an old place with some of his magic and the result is joyful. Wherever Hix goes, wonderful things happen to razor clams, and here, where they are baked with garlic, is no exception; and then the menu is peppered with words like “treacle-cured”, “Romney Marsh”, “Burford brown”, “fallow deer” and “Blackface Mutton”.

Mark is the master of all I profess to love but know very little about. He knows where to get the best food in Britain and he knows what to do with it. And if they’d only throw out the dismal photo art they’ve hung on the walls and let the original oak panelling sing for its supper, I’d say I can’t think of a place I’d rather have lunch on a Sunday.

Oh, and they’ll bring you a jug of iced tap water with no fuss at all. Not that I give a toss, as long as they smile.

The Grill, Brown’s Hotel, 33 Albemarle Street, London W1 (020-7493 6020)

Meat/fish: 9

Cooking: 8

Smiling: 7

Score: 8

Price: about £30-£50 a head not including wine

Waterhouse, 10 Orsman Road, London N1 (020-7033 0123)

Another eco-friendly restaurant from Arthur Potts-Dawson, whose Acorn House I called “the most important restaurant in 200 years” back in December 2006. This time it’s canalside in Shoreditch. I was going to review it, but it would have been hard to do without banging on about water, and I don’t do that any more.

E-mail feedme2@thetimes.co.uk if you know somewhere nice, and maybe we’ll go there together

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