Anyone buying runs the risk that they’ll spend a huge fortune on a huge disappointment.After leaving Sotheby’s I headed off to the awards dinner for the 1998 International Wine Challenge, not 10 minutes away. Following the rarefied atmosphere of the Girardet wines it was pleasant to come down to something nearer real life. Two medal winners quickly, first of all Maglieri Shiraz Mclaren Vale 1996 Last year it was the 1995 that won. I’d tasted it not long before at Unwins and had been deeply impressed by its massive but well-integrated package of spice and aromatics (pounds 8.99).

Two: the gorgeous, lime-fresh Champagne Le Brun de Neuville Cuvee Chardonnay, which sells for the outlandishly low price of pounds 12.75. Not easy to get hold of unless you live in London, but the importers/retailers, Waterloo Wine Co (0171 403 7967), will ship it happily if you ask nicely Do ask, before it all runs out.. I CLEAN FORGOT the leather floor A terrible admission, I realise, but it’s true A leather floor is quite a talking-point. So how could I have missed it? I passed through the bar and never once glanced down at the floor.

I didn’t notice any particular lightness of step as I tripped gaily towards our table, nor indeed as I exited, with the slower, duller pace of one who has just been exceedingly well fed. Once I’d braved my way into the entrance hall, past the tall, blond doorman complete with walky-talky, I began the gentle wind down towards the bar. The polished stairs spiral down like a magnificent ammonite, and the theme of the interior is instantly made plain: cool, perfect circles, layered and linked like the cogs of the old printing machines that once churned out the pages of the Morning Post right here in this building.
The second descent from the circular gallery of the bar brings you to the restaurant proper, and reveals the back area, a circular room centred around the hub of a large circular table My friend Dominic eyed it with approval. Perfect for client meals, he explained to me, because everyone can see and talk to everyone else; strangely enough, that’s not so common in the more up-market London restaurants.Ordinary, square tables radiate out around the other room, emphasising the circularity. A striking mural drives home the theme of the circle and its axis. Exploding out from the cen-tre are blocks of dull yellows and ochres and browns – a circular city scape Actually, I didn’t much like it.

Dom said it looked like the kind of thing you used to get on canteen walls, or other large institutional expanses, and I had to agree.The menu, on the other hand, was a distinctly pleasurable read. It’s nice to escape from the incessant obsession for all things chargrilled and sub-Med. The chef, Mark Gregory, is not scared to be different or to stand by his own preferences, which have a leaning towards the finer things of this country This is particularly evident in the meat section. How often do you see jugged hare on a menu, or indeed hay-roast lamb and champ?The Mediterranean is not entirely ignored – he’s too good to make that kind of tactical error – and I was tempted by the risotto with crab, but let my attention wander and refocused on another crab starter, this time a cocktail of crab and artichoke.