Very occasionally I leave a restaurant with no clear idea of what my opinion is about the place. I've been thinking about why this should be so; after all, opinions are what I'm supposed to have. A little soul-searching has given me this answer; there are some restaurants that are not designed or operated with people like me in mind. They have a distinct character and place in the market, but not to my taste. But suppose, to follow my line of argument, that they do what they do well. That's when I get left with my dilemma. Not to my taste, but clearly to the taste of many other people.

You can think of Bang as a younger version of the Unicorn. That's true in a couple of ways - it has the same sort of busy buzz, and it's run by the offspring of the Unicorn owners. I'd gone to meet Rachael Sexton in the Horseshoe and as is so often the way, ended up with a group of friends celebrating a property deal there. I asked Rachael if there was anywhere in particular that she wanted to go to, to which she replied 'Anywhere at all, as long as it has a full license. I don't drink wine.' Now this was around 7 o'clock, and I've been wanting to review Bang for a while, so I asked Rachael to make us a booking there, since it does have a full license. 'Nothing until 9 o'clock,' was the reply. If a restaurant's full mid-week, you know they must be doing something right. For me that meant two hours of drinking tomato juice - which isn't my preferred tipple - but hey, it had to be done in the interests of sobriety.

Which is how we ended up as five people instead of two, arriving a little after nine. A table for two was waiting for us when we got there, but as our numbers had increased we had a small wait until a table for five became available. Bang is on two levels, a few steps from the front door lead to the upper level, and another flight of steps lead down to the basement, which is where we went. A long bar counter is on your left and that's where waited.

While we were waiting for the table there was time to go through the wine list with care. The house wines, two red and two white come at £13.95 and then the list moves on to Italian wines. Orvieto and Pinot Grigio in the lower bracket, then Soave at £18, Gavi at £19, Salice Salentino Riserva at £18.95, Chianti at £18.75, Barbera at £19, Valpolicella at £24, Amarone at £36.50 and Barolo at £50. French wines follow, the only one leaping out at me was a Pouilly Fuisse at £45, which was exactly twice the price of the Chablis. It wasn't that long ago you'd have expected it to be the other way round. There's a couple of listings from California, Spain and New Zealand, and Chateau Musar from the Lebanon, which is listed in The Lord Bagenal at just over £20, and here at £35. Many of the wines on this list seemed to have a heavy mark-up, but the Salice Salentino Riserva at £18.95 looked like a good bet, and in fact turned out to be very palatable.

The menu is varied, starting with mushroom, leek and chervil soup at £3.50, plum tomato rocket and goats cheese salad at £6.95, grilled tiger prawns at £8.75, carpaccio of beef at £7.25, pressed terrine of foie gras at £8.50 and scallops at £9.25. To be honest, given the bistro-like atmosphere and the small, closely spaced tables, I was surprised to find so many starters closer to ten pounds than to five. Main courses seem more in line with other restaurants' prices; grilled fillet of beef at £16.95, squab pigeon (off on the night) at £14.50, salmon and asparagus at £14.50, sea-bass at £14.95 and pan-fried supreme of chicken at £13.95. Salads and pastas can be had for under a tenner, as well as the old favourite, bangers and mash.

Between the five of us we sampled a fair spread of the menu. We had a rocket and goats cheese salad, tiger prawns, a foie gras and scallops for me. All of these dishes were well-presented and competently cooked. There was good bread on the table, good wine to drink and good company as well. And main courses were good too; between us we had bangers and mash with those large Hicks sausages, a tuna steak served on a bed of puy lentils, two sea-bass, and the chump of lamb for me, which was also served on puy lentils.

Maybe it was because it was quite late by the time we'd finished our main courses that not one of us was persuaded to a dessert. Yet there were tempting choices available: strawberries a la vodka, Scandinavian iced berries with chocolate sauce, classic chocolate and raspberry tart, and a lemon and lavender tart tatin - all priced between £4.75 and £5.50. Instead it was coffees, and in my case a rather good espresso which prompted a second. Incidentally, watch out for that ingredient lavender. My prediction is that you're going to see a lot more of it in the near future.

Now if you've been with me since the first paragraph, you'll understand my dilemma. The food was good, the service was excellent and therefore I should be enthusiastic. Instead I find I'm not, so there have to be other reasons to explain this. Perhaps it's very simple. Bang seems designed to appeal to trendy thirty-somethings, and unfortunately I'm no longer a member of this demographic group. The bill for the night worked out at about £35 a head.