Restaurant review: Quo Vadis, London Jack Dee - who once worked in the kitchen at the Ritz - was not the only celebrity chef on view this lunchtime. Also nearby were Sam and Sam Clark, the couple behind the justly celebrated Moro, while the man the Harts have hired to cook at Quo Vadis made regular schmoozing sorties from his kitchen. Jeremy Lee may not be as familiar a name as Alastair Little, Shaun Hill, Rowley Leigh and the other demigods of modern British cuisine. But he brings to his work the same passion for great ingredients, disdain for pretension and talent for cooking them with flair and simplicity so that they taste as vibrantly as possible of themselves. Lee has stripped Quo Vadis of some of its grandeur, as the Harts have the place itself. The BritArt has gone, leaving the white walls bare, though the stained-glass windows, parquet flooring and antique distressed mirrors remain, to lend what might oxymoronically (and you can take or leave the oxy; I'd leave it) be called utilitarian elegance. The daily changing menu is as uncluttered as the décor, with a few "bites," oysters, "today's pie," a lone sandwich, some steaks and a quintet each of starters and mains. But what catches the eye is the "theatre set," available all day, at £20 for three courses. I went for that, beginning with a fresh, sharp salad of beetroot, both red and golden, with a soft-boiled egg, though my friend remembered the mustardy vinaigrette being more eye-watering at Lee's previous workstation, Terence Conran's Blueprint Café. She started with the smoked eel and horseradish sandwich; loved that, too, for the tenderness of the eel. We also shared a bowl of hare soup, something neither of us had come across before. Even by game standards, hare has a potency that can overwhelm (you could use its liver to crack the most stubborn of terrorist suspects). But this creamy soup was miraculously delicate, bringing out the distinct taste of hare mingled with (we thought) sour juniper berries and Chinese spicing - without prissifying the life out of it. Mr Dee had just lit up the room with his pearly whites when the main courses arrived. My friend's three thick, boldly pink slices of roast mutton came with chard, a celeriac gratin and a sweet, beetrooty relish on the side. "Chewy, but a nice chew," she said. It hasn't got that musky, bad aftershave taste that mutton often has. My huge quarter of chicken (wing and breast), the skin glazed with a delectable savoury marinade, came with a medley of sliced courgette, mint and baby onions and was beautifully roasted to a crispy finish. Puddings franked the form. The sweetness of lemon posset was perfectly balanced by a topping of Yorkshire rhubarb, and a chocolate brownie was gingery, pleasingly bitter and unexpectedly light. Factor in the high-end service (tap water poured from a silver jug), and that "theatre set" is quite a steal. Karl Marx, who wrote much of Das Kapital in a room above the restaurant, would surely approve. Nothing's too good for the workers, after all; and thanks to this sparkling reinvention, we workers can now dine splendidly at Quo Vadis alongside the plutocrats of curmudgeonly comedy. Rating: 8/10 26-29 Dean Street, London W1D 3LL (020 7437 9585) Three courses with wine, about £50 per head. All day set menu: £17.50 for two course, £20 for three