The River Cafe

The best Italian restaurant in Europe (as nominated by New Yorker magazine? Of course not; the best Italian restaurant will be in Italy. However, neither is it, as A N Other restaurant reviewer put it, the best Fulham restaurant in Europe. It is a one-off: an inimitable conjunction of talents, enthusiasms and family histories. The practice of architect Richard Rogers has designed - and then re-designed - the stylish site that now sports a wood-fired oven that is champion for pizzas, breads and roasts.

Roger's wife Ruthie and her friend Rose Gray are the martinet cooks able to spot a blemish on a leaf of Swiss chard at 100 metres. The philosophy (if that is what you call it) behind the menu is the best of ingredients - tame and wild - interfered with to the point of transformation but not much further. Thus you might get chubby sardines or turbot steak on the bone, roasted in the wood oven and enhanced just with herbs. The chargrill, the other popular cooking method, might sear a butterflied leg of lamb to be served with salsa verde and an oven-cooked dish of potatoes, pancetta and sage; or brand a tranche of wild salmon to be served with new season's green beans and basil mayonnaise.

When it comes to dessert, owners of The River Cafe Cook Book who failed to make their chocolate nemesis hang together can eat the perfected version here. The food is for the most part sublime - the holiday cooking of your dreams - until, come 11.00pm when the place must close, you find yourself in Hammersmith. Service sometimes lacks the zest of the specially imported Sicilian lemons.

WINE: A straightforward, unilluminating list of Vini Rossi and Bianchi is not helped by an innate bias towards, admittedly good, northern Italian wines. The lemon zest La Segreta Bianco from Sicily (£14.50) demonstrates positive modern wine-making techniques; otherwise you are rooted in Pinot Grigio country, hardly the cutting edge of vinicultural fashion. If you are crazy about Sangiovese, try Eugenio Campolmi's savoury Vigneto Le Contessine from Bolgheri, or Querciabella's awesome Chianti Classico. Unfortunately, a succession of poor vintages in Italy means that even average wines are commanding high prices, so grab the '90s and '91s while they last.

Dessert wines - seven by the glass - are worth sampling. I am informed by a reliable source that there is a reserve wine list bristling with goodies that can be asked for. Why do they not publish it?

The River Cafe
Rainville Road, London, W6 9HA