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You can always judge the buzz a new restaurant is generating by the ratio of restaurant critics and chefs to regular punters. When I was here on Tuesday night it was about even.

I knew I was going to like Mark Hix's new gaff but it excelled expectations by having an air of effortless style and integrity that, no matter how many fancy vintage chandeliers and rickety chairs you put in a place, you just can't fabricate.

Simply done with white tiled walls, wooden floors, a small prohibition-style bar to one side and a seafood prepping station to the other, the room seems to be beaming with delight at its makeover (it was previously the slightly sad Rudland & Stubbs fish restaurant). It may not be perfect but, as a back-to-front neon artwork above the stairs quite rightly declares, it's pretty 'f***ing beautiful'.

In true Hix style, at times you feel like you need a food compendium to work out what some of the items on the menu are; like water souchet (a type of eighteenth century fish soup), lamb cutlets 'Reform' (served with an aromatic sauce that originated at the Reform Club), and we'll leave fried skate knobs to your imagination.

But needless to say, it's all delicious and, if in doubt, you can't go wrong with a pile of oysters and a Bloody Mary at the bar.

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Food of the world

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london , continental , to try