The antipasti zone

There is something rather touching about Oliver Peyton's commitment to good food, which he installs in places seemingly designed to have little appeal to Epicureans. I ran into him at his Knightsbridge restaurant Isola, whereupon he asked one of the staff to turn down the music so that we could talk more easily.

Impressed by his cooking at The Oak in Westbourne Grove, last summer Peyton offered Mark Broadbent the position of head chef at Isola, which involved a transition on Broadbent's part from cooking Modern British to Italian.

His dishes are more complex than those you would find in Italy and they are expensive, but the alternative of roaming through a long list of antipasti is also offered.

I liked the Edward Hopper-ish twilight in the basement restaurant, with its large tables, slippery leather banquettes and chrome trim. It has an appealing, dissolute feel, making it an ideal hangout for picking at wood-roasted Piedmontese peppers, tuna carpaccio and various salumi accompanied by choices from knowledgeably assembled Italian wines served by the glass.

But we had come for dinner chosen from the main menu. Spiced butternut squash soup flavoured with sage and Parmesan came into the category of luxury soup and was agreeably unsweet. Buffalo mozzarella with wood-roasted figs, dandelion and quince featured not the best mozzarella I have come across (that was at The River Cafe) and the flavours of figs and quince rather cancel each other out.

In the main course, rump of lamb with pancetta and sage was beautiful meat, perfectly cooked, but the gratin of Jerusalem artichoke seemed an intruder from another cuisine. Pappardelle with pot-roast kid, melted onions and bay leaves sounded so unctuous but tasted a bit feeble and the £4.50 supplement for pasta as a main course comes across as a bit mean, or slightly desperate.

But while waiting for Peyton's next place, a cafe in St James's Park, I highly recommend grazing away an afternoon on the Isola antipasti.