Of the many, many great chefs that have emerged from the hallowed kitchens of Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, few have been quite as successful as Robin Gill. With his fourth restaurant – Darby’s – he has cemented himself as one of London’s most successful restaurateurs, and the Battersea eatery joins The Dairy, Sorella and Counter Culture in Robin’s impressive restaurant portfolio.

Whilst the cooking at the latter three takes some inspiration from Robin’s love of Nordic cuisine, with an emphasis on pickling, fermenting and preservation (even at Italian-focused Sorella), Darby’s is a different beast altogether. Robin’s focus on fresh, well-sourced, seasonal produce remains, but the inspiration here is altogether more personal; Robin was born and bred in Dublin – only leaving in his late teens to pursue a career in London’s glitzy restaurant scene – and Darby’s is a no-frills Irish eatery, inspired by the incredible food of Robin’s home country.

You can rock up to Darby's at any time between 8am and 11:30pm and there’ll be quality food and drink on offer, whether that’s a full Irish breakfast in the morning, a lobster brioche roll with cured meats at lunch, or a selection of mains from the open-fire grill in the evening. The kitchen goes to great lengths to source quality produce – mains from the grill include turbot, monkfish, Blackface lamb and Dexter beef, but those will change depending on what the kitchen feels is good. Most of the starters – a delicious veal ragù with pappardelle, for example – are available in main sizes too, and best of all, everything at Darby’s is made in-house, from the incredible bread and pastries to the house-cured fennel salami.

The restaurant is named after Robin’s father, Earl ‘Darby’ Gill, who toured America in the ‘50s and ‘60s as a jazz musician; in homage to Darby himself, the restaurant has been designed with a certain 1950s Manhattan chic, reflecting the jazz bars he used to frequent. As you’d expect from a headline restaurant in this glitzy new development, Darby’s is a seriously impressive space – light floods into the spacious dining room, and there’s a big terrace outside too for the summer months. The bar dominates the middle of the room, and we expect thousands of pints of Guinness will be enjoyed there over the coming years. There aren’t many better places to enjoy a slice of Irish life – we’re sure Darby himself would be proud.