Grand Cru

This review appears in the The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 – in the shops now or buy online.

Tired shoppers, students and office workers have been coming regularly to Grand Cru for wine or cocktails for the best part of a decade. The interior of the busy bar recently underwent a thorough sprucing up, with the addition of comfy sofa booths as well as more dining tables and a larger kitchen. Food has shifted from mainly snack fare to bigger meals such as pan-fried duck and noodles, sesame seed tuna steak and hearty jambalaya, as well as full Scottish breakfasts, pastries and porridge in the mornings. The massive menu perhaps covers a few too many bases, offering everything from sushi to Moroccan lamb and calamari, and there are occasional low points such as a watery, unseasoned mushroom risotto. But when it comes to more straightforward pub grub options, such as gourmet burgers, salty piles of nachos loaded with sauces or creamy caesar salads with pancetta and anchovies, the flavours work well and the portions are generous. DJs play at weekends when the bar usually gets packed out, so arrive early to bag seats on the squishy scatter cushions by the window, or hunt out a slightly quieter corner in the upstairs mezzanine.

• High point: Shiny, happy people serving behind the bar
• Low point: Pudding limited to ice-cream