On Café, London: restaurant review

This little gem of a caff serves French patisserie and Chinese dim sum, and somehow it all makes sense

On Café, 31 Clapham Park Road, London SW4 7EE (020 3759 0162). Meal for two, including service: £50

Early on in this job I discovered it could exemplify the “observer effect”. That, by writing about a restaurant, I could fundamentally change it, and not for the better. I gave a glowing review to a tiny French place down on the south coast. Ah, the fish soup. Oh, the cassoulet. Shortly after my review appeared, I started getting letters – it was that long ago – telling me the food was dismal and the service worse. I recalled that, on the day I’d visited, there had been fewer than a dozen customers. Weirdly, in the aftermath of my positive review, crowds of hungry people had descended and both front and back of house had buckled under the strain. I had single-handedly turned a great restaurant into a terrible one. Bravo, and so on.

The dumplings are so fresh they practically pop