The Rochelle Canteen is a great place for lunch… sure you’ll have to find the place; and you’ll need to book ahead; and you’ll have to take your own booze – but anyone with the navigational skills of a cub scout should manage it. Which may explain why I (burdened with a cool box heavy with interesting bottles) knocked on a good many doors before finding the right location. When the Rochelle School got turned into an art gallery the bicycle sheds got turned into a canteen with Margot Henderson at the helm. The forthright Margot’s last pukka restaurant gig was a stint, some years ago, at the French House Dining Rooms in Soho, but restaurants are her family business and husband Fergus – whose excellent second book Beyond Nose to Tail is just out and a “must have” – continues to delight at St John and St John Bread and Wine.

You have to respect any resto where the first line of the Drinks Menu reads “PG Tips £1”. But her the whole menu is right on the button – pumpkin soup; potted pork and apple (a brilliant creation like a cross between rillettes and meatloaf – very good texture, very moist); a globe artichoke vinaigrette (mercifully un-messed about with); duck livers chicory and mustard (a splendid salad with lobes of liver pink in the middle). The mains are also blissfully simple – mussels with white wine and saffron; onglet with beetroot; leg of lamb with chickpeas and spinach. All good stuff and followed by a chocolate pot so large and so intense that it did service as pud for four!

The Rochelle Canteen is also one of the bargains of the age: starters £4.50 to £6; mains £8 to £11; puds £3 to £3.50. First book it, then find it.

Four O Nine is a restaurant hidden away over a pub near Clapham North underground station. Like the Rochelle Canteen you have to buzz through on an intercom before being allowed in to the inner sanctum. The chef is Iain Smart who served time at Chez Bruce and the menu here reflects that heritage in its seasonal dishes and big flavours. The room is large and the seating is comfortable (there’s a large bar and a plush “brown” feel to the decor.

The menu splits into half a dozen starters and half a dozen mains. A starter of glazed pork belly with buttery Savoy cabbage and baby onions is a handsome dish – and one large enough to have been classified as a meal for two in the bygone day of Nouvelle Cuisine. The pork was slow cooked to a gluey delight. Other starters were foie gras and chicken liver parfait with tomato jam and warm toast; and a fillet of red mullet with dressed crab, fennel and sauce vierge – a large fillet, perfectly cooked. Mains ranged from a fillet of plaice with smoke salmon, pea puree and gnocchi, to a braised shoulder of lamb with olive oil mash, gremolata and girolles – a fine dish, wholly in tune with an autumnal mood; and herb stuffed coquelet with fondant potatoes, braised celery an meat juices. The prices are restaurant prices: starters £6 to £8; mains £15.50 to £18; puds £6 to £7. Smart cooks very well, service is agreeably informal and there are some decent wines at fair prices. This is a very agreeable restaurant.

Charles Campion

Rochelle Canteen, The Old School Building, ArnoldCircus, (020 7729 5677)

Beyond Nose to Tail, by Fergus Henderson & Justin Piers Gellatly, published by Bloomsbury £17.99

Four O Nine, 409 Clapham Road, SW9 (020 7737 0722)