Arthur Potts-Dawson and Jamie Grainger-Smith are co-founders of Eat Green Ltd (previously known as Bliss Restaurant Consultancy). Their positioning of Acorn House in King's Cross as a blamelessly eco-friendly restaurant has brought them recognition and halos.

Water House, which opened last week in Shoreditch beside the Regent Canal, is their second restaurant venture in conjunction with Shoreditch Trust, which runs the New Deal for Communities programmes.

I think it is essential that you know this before setting out to find Water House - I drove, but in a teeny-weeny car - as you otherwise might wonder why you are paying over the odds for food and wine while younger versions of Mitt Romney wait on tables in the wood-lined dining room designed by environmentally sensitive architects Waugh Thistleton.

Potts Dawson has an impressive CV as a chef which includes Fifteen, Cecconi's, Electric House and River CafÈ. When we ate at Water House last Tuesday he was just wandering around in a daze, complaining of having had no sleep for 48 hours.

The food was good but unexpectedly profligate with food miles. Speck d'Aosta, burrata, Taggiasca olives, pancetta, pomegranate, porcini, white truffle oil, and seared Paradise prawns (from New Caledonia) all had a part to play in the dishes.

Best of those we chose were duck confit and cardamom risotto; spaghetti with mussels, porcini, tomato and Diesel oil (presumably from Renzo Rosso's Diesel Farm estate near Vincenza); slow-roast lamb shoulder with sauteed potatoes and mint and steamed cod (sustainable, natch) with smoked brandade.

The restaurant has a small terrace overlooking the canal. We were taken to look at the wormery which will provide compost for the window boxes planted with herbs.

It is a tiny wormery. There can only be less than domestic compostable waste which is, I suppose, in itself a triumph of sustainability. As they say themselves, they are "Trying to change the world one drop at a time".