If ever a venue had a chequered history, this Brompton Cross fixture is it. It’s been a Porsche garage, a dress designer’s base (hence the name) and a bar, club and restaurant - both chic and sometimes a tad shabby.

Following a change of ownership and dramatic Tom Dixon refit, it hopes to once more be the SW3 smart set’s hang-out of choice. Four weeks after relaunch, it’s well on its way, though some of the food needs tweaking.

The Venue
This is very much a word-of-mouth rather than a passing-trade kind of place: the entrance is just an intriguing door, beyond which lies a long, glass-floored walkway (which will be lit from below once early-days glitches are ironed out). This takes you to a vast, modern, moodily-lit, double-height bar for a few hundred drinkers, with a 150-cover dining platform above. There are huge, undressed, industrial, arched windows, a concrete floor, a long, steel-clad bar, black leather booths and black or turquoise velvet chairs. A typical Tom Dixon ceiling installation looks like a cluster of silver foil helium balloons, but probably cost rather more.

The upstairs restaurant contrasts surprisingly traditional, curvy (and comfy) chairs with black, high-gloss lacquered tables. A vast chandelier suggests a clutch of upturned cooking pans in copper - a trademark Dixon material. An industrial, metal ceiling zigzags up and down and back downstairs, there’s a DJ and dancing from 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights. A VIP room is under construction, and a small shop is more of a camp talking point than a serious retail opportunity, selling non-essentials like sets of Chanel spanners.

The Atmosphere
A month after opening, it’s quiet on evenings early in the week but said to be much busier from Thursdays onwards. Drinkers and diners appear just the kind of high-spending ‘it’ locals the management is keen to attract. Service is attitude-free and generally polished, even if there is the occasional blip. The background music, from chilled house to soul classics, sounds like your trendier friend’s iPod.

The Food
The pan-Asian dishes of The Collection’s previous incarnation have been replaced by a southern European menu.

£5 for a selection of breads and olive oils might seem steep but turns out to be worth it. The breads are warm, varied and plentiful, and two of the three extra virgin oils – lemon and truffle – outstanding. Only the basil variety fails to register.

The majority of the 21 starters come under the heading ‘small plates’ which, the waiter suggests, are ideal for sharing, in which case, some serving spoons wouldn’t go amiss. Most successful of those is smoked chicken, papaya and basil (£5), a hefty bowlful of great-flavoured meat, fruit, toasted pine nuts and various diced salad-y bits. There’s not much evidence of the basil, as with the earlier oil, and perhaps that also explains a lack of punch in an otherwise creamy pesto with delicious, squidgy aubergine, beautifully roasted, garlicky plum tomato and oozy, quality mozzarella (£6). Salt cod, however, is way too salty and sits atop a mundane disc of crushed potato (£6).

Of the mains, slow-cooked sturgeon (£22) turns out to be an apparently perfectly normally-cooked fillet of pleasant white fish with a crisp skin. Its chanterelle mushrooms and diced, roast courgettes complete a pleasing plateful, although the basil emulsion is one of those annoyingly parsimonious artistic smears. A hay-roasted lamb shank (£23) features plenty of tender, tasty flesh and an outstandingly earthy artichoke puree, neither of which have much in common with an accompanying, sludgy pistachio sauce. It’s unusual and nice to be offered the lamb on or off the shank, however, when ‘off’ is chosen, it shouldn’t lead to delay whilst a carving table is hastily sought, nor to a second waiter hovering with an unneeded plate whilst his colleague does the work.

Sides, all £4, are way too complicated. With so much going on on the mains plates, plain new potatoes or green beans would work but instead the spuds come with saffron, olives and capers, and the beans - overcooked and a tiny portion – with cinnamon and yoghurt.

Nine desserts include a selection of ice creams and sorbets (£6) which waiters should know by heart but don’t. The selection is depleted to mango sorbet and chocolate, and vanilla and pistachio ice creams ‘because it’s a Monday’. This is not an excuse unless diners are charged less on Mondays, which they aren’t. The mango is cleanly flavoured and flawlessly textured. The pistachio has an odd aftertaste. A warm pistachio tartlet (£6) is not a tart but a small, Madeleine-like sponge. There’s reasonable nutty flavour and three tiny, gorgeous macerated cherries, but the blob of white chocolate mousse doesn’t sing.

The Drink
Cocktails are divided into classics like bellinis, daiquiris and whiskey sours, and more outré offerings with alleged Chelsea connections and pleasingly wince-inducing names like God Save McQueen (after fashion designer Alexander) or Mr Sloane (after the character from the Joe Orton play). The seriously delicious (and deceptively alcoholic, with its cherry bourbon and Cointreau) Buffalo Stance (£9.95) is cherry-flavoured in honour of singer Neneh Cherry who had a hit of that name. The Wibble (£8.95), with both dry and sloe gins and grapefruit and lemon juice, is refreshingly sharp but beautifully balanced.

White and rose wines start at £18 but there are no reds under £22. A respectable six whites and seven reds are available by the glass. Gavi Docg, Riva Leone 2010 from Piedmont (£6.50/£25) is a dry, simple, perfectly acceptable white. Pinot Grigio, Riff Terra Aplina from Venice (£7.25/£29) is lively and lemony. As for reds, Corbieres “Vieilles Vignes” hateau Saint Eugene from Languedoc (£7/£28) has real quality, a long finish and just a whisp of smoke.

The Last Word
If you’re itching to don a fabulous frock from one of Brompton Cross’s numerous designer stores, a night of well-made cocktails at The Collection is perfect. The glamour continues upstairs in the restaurant, but if you’re a serious foodie who can’t tell Prada from Primark, there are better places – so far, it’s early days - to spend £60 a head.

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