A few minutes’ walk from Victoria Station is Eccleston Place, a cool and contemporary development housing smart gyms, holistic wellbeing therapy rooms, chic interiors shops and offices for well-heeled finance businesses in a building called ‘The Ice Factory’. Above all of these in a you-would-only-find-it-if-you-knew-it-was-there roof terrace is Cornus.

This is not the place to make a fuss, nor is it fussy. It’s the kind of place that doesn’t buzz, but rather gently and smoothly hums. And the restaurant critics love it. You wouldn’t come here for a party, but you might come for a first-date, a celebration supper, a let-me-pitch-you-an-idea business meeting or to impress your in-laws, but for all of the above you will need deep pockets.

Very precise. You can’t imagine anything happening by accident here. There are pale walls, and sheer pale curtains, blond wood and well-spaced tables. The staff seem to glide around the restaurant, and yet maintain warm smiles and high levels of service the whole time. It’s not the place to get tipsy, but it is somewhere to indulge a love of the very best ingredients and highly-refined British cooking.

I met up with friend and former food magazine editor Karen always one to appreciate the quality of the ingredients and the perfect presentation of the dishes. Whilst browsing the menu we were presented with some canapés in the kind of wooden dishes you want to smuggle home in your handbag. Cubes of breaded and fried pork belly with an intense sphere of fruity jelly and a miniature savoury tart.

My starter has been much written about – a £20 tomato salad is sure to get tongues wagging. However, here the tomatoes in question are from Hubert Lacoste a French grower who will only let chefs he really trusts receive his produce and cook with it. At Cornus they are served with Ribblesdale soft curd, figs and fig leaf vinaigrette.

Karen had kicked off her meal with handpicked Devon crab, accompanied by Hass avocado, wasabi and finger lime. And for her main course she chose some wild brill which came perfectly positioned on some niçoise potatoes, with coco beans, summer courgettes and tomatoes. I was glad I got to taste this as it was full of all the flavours of a late summer lunch in Provence and absolutely delicious. My roast Newlyn Cod, came with girolles, line caught squid and Alsace bacon. For dessert we shared a delicate apricot and camomile mille-feuille.

This is the kind of restaurant you book if you want to impress someone you admire, it would show you had impeccable taste and appreciate the finer things in life.

The niçoise potatoes that came with the brill is a recipe I want!