The fifth in Tom and Ed Martins's gastropub mini-empire, the Prince Arthur, is the epitome of the movement's success, offering good food in a casual setting. Tom Vaughan reports

If you believe the mirror above the bar, the Prince Arthur is an "importer and bounder of foreign wines and spirits". The word bounder here is somewhat curious - a bounder as in rogue, rascal or cad? - but just as uncomfortable, given its setting, is the use of the word foreign, because if the Prince Arthur is predominantly one thing, it is British.

From the name (Queen Victoria's third and allegedly favourite son) to the pork pies with piccalilli on the starter menu, it is the quintessential new-century British pub.

Tom and Ed Martins have built up a mini-empire by applying their Midas touch to dilapidated boozers. This isn't one of the many bastardised children of the gastropub movement - vac-pac meals and uniform T-shirts - but a proper pub with proper food. There are bar stools, there's good beer and there's a hearty, well-priced British menu. Set in London Fields, near Mile End, it's by no means a huge site, with seating for 50 inside and 24 outside, but if the Martins brothers have proved anything so far, it's that they know how to fill it.

Pitch-perfect

Head chef Tim Francis (an Australian, but steeped in British food) was senior chef de partie at 30 St Mary's Axe, the restaurant atop London's Gherkin. In true gastropub style, the brief of simple British fare is pitch-perfect in its execution cheaper cuts ensuring dishes stay firmly in the pub-food price bracket, with mains all under £12.

Home-made pork pie and piccalilli (£5) was one of last month's treats, made in the kitchen from minced belly and shoulder, which was replaced this month by ham hock with smoked black pudding (£6). Breast of wood pigeon comes with roasted beetroot and a chicory and red onion salad (£6.50), while potted mackerel and kipper is a simple home-made terrine served with toast.

The dedication to cheaper cuts rings sharpest on the main menu, with roast pork belly, crackling, caramelised parsnip, Brussels tops and apple sauce (£11.95) and Lancashire hotpot (£11.50), last season's treats, replaced with cottage pie and Brussels tops (£9.95) and what Francis describes as the signature dish for February: roast saddle and leg of rabbit with a white bean cassoulet (£11.95). The saddles are taken off and the legs confited, before being wrapped into a ballotine and roasted. "It's pubby, but it's technical and needs lots of time and attention," says Francis. "But that's the fun of the kitchen: turning a pig's ear into a purse."

Does the dedication to keeping prices down ever come at the expense of the ingredient? Not really, he says. "We recently had some lamb on - some little rumps - and paired them with kohlrabi and celeriac. As long as you stay seasonal then you can pick up excellent veg at great prices."

Because, like all the brothers' pubs, the location is residential, the menu changes monthly to keep the regulars interested. And while the five Martins brother sites share suppliers and a British theme, their synergy stops far short of menu swapping. The dishes are all the head chefs' separate creations and, apart from helping each other out if, say, one of the kitchens is in a fix, they act independently of each other.

If the Prince Arthur were to have a trademark dish it would have to be the deep-fried jam sandwich (£4.50). Comprising brioche and plum chutney fried in a sweet batter with home-made vanilla ice-cream, its origins lie in a kitchen chat about comfort food. "All the boys started talking about deep-fried Mars bars one day and it just evolved from there," explains Francis.

Cover numbers fluctuate between 30 at the start of the week and 100 come the weekend, and there are, of course, the drinkers providing a regular wet trade. It's not rocket science, it's just a pub. But a pub in keeping with the original ideals of the gastropub movement.

Also on the menu

• Pint o' prawns with mayonnaise, £7
• Half-a-dozen Irish rock oysters, red wine shallot vinegar, £10.50
• Pickled beetroot salad, goats' cheese curd, walnut, sticky dates, £5
• Prince Arthur scampi, fat chips, fresh tartare, £9.95
• Gnocchi with braised fennel, confit tomatoes and blue cheese béarnaise, £9.50
• Lancashire hotpot, braised red cabbage, £11.50
• Lemon tart with crème fraîche, £4.50
• Apple and blackberry crumble, clotted cream, £4.50
• British cheeses, £9

The Prince Arthur, 95 Forest Road, London Fields, London E8 3BH. Tel: 020 7249 9996. Website: www.theprincearthurlondonfields.com