Healthy take on casual dining at Chiltern Firehouse

WHEN in Rome, do as the Romans do. What, we don't know. But in London, they're all going to Chiltern Firehouse and ordering a double helping of bragging rights with fries.

Who would have thought that an old fire station in Marylebone could be such a magnet for celebrities from Kate Moss to Bill Clinton? And that those lucky enough to get a table risk whiplash from all that neck-twisting to catch a glimpse of Davids Beckham and Cameron, Lindsay Lohan, Gerri Halliwell, and other names too hip for us to recognise?

Hotelier Andre Balazs certainly knew it when he took over the spot on Chiltern Road and turned it into a hotel and uber-trendy eatery designed along the same stylised lines of his American properties such as New York's Mercer and Hollywood's Chateau Marmont. If you make it pretty, they will come, he must have thought - and he's certainly pulled out all the stops to make this otherwise serious-looking Gothic facade into party central.