LONDON LIFE

MAISON FRANÇOIS, 34 DUKE STREET, SW1

Is this London’s most exciting new restaurant?

Despite everything that 2020 has thrown).The dining room is pared-back Art Deco style with pinky-hued patina-coloured walls; the food is simple, French cooking at its best. Plump Loch Fyne oysters, sizeable slabs of sirloin steak, John Dory fillets on a thick and glossy onion soup. The purple grape margaritas look menacing, but are, in fact, magnificent. Save some room for the puddings that are paraded around the room on an old-fashioned wooden trolley. All are made on site, as are the loaves of freshly baked bread, available to buy and take home throughout the day. Downstairs is a slick, Manhattan-inspired bar, in which to while away the night (as soon as the Government's 10pm hospitality curfew lifts). Yes, it's smart and worth getting dressed up for, but neither is it simply another starched, white-tablecloth St James's establishment.