The trouble with these crisp, clear, lean menus is that, along with the excess words, has gone a lot of clear and vital information. I like surprises, but not necessarily as I am sitting down to eat. Another menu had me in a dither, with a list that included rabbit, sweetbreads, onion terrine; grilled lobster, herb salad, butter; and grilled fish, salad, aubergine pickle. Doesn't anybody use conjunctions and verbs anymore?The prize for the most say-it-like-it-is menu in all of eatingdom goes to London's St John for its simple, ever-changing list of such things as pork belly and peas; duck leg and carrots; chitterlings and mash. There is a price beside each one, and below them, a short list of extras: salad, chips and green beans That's not a menu, that's a shopping list. Minimalism works in Chelsea apartments, New York studio lofts and Japanese bento boxes, but do we want it on our menus? Isn't a menu supposed to inform, lure, excite you - or at least give you an idea of what you might be able to eat? "How is the fish cooked?" I ask "Pan-fried, or grilled," replies the waiter.

SO IT HAS come to this I am at a fish restaurant clutching the menu It lists a dozen or so species of fish That's it. These dry wines are especially good with fish and light chicken dishesErrzuriz Merlot Reserva, pounds 26The king of Aconcagua makes some of Chile's best Merlots, and this one is reasonably marked up. For all red meatsTaittinger Brut NV, pounds 30I don't know how they can sell this excellent NV Champagne at a premium of just pounds 5 to pounds 6 over retail; I suspect it won't last long Snap it up while you can. And marvel at the wildly expensive oddballs on the list, including Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1978 at pounds 325 - just pounds 37 less than it costs at Le Gavroche.Pewsey Vale, Eden Valley Riesling, pounds 17One of the many excellent Rieslings from South Australia's Riesling paradise. In a few months, Greenwich is going to become so congested and horrible you won't want to go there and Time's fame will have spread so far that you won't be able to get a table. Get in there quick, I should.WHAT'S ON THE WINE LISTRichard Ehrlich's selectionTime has sharpened its wine-act after some harsh criticisms, but a further dose of improvement would not go amiss. There isn't enough sparkle in the choice, and there is too much vagueness as to vintages - watch out when they present the bottle.

X had a minor quibble about the dryness of her pan-fried John Dory with potato tartare and char-grilled Mediterranean vegetables, and Jonathan said he would have liked to have tasted more gin in his gin- marinated salmon with bitter leaves and lemon dressing. But X was blown away by her leek and potato soup flavoured with lemongrass and coriander, and Jonathan by his gourmet sausages with black pudding mash and creamed leeks.Under the circumstances, it seemed a crime not to stuff our faces with the puddings as well. We liked the fig, peach and mascarpone tarte with honey and ginger, and we worshipped the chocolate and banana pudding with banana ice-cream and chocolate sauce.Yep, the food at Time rules. But maybe that's part of the restaurant's cunning plan: by deliberately lowering your expectations, it makes it all the more delightful when the boring dish you ordered turns out to be one of the finest you've ever eaten.Take my peppered monkfish: you can't get much duller than that, can you? Yet thanks to McLeod's genius - gosh this boy is going to go far - it was transformed into something so ravishingly delicious that I almost wept for joy. Looking down the list - roast rump of lamb, gourmet sausages, roast duck breast, fillet of beef - it's hard to find anything that makes you go "Wow! How novel and exotic and scrumptious! I've just got to try it." The Sugar Club it ain't. The fish and the accompanying asparagus were cooked with quite gob-smacking precision, and they were perfectly offset by shards of good chorizo and a truly ambrosial truffled olive oil mash.X and Jonathan the financial journalist seemed to be similarly impressed by their dishes, though they snaffled them up so quickly, I didn't get much of a chance to test them myself. I later discovered that, like the chef, he'd trained at Le Gavroche.