Where do you go for a meal like that? There is an undeniable charm to menus that offer an upgrading of old, down-market and familiar items. At the Boxwood Cafe they have turned this kind of double speak into an art form, and I suppose they start at the very top of the menu - this place is hardly a café. Over the last three or four years the Boxwood has carved out its own niche and built up a loyal band of regulars, the ambience is slick and chic, the menu is the ultimate in unthreatening and if you want you can whistle up the wine list from the neighbouring sibling Petrus and spend a King's ransom on a very smart bottle indeed.

There was recently a story in the trade press announcing the closure of the Boxwood due to the redevelopment of the Berkeley Hotel, but I can confirm that if (and it’s a big bureaucratic battling IF) they get the planning consents they are asking for, the work might start next Spring. I am told that if the building work goes ahead the Boxwood will re-locate and if not it will carry on.

The menu here is interesting if only for the jokes - the starter billed as "Smoked salmon and Sevruga caviar croque-monsieur with a walnut salad" turns up as a rather good toastie - the salmon and fish eggs combo works well, and the only criticism you could muster is that as a starter it is a fairly solid creation, filling a gap rather than firing up the appetite. Among the main courses you'll find an über-burger. This is large and juicy and made from veal and foie gras, it comes with good chips, pixie fine onion rings, a small but perfect Caesar salad and an honest bun. If you like a good burger you'll like this. For dessert it is hard to get past the "Strawberry knickerbocker glory with poppy seed wafers" - a proper tall glass and spoon, sharp strawberry jelly, lots of cream and ice cream - this tastes just like the one you remember from a couple of decades ago.

Don't  think that the food here is all gimmick however, a dish of baked queenie scallops with sea urchin butter impressed; as did a ceviche of Irish salmon; a pan fried fillet of black bream; and a roast loin of suckling pig with garlic roast potatoes.  Service is slick. The only note of caution is that the prices are tad Knightsbridge - starters £7 to £14.50; mains £10.50 to £28; puds £6 to £7. So a toastie-burger-sundae three courser ends up costing £46 plus vat. Café prices? Probably not.

Charles Campion

Boxwood Café, The Berkeley, Knightsbridge, SW1 (020 7235 1010)