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From Islington to Wimbledon, from Birmingham to Sheffield, there's likely to be a branch of this chain near you - yes of course there's one in the Fulham Road! We had an hour to kill in Richmond-upon-Thames before seeing Shine at the Filmhouse, so we ducked into the local All Bar One which was rapidly filling up. There's a large bar with all the latest trendy drinks as well as lots of own label wines. The fruity little Vin de Pays is offered for £2.40, or £3.40 for a mega glass, or £9.50 for the bottle, same price for the house claret, which was drier but quite elegant.

There's a blackboard menu that changes on a weekly basis. The food comes well presented on damn great plates that you'd normally expect to find in a serious foodie restaurant. Don't be mislead by the noisy atmosphere, the food here can be taken seriously. The so-called "small plates" are starters, but even these are generous servings on the same great big plates, liberally dusted with parsley. We had green lipped mussels with tangy spring onion salsa, a very crisp and well dressed salad and some nice walnut bread - excellent value for under a fiver (4.95). The grilled sardines (4.50) in garlic and parsley butter were full of flavour, and the sandwiches (3.50) are very special, no relation at all to the infamous British Rail variety of the species. For instance we found smoked salmon liberally applied to toasted bagels with tomato and creme fraiche, equally good as a starter or an any time of the day snack. The pastrami was also generous, with a good salad garnish including red onion, sitting on toasted pannini.

I watched enviously as huge main dishes wafted by to other tables. Prices in the range 5.25 for pasta to 8.50 for chargrilled red snapper certainly seem to be excellent value for food of this quality. Incidentally, the desserts looked really splendid, islands of pud in seas of sauce.

Who is behind this concept, (other than the Bass brewery group that owns the chain)? They must have appointed somebody smart to oversee the catering. There's imagination and no lack of vision, so let's be glad the directors agreed to back it! Most brewery owned eateries are dreadful, complete with horrid menus with garish photographs of endless fatty fry-ups. What excited me here more than anything was the sight of so many young people being exposed to some really good cooking at decent prices. The staff seemed enthusiastic and proud of what they were doing, a bit like a foodie version of Oddbins!

We returned after the film (don't miss Shine!) for the rest of our meal only to find a queue standing faithfully outside in the freezing January night air. We wandered sadly up the street and dived into the local branch of Pierre Victoire, another Cod Frog chain. What a contrast: mingy little plates, a dopey (but pretty) French waitress, half the menu "off", misery all round. Well it was Friday night I suppose. We'll try to get back for our main courses at All Bar One another time. They clearly need no help from us!

The Sequel!

I discovered later that the executive head chef is David Peevers, 27, who joined the chain when it started two years ago. He started working in his father's restaurant from the age of fourteen; later he worked his way round Europe, spending time in Rimini, Val Thorens, Dusseldorf and the Austrian Alps. After two years gallivanting around Europe (I hope he had a chaperone at such a tender age) he returned home to Birmingham where he worked in various brasseries and fish restaurants. I am told he was then "discovered" and appointed Head Chef at the new All Bar One in Sutton before being elevated to the position of Executive Head Chef of the group four months later. Phew! Watch this space, and remember the name Peevers.

We paid a return visit to All Bar One which this time to the Wimbledon Branch which is also located in a fine former bank building. Again, the staff were friendly and helpful and we managed to find a couple of places at a large table.

You need to be warned, this is certainly not nouvelle cuisine in so far as the portions are concerned. The "small plates" on the menu turn out yet again to be very large ones indeed and my pancake filled with mushy but flavourful concoction of leeks and blue cheese would have made a good snack meal in its own right. The goat's cheese and grilled red peppers was very well done, the whole arrangement with its nicely dressed continental leaf salad would have happily graced a Fulham Road restaurant table.

Main courses that night included roast aubergine stuffed with herbed tomatoes and parmesan - it looked a bit stranded on a vast bed of French fries, but my neighbour devoured it all lot pretty swiftly. I had ordered the salmon grill - very juicy and tasty it looked - I say looked, because when my wife's lamb cutlets were set in front of her she went all feeble and demanded a swap. I gave up my salmon only after dipping a mouthful in the delicious parsley sauce. The lamb cutlets were good, pink in the middle, with jolly good gravy, but the roasted vegetables were not nearly roasted enough. Given the time contraints, it might be better if they were cut into less enormous pieces, that way they might caramelise a little more quickly.

I had the feeling that the chef at the Wimbledon branch is a very generous soul, and the food comes in a rather more homely interpretation of Mr Peevers' recipes! The bread and butter pudding needed more egg custard and sultanas to bread, and the outside needs to be more toasty. But it sat in the most deliciously scrummy hot toffee sauce. I was so impressed with this I tried it out myself the very next day. It's really quite easy, I can't think why I haven't tried it before: I took a carton of single cream, brought it to the boil slowly whilst vigorously stirring in the darkest brown sugar I could find in the larder, tasting all the time until I was satisfied. A dollop of good quality vanilla oil finished off the job. It thickened as it bubbled up and it tasted terrific.

All Bar One outside Central London

All Bar One Birminham
43 Newhall Street, Birmingham B3 3NY Tel: 0121 212 1227

All Bar One Leeds
27 East Parade, Leeds LS1 5BN Tel: 0113 243 1445

All Bar One Richmond-Upon-Thames
11 Hill Street, Richond, Surrey Tel 020 8332 1121

All Bar One Sheffield
13-15 Leopold Street, Sheffield, S1 2GY Tel: 0114 275 2836

All Bar One Sutton
2 Hill Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 1DZ Tel: 020 8642 6510

All Bar One in Central London

All Bar One Canary Wharf, E14. Tel 020 7513 0911

All Bar One 197 Chiswick High Road, W4. Tel 020 8987 8211

All Bar One 36 Dean Street Soho, W1. Tel 020 7479 7921

All Bar One 587 Fulham Road, SW6. Tel 020 7471 0611

All Bar One 311 Fulham Rd, SW10 Tel 020 7349 1751

All Bar One 3 Hanover Street, W1. Tel 020 7518 9931

All Bar One 1 Liverpool Road Islington, N1. Tel 020 7843 0021

All Bar One 48 Leicester Square, WC2. Tel 020 7747 9921

All Bar One 44 Ludgate Hill, EC4. Tel 020 7653 9901

All Bar One 60 St John's Wood High Street, NW8. Tel 020 7483 9931

All Bar One 37 Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19. Tel 020 8947 8654

All Bar One 152 Gloucester Rd SW7 Tel 7244 5861

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