A balmy Summer's night, a beautiful terrace, a chilled, crisp bottle of Muscadet and squeaky fresh fish – a winning combination of life's pleasures if ever there was one.

And you can find them, depending on your luck with the weather, of course, at one of Chelsea's finest neighbourhood restaurants, Le Colombier, in Dovehouse Street.

Only the friendly service, led by owner Didier Garnier, reminded me I wasn't in Cannes or somewhere, so authentic was the food and setting.

Being in SW3, we're not talking about a value meal here but for a special occasion, maybe even a marriage proposal, it's worth shelling out.

Try the warm monkfish salad (£12.90), beautifully light, yet full of flavour and an absolute winner with some white.

I tried some of my companion's simple tomato salad with basil sauce (£6.90), but so ripe were they that even a dedicated carnivore could choose worse.

Controversially, it was then from fish to meat, but a fillet of beef with pepper sauce, fries and buttered green beans (£22.30) is something almost impossible to turn down.

Having persuaded my companion to hand over a precious scallop (£22.80), however, I immediately reprimanded myself for my haste, not because the beef was poor – indeed it was excellent, if ever, ever so slightly overdone – but because the scallops were, in the words of my companion, 'the best I've ever had'. Hard to disagree.

We finished off the Muscadet, had some infinitely decent espressos and headed off into the evening heat, satisfied that, for a few hours at least, London had seemed like a world away.