The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

Fifteen is the restaurant Jamie Oliver created by training fifteen young hopefuls to be excellent chefs. The premesis itself is divided into two parts - downstairs is the restaurant proper, with a waiting list longer than that of the Immigration offices in Croydon, whereas upstairs is the "Trattoria", which doesn't require reservations, which is where we ate.

Nine of us arrived without reservation at 12:15 on Thursday lunchtime, and within five minutes were seated at a single table. I'd suggest arriving early, and making a reservation where possible, as it seemed that by 12:30 even small groups were having to wait for others to finish.

We had been warned that the food was excellent, but the service has room to improve, and this seems a fair assessment. The waitors and waitresses were polite and helpful, but because more than one was dealing with our table things sometimes seemed a bit chaotic, and we were frequently asked if we wanted more drinks.

The lunchtime menu is issued daily, although with only one visit it's not clear how much is changed daily, and what the approxmiate repeat cycle on items is. Do not be afraid by the first line of starters (an �11 item), as most starters are more like �6, with main courses �8.50-�14. We all had soft drinks, orange juice was �2.75 a glass (very nice, but more freshly squeezed ice, dilued with orange).

We didn't order starters, just having main courses, which seems a sound plan given that refils of incredibly tasty fresh bread kept coming, along with oil and basamtic vinegar to dip them in. ("How aged is it?" one of us asked. The waitress didn't know, so turned the bottle to read the lable. "You can get it in Sainsbury's" she said, with a cynical smile. One wonders what rate they're paid)

Our main courses took a long time to come, which we suspect is because the kitchen upstairs isn't large enough to cope fluidly with a large party when full. The food was excellent (I had squid) but there is an element of presentation though - neat tasty food encompassed with wide borders of white china. A side dish of vegetables is probably necessary for most of the main items. I had Italian vegetables, which I wasn't able to positively identify but seemed to be akin to boiled spinach; some of us had a very lemony spring salad, and others the roast potatoes, which were reported to be gorgeous.

In total I think that we spent about an hour sitting down, which with travel time is bending a 1 hour lunchbreak slightly, but is acceptable if not done to excess. I suspect that arriving later without a reservation may increase this, so it may be tricky to turn up on spec when your boss is in the office that day, unless you take her/him. The "damage" was �18 a head (including the optional 12.5% service charge, which we thought was good value. We will go again.