At the table Imagine the Dev and the Dover hooked up

Prawn cocktail to start is hardly a wanton display of non-conformity, so one of the mysteries of the Devonshire — the Soho behemoth, not the Kentish Town goth hovel — is exactly why it defibrillated the dying British pub.

- DAVID ELLIS RESTAURANT CRITIC

The traditional formula, repeatedly said to be gasping its last, instead turns out to be just the ticket for international success. Fancy jet-set magazine coverage and A-listers on your WhatsApp? Lamb hotpot and sticky toffee pud have all the answers.

No surprise that others are wanting a slice of the suet pudding. Who wouldn't? Do you hate money? Before this place opened — the pub on the ground floor called the Knave of Clubs, this dining room above it One Club Row — behind closed doors there were rumours of a wish to be “the Devonshire of the east” (Shoreditch, not Russia).

Well, split my G and call me Declan, it's not. Actually, it’s rather cannier than that, as though owners James Dye (Camberwell Arms), Benjy Leibowitz (ex-NoMad, JKS) and chef Patrick Powell (ex-Chiltern Firehouse, Midland Dining Room) pinpointed exactly what Londoners love and stacked the answers on top of each other. If they've put the Dev downstairs, big on Guinness and oysters, up here is El’s answer to The Dover, Mayfair's woodpanelled, come-hither martini den.