Staying power... at a price

Some say about The River Café that, yes, it is consistent - consistently expensive, especially at around £50 a head for three courses. Impeccable produce does not come cheap, nor does a team of staff who are well looked after and fed as if part of the family, partly in order to instil an understanding of a particular approach to cooking.

It pays off, as can be seen in the progress of alumni such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver, Ben O'Donoghue (now cooking at The Atlantic) and many others.

Furnishings and tableware are simple but that is part of an ethos whereby gratification should be found in what is on the plate. If, for example, a plate of buffalo mozzarella with mixed winter leaves, Taggiasche olives and pecorino shavings seems an expensive first course at £12, it will only be so if the difference between a specially imported, soft, milky, new-born mozzarella and a ball of Dunlopillo escapes you.

The mozzarella was one first course, agritti con bottarga e limone, a wild Italian leaf something like sea kale dressed with dried mullet roe, was our other choice. There was something a bit worthy and a bit low-tide about the agritti, I thought, but it grew on me (not literally) as I munched my way through it.

One of our main courses was sea bass fillet baked in a parcel with trevise, porcini, thyme and vermouth served with braised Swiss chard. A chef was complaining to me the other day that he can't get wild sea bass for less than £7 a portion, which, when you take into account the usual restaurant margins, explains the River Café price of £28 for a large piece of fish fully garnished. My companion said he would never think to put mushrooms with fish but he thought it worked.

A wonderful, dark, brooding mass of porcini and field mushrooms came with my Anjou pigeon, which had been roasted in the wood-fired oven. A sourdough bruschetta soaked in red wine and meat juices was the other accompaniment, which made it about as dolled-up as any dish would ever be in Italy. The pigeon was a bit cheaper - £26.

My companion asked for only half a slice of chocolate nemesis, which was charged at £3.50, and I helped him eat it so that he should escape the retribution and vengeance of so many calories.

An award for consistency is well worth having. It is the hardest thing to achieve in a restaurant, especially one where the menu is written twice a day.

So many chefs and restaurateurs get their restaurants up and running and well reviewed and then branch off into other fields and other ploys, leaving the customers feeling hard-done-by.

It doesn't matter how little or much you pay, whether for a ham sandwich or haute cuisine; if the product is disappointing it is too expensive. So, my list of "expensive" places includes Cecconi's (but before the new management), Le Pont de la Tour, RV2, Cheyne Walk Brasserie (in its original incarnation) and Oxo Tower Restaurant among many others. Currently at The River Café any chance of disappointment can be avoided by going for the FT Lunch, priced at £15 for two courses chosen from a menu of 12 dishes. Go quickly before the deal ends.

Restaurant open lunch daily 12.30-3pm. Dinner Mon-Sat 7-9.15pm. A meal for two with wine, about £130 including 12.5 per cent service. FT Lunch at £15 for two courses operates until the end of the month.

The River Cafe
Rainville Road, London, W6 9HA