Sweetly served

Young Robert Classen, who was at school with my son Ben, turns out not to be Scandinavian as I supposed - but has a German father and an Italian mother. This new gastropub in Kensal Rise is a joint venture with Nick Mash, a friend from his university days.

Classen also started The Salusbury gastropub and came up with the concept of PizzaTeca - prime product sold by length - which he hopes to roll out all over the country until you can't step anywhere for tomato sauce and melted mozzarella on a crisp base.

At what was previously a pub called The Banker's Draught, the main course celebrated is steak. Different cuts of Aberdeen Angus beef supplied by Millers of Speyside sit in a glass cabinet on the way into the restaurant section. At lunchtime we were asked to eat in the bar where there are zinc-topped tables and peacock blue walls.

Despite no other customers for food and just one other chap propping up the bar, we were sweetly served and the crispness of the whitebait and the warmth of a globe artichoke which I had thought might be fished out of the fridge bodes well for the presumably more populated evenings. Chopped steak burger with cheese was not thick enough to be served medium rare as requested. Sirloin steak had good flavour. Salad was generously served but with no discernible dressing. The wine list is short on detail including makers and vintages but the New Zealand Pinot Noir at £21.50 was fine.

Kensal Rise is becoming gentrified - I counted three delis on the way to The Chamberlayne - and may even provide enthusiastic takers for the Chateaubriand steak at £39 for two.

The Chamberlayne Pub and Steak House
83 Chamberlayne Road, NW10 3JN