You are sitting in a handsome, spacious dining room round the corner from Trafalgar Square. It is eight o'clock on a Friday evening but there are only a few other customers. The waitress says that the oysters you have just ordered have "run out". It occurs to you that, with such seemingly minimal attendance, maybe they don't bother to get oysters in.

Too few people to deal with can have a depressing effect on both kitchen and front-of-house. Oliver Peyton's National Café, which stays open outside gallery hours, is perfectly positioned for people amusing themselves in the West End.

David Collins has done a magnificent job on the interior, using daring black gloss on the panelling and shutters in the lofty space and attending to every detail right down to brass inlay on the stout wooden tables surrounded by Thonet chairs.

The menu seems full of intelligent temptation. Maybe more punters in the evening would have meant that the baked sardines had a more immediate association with the sea and the accompanying Catalan tomato bread had undergone more than a cursory swipe with a cut tomato. Halloumi with grilled vegetables was described as having "a faint pine essence" and vitello tonnato was veal in a thin, acidic sauce. Rocket abounded as it is apt to when all else fails.

Macaroni al formaggio had almost no béchamel sauce. It was just little pasta elbows with cheese. Smoked haddock and split pea fishcake was stodgy which, in retrospect, was perhaps predictable. Whole Brixham plaice meunière was good.

A necessary couple of side orders, priced from £3-£4 considerably upped what had seemed like the reasonable price of £14.50. The highlight of our meal was the freshly churned vanilla ice-cream to which you add a ripple and a topping of choice. Caramel ripple and candied orange topping is a combo I can recommend. The wine list is brief and to the point, divided into Good, Better and Best, priced from £13.50 to £20. Taittinger Champagne (NV) is £39.

Now, thanks in some large part to Oliver Peyton, we have got over the initial excitement of having reckonable, thoughtful food within public art institutions, it is time to get down to details such as cooking it well. Then the necessary crowds will follow.