We had intended to go to an Italian restaurant near Hazel and George’s flat, one which George assured us did not require booking, a notion easily disabused on walking into an absolutely rammed establishment at 8 on a Friday night. Luckily, we had a backup in mind - a wine bar literally on the corner of their street that they’d been meaning to try for ages. I was happy to oblige. What luck to find such a delightful little place with such enthusiastic staff. For the wines, no menu of wines by the glass; instead, we told our sommelier what we were after, and a couple of options each were brought to us. He excelled. I asked for a Riesling, and while he brought one, he also brought a chardonnay that hit the exact right spots, by surprise. Fair play to the man. He was palpably excited when we asked about dessert wine, running to the cellar to bring us a bottle of 1993 vintage that only they stock, only 10 euro a glass. Fantastic. The food menu was a short but efficient set of small plates of a style that brought to mind Tare or Skua. As such, we ordered pretty much everything on the menu, and an oyster for me. A couple of tostadas - one tuna, with squid ink mayo and quail egg yolk; the other carottes with dukkah and labneh - start us off, the former my favourite of the two, making up for the day’s earlier tuna experience. Everything else was wonderful, but the sauce game was absolutely on point throughout - grilled asparagus in a thick, textured anchoby cream, almost hummous-like; cod in a pisatchio mole with black garlic; lamb neck (a common cut here for lamb, it turns out) with a vibrant wild garlic oil and the most buttery cannelini beans you’ve tried; the highlight, though, the beurre blanc sauce bedding the barbecued coquelet (itself, it must be said, a tad dry). Top to tail excellent. Accompanying our dessert wine as old as the three of us, a chocolate flan, with a gorgeous smoked passionfruit caramel (an advanced on the similar on the key lime pie at The Dutch). We stagger back a gloriously short distance, I think absolutely better off for the plan B.