Ollie and Richard Gladwin outside Rabbit Chelsea

I used to have a pet rabbit Ossie named after the Chelsea football legend of the early seventies Peter Osgood. It would be nothing in those heady days to see the Blues star and his fellow players wandering down the fashionable King’s Road happily mingling with adoring fans.

The King’s Road is still just as fashionable but with a slightly different face to it and I doubt that you will spot many of today’s multi-million pound football stars among the crowds of shoppers – but you will find a restaurant called Rabbit.

It is the second west London venture for the Gladwin brothers who cut their teeth with the widely acclaimed The Shed, in Notting Hill, which wowed me when I dined there previously. Rabbit opened last autumn and really does take the saying ‘from farm to table’ to the highest levels and, like its Notting Hill counterpart, also has the same cheeky feel about it while taking its food very seriously.

And the Gladwin brothers know a thing or two about farming, foraging and producing seasonal British food as they actually have their own family farm at Nutbourne, in West Sussex, where many of the restaurant’s ingredients are sourced, including wine from Nutbourne Winery.

It follows the lifestyle that brothers Oliver and Richard Gladwin have created at their home in West Sussex. While Richard looks after front of house, Oliver is the genius behind the food and younger third brother Greg tends the farm.

Rabbit already seems to be a hit with the Chelsea crowd and you can soon see why as you enter through the rather unassuming street frontage into the playfully designed L-shaped restaurant which, perhaps not unsurprisingly, has a number of ‘interesting’ countryside features.

Going for dinner and sitting on a vintage metal tractor seat may not be everyone’s idea of fun, but I can report that once you get over the shock it is pretty comfortable.

The whole seating arrangement is a mismatch of comfortable banquettes, stools and chairs placed around tables and benches of varying height and design. There is a lot of reclaimed wood and a countryside signpost pointing you in the direction of a public footpath – but surely not in Chelsea, I cry. The quirky design continues with a John Deare tractor bonnet, corrugated-iron on the ceiling and upturned feed-troughs for lighting. There are stuffed animals on the wall and quirky bits of art, yet somehow all the furnishings and fittings blend in splendidly with the rustic décor.

Young staff dressed in checked shirts and jeans might come across as casual, but the service is anything but that. The team is exuberant and highly knowledgeable, never flustered on a busy Thursday evening and our Kiwi waitress Lauren was an absolute star.

The innovative and highly exciting menu is split into sections and based around sharing plates, with two or three dishes recommended per person. My dining partner Fiona and I kicked off with tiny warming mouthfuls of brown crab bomb with seaweed mayo, which exploded with flavour in the mouth, while mushroom marmite éclair with confit egg yolk (£1.50 each) came out second best.

Next up was a plump and juicy scallop (£6) served in its shell with a wicked wild garlic sauce and then stunningly fresh and crunchy asparagus with truffle, golden yoked pheasant egg, wild garlic and linseed (£8.50).

The dishes came at a pace – this is the way they are served from the highly efficient open kitchen and moist pulled pork stogies with mustard mayo (£8) were incredibly moreish, down to every last little mouthful.

Gleaming white fresh hake with red onion, mussels, sea beet and saffron (£14) breathed flavours of the sea on the plate, enhanced by an exquisite sauce. When you thought it could not get any better, mushroom ravioli with Wiltshire truffle and Ramson sage (£10) was perfectly constructed with a rich indulgent sauce. And then there was pig’s cheek with malt, stout and nasturtium (£8), a kind of melt in the mouth meaty heaven.

We enjoyed great examples of really good English wine with a carafe of aromatic and fruity Nutbourne Bacchus 2013 white wine (£24) and glasses of Nutbourne rose (£7.50).

Puds were not to be ignored (we didn’t share this time), as my cherry, white chocolate mousse and peanut caramel (£6) hit all the right spots with kicks of sweet, bitter and gooey tastes. Fiona’s The Shed Magnum Vienetta parfait (£6) with strong hints of salted caramel and rich dark chocolate was near perfect.

This summer will see the talented brothers take to the road to bring foraged food to the rest of the country.

Rabbit in The Shed will bring a taste of the countryside to a music or food festival as the Gladwins go on tour. It will serve up a slice of Richard and Oliver’s rural lifestyle back in West Sussex and will pop up at a range of festivals such as Wilderness, Latitude, Lovebox and Meatopia.