IN theory, it is a combination that should be able to muster the perfect dining experience a know-it-all food writer joins forces with a top chef to create a seasonal menu using ingredients from champion British producers.

And while the food at the Cadogan Hotels new open-to-all restaurant is sumptuous, it is a shame that not enough people are eating it. On the night I visited, just two other tables were in use.

The concept is an interesting and worthy one. For my visit, Telegraph food writer Xanthe Clay and television chef Nigel Barden were the bastions of the menu, which changes every six to eight weeks when a new combination of experts takes charge.

The restaurant is working with the Guild of Fine Food Great Taste Awards panel and only produce that has garnered three GTA stars is allowed in the Cadogans kitchen, and the quality is unmistakable.

After the barmans recommended whiskey sour, which lived up to its name and woke me from my post-work stupor, we enjoyed some bread with interesting oils, including a walnut and a lemon number.

The dining room is everything you would expect from a five-star London hotel high ceilings, large windows, pressed shirts and...hush.

Well, the wine had registered and the cured meats board was too good to render the silence a problem, for me at least. Delicacies all British included sloe gin salami, corned beef, and smoked organic chicken.

Potted shrimp pleasantly surprised my father by being warm and the nutty and sweet flavours made the cholesterol boost from the pool of melted butter worth it.

I was torn between the three ages of sheep comprising cannon of lamb, grilled hogget and braised shoulder of mutton and the humble-sounding beef pie with mash and greens.

I plumped for the latter but there was nothing humble about it. Superb, melting beef, very rich gravy and creamy mash made it moreish to the extreme and, with the refreshingly large portion, dangerously so. It was a fantastic dish.

My father went for the lamb and, out of the three cuts, marginally preferred the mutton, which was the most flavoursome and tender.

That such honest offerings were being served in such grandiose surroundings was a refreshing surprise, which made it even more puzzling that more werent sharing the dining room with us. It cant have been because of the price, because at s23, a two-course meal of such quality represents outstanding value.

No, a quiet word with the waitress and she suggestes that not enough people know the hotels restaurant is open to non-guests, a common problem.

The venues imposing reputation could put off some, but it would be folly not to take advantage of such a fabulous deal not only for yourself, but for the great British producers you would be supporting.