Restaurant review, Le Pont de la Tour, 36D Shad Thames, London.

Nothing on the landscape of London dining so greets the spring as the array of restaurants that lines the Thames at Tower Bridge. When the daffodils are out in Hyde Park, and legs of spring lamb hang in the windows of Allen's and Lidgate's, then (as Chaucer might have put it) folk long to go dining al fresco. For 20 years, the Pont de le Tour has offered City locals and rich tourists a gorgeous view of the river from the terrace. Terence Conran's flagship eaterie started life in 1992. Since then it's been bought by the D&D group (which owns 19 London restaurants, including the Pont's less posh neighbours, the Blueprint Café, the Cantina and Butler's Wharf Chop House) and celebrates its 20th birthday in October. Inspired by the whiff of Easter spring in the air last week, I went to pay my respects.

It's more posh and snooty than I remember but the bar-and-grill area is packed and friendly. A black piano promises later cocktail stylings to go with your asparagus and charcuterie. In the main restaurant, framed ink drawings of aristocrats at play line the walls, the napery is blindingly white, and the clientele unmistakably from Bank rather than Bermondsey. Tim and I sat under the Pont's wide awnings, admiring the silver tubs of greenery, lit by fairy lights, that give the restaurant's frontage a shimmery glow. We liked the views of the City – the red lights like eyes at the top of the Gherkin, the glowing blue of the Lloyds building. A shame, we agreed, that the Shard owners couldn't be arsed to put it in our sight-lines.

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