Gordon Ramsay at the London, New York

We're in Manhattan, within panicking distance of Christmas and you can virtually smell the exchange rate in the air, like the metallic tang of ozone. "Slow down Sarah ... it's not a bleedin' marathon," mutters one bag-laden Englishwoman to another as they speed march towards Bloomingdales. It is a marathon, though. Dollars are two to the pound, the conversion rate has become magically easy and the only brake on frantic acquisition is the thought of the check-in scales at JFK. In fact, even a top-end restaurant like Gordon Ramsay at the London, newly opened in a boutique hotel of the same name, is looking like something of a bargain.

The opening of Ramsay's first American restaurant hasn't been entirely glitch-free. First the waiting staff got the hump after a dispute over tips. Then the neighbours began to kvetch, allegedly distressed by exhaust fans and air-conditioning units that "drone incessantly at jet engine levels" (if Ramsay thinks that he has been inoculated against drama queenery by his participation in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares he has reckoned without the honed carping skills of the average New Yorker). If he irritates his customers as well he will be going for the kind of trifecta that no restaurateur wants on his books - particularly one aiming to grow an American empire.

Fortunately, the noise that greets us in the London Bar is neither a drone nor a whine but that indefinably congratulatory buzz given off by a New York crowd who have got a table at a hot new restaurant (and intend to relish every minute of the precise two hours they have been allotted). Through a veiled set of doors lies the restaurant proper - serving up the signature dishes on which Ramsay has built his collection of Michelin stars. On this side lies the London Bar, a cocktail bar and restaurant that imports the tapas portions approach of Maze in London. Chef de cuisine is Neil Ferguson, who was previously head chef under Angela Hartnett at the Connaught, and who has the task of supervising a menu that transfers wholesale several of the more bankable dishes from the London original.

I doubt that anyone's going to come here for the décor, which is apparently intended by the designer David Collins to "showcase the best of classic British style", but which looks like an unusually well-funded Fifties Chinese restaurant. There's an explosive bit of lighting bling above the bar, shiny panels reminiscent of smoothed out Quality Street wrappers, art deco chrome and aqua leather banquettes that appear to have been expensively treated to look like vinyl. The food, by contrast, is positively decorous and understated - even though some of the variations to the menu may look a little brash in print. I start, for example, with a BLT ($12) - a dish that is served in a martini glass and consists of a bacon and onion cream layered over a tomato jelly and topped, at the table, with an eye-zapping emerald swirl of lettuce velouté. Witty, I guess, if wit is something you seek from your supper - but also delicious enough to mean that your tastebuds don't end up paying for the conceit.

Honey and soy roasted quail, served with sautéed foie gras and a spiced pear chutney ($16) and Peekytoe crab mayonnaise with avocado and sweetcorn sorbet are precise replicas of dishes on Maze's menu, though there seem to be more fish and meat combinations than I recall at the British restaurant - perhaps a nod to a "surf and turf" tradition. Pacific halibut with squid, creamed cauliflower, spiced beef and braised leeks ($16) delivers the squid as a fine risotto dice suspended in the sauce - an unexpected use of the ingredient's al dente resistance. I'm not entirely convinced that worked, but the combination of perfectly cooked fish and beef beneath it is terrific.

Desserts don't stray so far from the London menu - though the peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich ($10) is more at home here than in Grosvenor Square and will presumably stir more murmurs of nostalgia. The Valrhona chocolate fondant with cardamom caramel and salted almond ice cream ($10) and the Madagascan vanilla rice pudding ($8) also appear to have travelled well. New Yorkers pride themselves on being hard to impress and early reviews carried more than an overtone of chippy resistance to Ramsay's reputation. But I'd be surprised if they hold out for long.

Gordon Ramsay at the London, 151 West 54th Street, New York (00 1 212 468 8888). $255 (£130) for two

Food

Ambience

Service

Side orders: Brits abroad

Verre

Think elegant white table linen and sparkly silver cutlery if you want to conjure up a vision of Ramsay's 70-seat Verre restaurant at the Hilton Dubai Creek Hotel. Gordon applies his trademark light touch to the superlatively fresh Dubai fish.

Beniyas Road, PO Box 33398, Dubai (+971 4227 1111; www.hilton dubaicreek.com)

RhodesD7

Modern European cuisine from Gary Rhodes in a contemporary setting in the centre of Dublin. Dishes include Irish brie, spinach and onion jalousie with a vegetable and fresh herb ragout; and pan-fried sea trout with sweet citrus asparagus and dill hollandaise.

The Capel Building, Marys Abbey, Dublin 7 (+353 1 804 4444)

Rose Bakery

A Brit opening a bakery in Paris might seem a little "coals to Newcastle" - but Rose Carrarini, founder of Villandry in London, has pulled it off with her Rose Bakery in the 9th arrondissement. The locals queue out of the door for her chocolate brownies, crumbles, carrot cakes and sponges.

46 rue des Martyrs, Paris (+33 1 42 82 12 80)

Custom House

Recently opened, Terence Conran's gastro-complex on the waterfront in Copenhagen has three restaurants, each with its own view across the water: the Italian-style Bacino, the Japanese-inspired Ebisu and the Danish-European influenced Custom House Grill.

Havnegade 44, 1058 København K (+45 3331 0130)