Clipstone restaurant, Fitzrovia

When AA Gill gives ten stars, you know it's good. Portland opened its doors last year to a frenzy of critics' plaudits, with Giles Coren going so far as to call it "a perfect restaurant". So it's incredibly exciting that the very same people have opened a laid-back version just a few streets away, for those times when fancy doesn't fit the bill.

The menu is created again by Merlin Labron-Johnson, executive chef of Portland and now Clipstone too, and one of Portland's sous chefs, Stuart Andrew, has come to look after the Clipstone kitchen.

As with Portland, the menu will be seasonable and highly changeable. It starts with cold cuts and crudos, which at the moment includes lardo di Colonnata with caramelised walnuts and crudo of char with unripe peaches and cultured cream. Summer plates include mussels in sake, coriander and olive oil, and calves' brain meuniere on toast, as well as sourdough flatbreads, with scallops and pesto or cheese and courgette, from their pizza oven (a relic from the old Italian restaurant, Fat Lorenzo's that predated them.

With wine that starts at just £3.50, the alfresco tabels out front are the perfect place to while away a late summer evening.

You can reserve for lunch but not dinner, so we recommend going now, before London gets clogged up again with returning holidaymakers.

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