What is the number one requirement of a decent business restaurant? Service has to be top of the list. Service which puts people at their ease. Service without embarrassingly long pauses. Service which doesn’t get in the way just as you’re launching into your Big Point. On this front, Axis – very neatly positioned between the West End and the City in a spacious modernist basement- looks set to be a personal reference-point for the foreseeable future.

We arrive, forgetting we’ve booked for three, and when shown such a table point out (wrongly) that we want a table for two. Not even a hint of irritation emanated from our charming South African waitress. No guest as yet. Newspaper, Sir? Choice of three.

The menu quickly arrives, or rather set-lunch menu with choice sufficient for all but the pickiest- plus a comprehensive selection à la carte. The food arrives just at the right moment. It turns out that it verges on being dangerously interesting – this is about business, remember, so we don’t want too many distractions. My guest and I even think it worth the extra calories for a pudding. We even get to conclude our lunch – having discussed all those important questions we met to talk about – with that great reviewing cliché, ‘a good espresso’.

For a personal-account lunch or dinner, one might find the setting – with its love-’em-hate-’em bold Vorticist murals slightly chilly. As a mid-priced business restaurant, though, it’s hard to beat!

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