The effortless chic of the Paddo Inn dining room, which is tucked behind the buzzy Oxford Street-facing public bar, lies somewhere between a mod Parisian bistro, with its woven bentwood chairs, oversized marble waiter’s station and framed Matisse-esque line drawings, and a magazine-worthy Scandi living room with it’s calming winter colour palette, raw linen and designer lighting.

The menu is a roll call of crowd-pleasing pub grub, including six steaks available from the grill. Paddo Inn has joined the growing club of smart-casual eateries where dedication to flavour and provenance is serious, but the overall experience is relaxed, even jolly, thanks to a team of gregarious waiters, who may not know where the lamb in our dish of spiced rump with charred carrots and dukkah is from, but who ferry food and wine with finesse.

The concept is overseen by Aria chef/restaurateur Matt Moran, while head chef Mark Holland is on the pans. Small plates set the tone for a safe meal of comfort food classics with some surprising flavour pops. Hiramasa kingfish ceviche comes topped with glistening slivers of sour grapefruit – the perfect partner to the rich, velvety raw fish – but I would have liked to have known in advance that the plump queen scallops with cauliflower puree were going to be hidden under a molehill of breadcrumbs, a superfluous addition. The lamb rump comes perfectly cooked, pink in the middle with a charred crust, accompanied by a memorable side of broccolini (the new ‘meat for vegetarians’, if you ask me) served with bone marrow-butter mash, which we didn’t need to finish, but did anyway.