Restaurant review, Angler, London EC2.

Angler South Place Hotel, 3 South Place, London EC2M 2AF
Contact: 020 3215 1260 anglerrestaurant.com
Price: Three courses: £43.30

Angler is quite strangely positioned, market-wise – typically for a hotel restaurant, its core customers are the lawyers and other suits of its City of London postcode. At first glance, it is as sleek and sharp as you'd expect (I have a beef with rooms that are largely window on one side – it makes me feel like I'm eating in a lift – but this is a personal prejudice). On closer inspection, it is slightly less luxe; with large, polished aluminium screens, and Ikea-ey shelves festooned with bottles of unremarkable spirits, it all looks a bit middle-brow. I didn't object, but I didn't swoon, either.

B, who has lived in Israel and Cornwall, joint fish capitals of the world (apparently), had the tuna tartare (£14). She said with equanimity that it left no trace of being in her mouth, even while she was chewing it. It was curiously bland. I had the mixed grill (£26.50 – it's pricey for a starter, all right, but everyone raves about it) with a sauce vierge and a pool of hollandaise, and both the sauces were lovely. The fish wasn't – the scallops were fine, but neither the shrimps nor the mullet looked all that fresh. The mullet's flesh was tired and solid. B was sniffy about the skin colour, saying it lacked clarity and liveliness.

However – and this is a turnaround enough to make you think the first course was an aberration or bad dream – the mains were gorgeous. B's cod (£18.50) came swimming in French indulgence, a creamy sauce the colour of butter, with blobs of basil emulsion like floating lily pads and flat tubes of pearly baby squid that, dancing on a trapeze between raw and cooked, had a beautiful texture and were perfectly fresh. The cod itself had this moreish brown top, while inside it was sleek and white and flawless. There were fat but tasty mussels as well; the whole plate was a picture of old-school, Elizabeth David-style generosity.

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