Having gone on at some length about the menu-writing skills of Rowley Leigh and the part they played in the runaway success of newcomer Le Café Anglais it’s a pleasure to see that he is not alone. Mark Hix is the latest chef to take on the challenge that is the Grill at Brown's Hotel on Albemarle Street, he is “a consultant” which seems to mean that he directs matters, creates the menu, recommends the suppliers, and appoints a new chef – in this instance the talented Lee Streeton with whom he worked in his previous incarnation as chef director of Caprice Holdings. You can always tell when a menu is a real whizzer, that’s when, as you read it, every item seems to scream “eat-me”.

Try deciding which of these starters to have: fried monkfish cheeks with caper mayonnaise; potted Morecambe Bay shrimps; treacle-cured salmon with pickled fennel and cucumber; Romney Marsh beetroot salad with Golden Cross goats’ cheese; chicken livers on toast with chanterelles; or baked razor clams? There is nothing listed that doesn’t appeal.

The rest of the menu is littered with dishes that combine simplicity with carefully sourced ingredients and hearty Britishness – rabbit braised in cider with wild garlic; pan-fried Burford Brown egg with baby squid and black pudding; Blackface mutton and turnip pie; lamb cutlets with kidney and bubble and squeak; skate wing with brown butter, capers and brown shrimps.

I haven’t eaten at the Grill during a regular service, but I did have lunch there at a long table with various suppliers including the man behind Cornish Sea Salt (well packaged, tastes salty, sustainably produced – since you ask). The overall standard of cooking was excellent and Lee Streeton looks like being a man to watch. One dish was exceptional – delicious, contrasting textures, elegant and simple. It was a slightly salted chunk of cod with mashed potato. Mark Hix makes no bones about stealing the idea for the dish from a Michelin spangled Frenchman but it has been refined and perfected. You take a thick fillet of cod and then pack it in salt for half an hour, this pulls some of the water out of the flesh so that when you cook it the flesh becomes meaty and flaky (to get the best flakes it must be a thick fillet), the potato (which could be more accurately described as butter with some potato added) is very sloppy and acts as both sauce and seasoning. The charm of the dish lies in the contrast between firm flakes of fish and ultra smooth purée. When it is plated the hunk of cod sits atop some buttered sea vegetables. A truly outstanding fish dish.

Charles Campion

The Grill at Brown's Hotel, 33-34 Albemarle Street, W1 (020 7493 6020) www.brownshotel.com