Restaurant: Union Street Cafe, London SE1

Here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and pretend I don't know that this big, new, shiny restaurant in Southwark is anything to do with Gordon Ramsay. Otherwise, it's impossible to approach without being blind-sided by the baggage trailed in his wake. He's the tallest of poppies, our Gordon; everybody lining up to give him a trampling. So let's make believe that Union Street Cafe is brought to us by nice, anonymous people intent on giving us fine food and a good time. You in?

This is Big Sweary's first opening without his eminence grise pa-in-law, with whom he fell out in spectacular, Greek tragedian fashion. Sorry, I'll try again. It's all cheery bustle in this high-windowed and handsome room, more New York than London in its studied mix of haute-industrial and luxury: ducting and concrete framing well-spaced tables and designer leather chairs. The open kitchen is set on high, pulpit-style; inside is chef Davide Degiovanni, formerly of the Four Seasons. It's a telling piece of recruitment: despite the warehouse disguise, this ain't about the grunge.

We're told the food is Mediterranean and that the menu changes daily. Ours is entirely Italian, written in a weird hybrid language that supposes we won't understand the translation of balsamic, but are perfectly a nostro agio with finferli and orata. The cooking is good: confident, but with no worrisome pretensions to haute cuisine.

There are slippery, smoky grilled peppers, skinned and served with a pungent anchovy sauce and snipped herbs. Calamari come in a coating made crisp with polenta and served on a slab of ripe beef tomato dressed with a vibrant mixture of dot-sized capers and lemon zest: lovely stuff. Mushroom risotto is a dish much traduced; I order it out of badness. But it's excellent: heady with Parmesan and chanterelles (those finferli), with the occasional crunch of Piedmontese hazelnut.

Sure, it's not complicated stuff, but neither is its source material. It does what it does with aplomb: fluffy gnocchi bathed in fruity robiola cheese, punctuated by almost caramelised shards of guanciale (pigs' cheek bacon). Homemade honey gelato – as blowsy as soft-serve, so not really gelato at all – provides a light, sweet finish. The only also-ran is an octopus dish, the muscular tentacle over-charred, its mattress of borlotti and n'duja simply odd: the beans are overcooked, the onions almost raw, and there's just a ghostly suggestion of the sausage. Otherwise, it's all good. These new kids on the block are on to something.

But then the inevitable realisation that it's a Ramsay joint seeps back in, as does the irritation I always feel at the ministrations of the shar-pei-faced showman. I'm irritated by its derivative nature – it's not so much Italian as Batali-an. I think Ramsay's people have been keeping the beadiest of eyes on the empire of US superchef Mario Batali, a man who manages to wrangle the impossible triumvirate of TV fame, mass appeal and critical acclaim.

I'm irritated by the bombardment of pre-publicity, which insists that 17 million people booked before its doors were open and that you can't get a table until 2027. OK, slight exaggeration, but we're welcomed in without our booking being checked and there are many free tables. Most of all, I'm irritated by the mileage gained from a trumpeted "partnership" with Ramsay's mucker David Beckham, generating a forest's worth of column inches and from which Beckham allegedly "withdrew" like a shy virgin. Ever get the feeling you've been played?

Taken on its own merit – fingers still in ears, la la la – this is a fun restaurant you'd definitely use if you were in the area. Add the celebrity into the mix, and you get a place rammed with tourists and helmet-headed matrons in leopardskin hoping for a glimpse of their butch hero (dream on). It's my favourite Ramsay restaurant so far. Make of that what you will.

Union Street Cafe, 47-51 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1, 020-7592 7977. Open all week, lunch noon-3pm (4pm Sat & Sun), dinner 6-11pm (10.30pm Sat & Sun). About £35 a head plus drinks and service.

Food 7/10
Atmosphere 7/10
Value for money 7/10

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