A couple of months ago I was staying in a rather fine hotel where the food was also wonderful. Don't just take my word for it - fellow guests included a group of fifteen or so French chefs who were there with their partners, and between them they had somewhere around twenty Michelin stars, which by any standards is a fair-sized constellation. We shared a lunch with them one day and I found myself seated beside Michel Chabran who owns and runs the eponymous two-starred Relais and Chateaux just outside Lyons. Our converstaion turned to the Michelin Guide; like most chefs I know, he treats the Michelin Guide with respect, despite its idiosyncracies.

I'd arranged to meet my guest for the evening in the Horseshoe Bar. Miriam Thornton runs her own recruitment agency from Leeson Street and, it being a new business, she's working longer hours than most of us. I enjoy the strange connections that words can make, and it occurred to me that if ever a portent was sent, her surname was one. There could only be one restaurant to go to, Thornton's on the canal, which has a Michelin star, and I couldn't resist the temptation of booking a table in her name. While we're on the subject of words and destiny, Stephen Fry had a good one: an anagram of Virginia Bottomley is 'I'm an evil Tory bigot'. It works, really, try it.

As we chatted over an aperitif I learned that she'd spent time at the university in Aix-en-Provence. I remembered that I'd eaten the best warm pate de foie I'd ever tasted in Aix, in one of those picturesque cafes with plane trees outside which was called 'Les Deux Garcons'. She knew it and had been to it - although she'd never had the foie gras. So when we stood outside Thornton's half an hour or so later waiting for the door to be opened, there was another coincidence. A menu outside showed warm foie gras as a starter.

You walk into a small, warm and comfortable bar where you can sit and study the menu and wine list. As it was full we went upstairs to the dining room and went directly to our table. The dining room is small and intimate: I counted only eight tables. The views are over the Grand Canal, and by night the lights reflected in its water make a very pretty sight. The tables are big and the chairs are upholstered and comfortable. The decor is plain and inoffensive, the windows are draped and it succeeds in giving an impression of quiet and ease. The waiters are French, beautifully uniformed and very competent.

Let's get this over with right away. Thornton's is expensive. No, that's wrong, it's very expensive. You would be hard put to leave it spending less than £40 per head just for the food. I could discuss at length the morality of paying this much for a meal, but here's the thing; I didn't really resent paying it because you get your money's worth in many ways.

The starters all hover around the £14 mark, the main courses are mostly around the £22 mark and the puddings are all £6.95. A few random dips into the menu: the aforementioned foie gras, wild mushrooms, smoked salmon and scallops as starters; venison, beef, squab and scallops as main courses - in total there are maybe eight starters and eight main courses to choose from.

The first thing you notice is the quiet air of efficiency and attentiveness of the waiters. You must have come across the gambit that's played like this: first you're handed the menus, then 30 seconds later you're asked 'are you ready to order?' and when you say 'no' you don't see the waiter for another half an hour. In Thornton's the level of attention is extraordinary. Without making it obvious or intrusive the waiters are keeping an eye on you at all times, so while you're not looking at your menu no one comes up to you, and when you are they do. Finish your glass of water and as you put it back on the table a waiter is arriving to refill it.

It's the same with the wine list. It's marked up at over 100pc but you get real service. I lost count of how many times our wine glasses were refreshed, even by tiny amounts, and it was always done unobtrusively. I think that that's a good example of my main impression of Thornton's, which is that you pay a lot, but you get a lot. The wine list is good but not exceptional, it's priced as I said quite high, and unusually for a French-orientated restaurant, it lists wines from all the major wine-producing countries. There's half a page of window-dressing; good first growth clarets priced around £300-£500 which I don't suppose move that frequently - but then maybe these days someone who's just sold a house might buy one. I chose the Spanish Marques de Murrieta Ygay at £25, which is big and heavily oaked.

To keep us happy while we waited for our starters, we were presented with an amuse-gueule of smoked eel on a salad bed. Nice. Because of our previous conversation Miriam had picked the foie gras for her starter, while I had the wild mushroom fricasee. Wild mushrooms in February is a bit like fresh strawberries in November: impossible. I got chanterelles and horn of plenty mixed together with a hint of truffle - which is in season - nicely presented, and it tasted good. Miriam's foie gras was sensational, so good that she couldn't speak for a while after her first taste, only making little noises of pleasure. Texture and taste blended together in a sensual, palate-astounding dish. For main courses we chose venison and scallops. The venison was a noisette of loin, perfectly hung and very tender. It was also singularly un-gamey, which I suspect is much more likely to please today's palate than the high, gamey flavour that was once appreciated. My scallops were excellent and were served with a large, stuffed pasta pillow decorated with slices of truffle.

We were only able to manage one dessert between us, a pyramid of glazed fruit, but even so we were still presented with a little dish each of a dessert teaser. It occurs to me that 'high food' is taking on a completely new meaning these days. A thin pastry pyramid, some six inches tall, with glazed fruits and a soft filling was fun to demolish and eat. Proper espressos completed our meal, which came with beautifully made petits fours.

Value for money? That depends on how much you value good food; but for me Thornton's has a well deserved star.