Telephone: 020 7928 2864
Address: 2nd Floor, Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House Street, London SE1
Dinner for two, including wine and service, £80

The last time I reviewed the gastro-empire on the second floor of London's Oxo Tower, which overlooks the Thames, the chef was the terrifically talented Richard Neat. As I recall, the cheapest starter on the brasserie side cost slightly more than my monthly mortgage. I later had a conversation with Neat. I suggested that if it was to be a true brasserie it needed a few entry-level dishes. How about a £4 bowl of soup, or something? Neat laughed. What could you do for £4, he said.

So anyway, Neat London went bust and has been replaced by the River Walk Restaurant Bar & Grill. And lo, there holding down the grill menu is a spiced carrot soup at £4.75. As the shimmering river view is still in place and all the fixtures and fittings - the bar, the matching mauve leatherette chairs and screens - also remain, it feels like the same restaurant. Only different.

Here they really have made a stab at democracy: serious cocktails at £6 for major league measures, a wine list that starts at £11 and hangs about below £20 for a good while, and some keen food pricing. It's a shame that, at the moment, the food tries a little too hard. Oh, and that they tried to overcharge us for our wine.

While I was pleased to see that soup on the list, I didn't fancy it, and instead went for seared foie gras with a thyme risotto and figs because I wanted to see how much foie gras £7 got you. The answer is not much, but it was accurately cooked, the figs were plump and fresh and the sauce sweet. The letdown was the risotto, which was stodgy and seemed to be there only to give the dish substance. My wife's starter of venison carpaccio had a few redundant bits and pieces on the plate, but the meat had a strong gamey flavour which, for once, the truffle oil encouraged.

Of the main courses, my cassoulet of lamb and Toulouse sausage was fine, though the substitution of lamb for duck or goose didn't make me look at the dish anew. Pat's roast cod on a veritable duvet of truffle mash was comforting stuff. I finished with a cappuccino mousse topped with a zabaglione cream, which was indulgence squared; one or other element would have done it.

Then the bill turned up at £104. This was because they had charged us £27 for the wine instead of £16. That brought it down to £93. Take off the cocktails - for which we were, inexplicably, charged £13 rather than £12 - and the bill for three courses plus wine loiters around £80. To which I can only say the River Walk Grill is nice - but not yet £80 nice.