An unhurried French pleasure

Stratfords is a local restaurant that looks and feels as though it has always been on its quiet Kensington corner for the pleasure of the neighbourhood eccentrics, who treat it as the kitchen where they never have to cook. Its flavour is French and French is the language often to be overheard from nearby tables.

Fish is the speciality, but when I took a friend who is a carnivore beyond redemption, Madame gave him a steak (£14.50) of succulent quality that no restaurant could have bettered, a steak that had lain in wait for him and not been ripped untimely from the freezer.

Fish soup, though at £6.90 the least expensive beginning, is presented with some ceremony, ladled from a big tureen, a second helping always volunteered, accompanied by croutons, a rich garlic mayonnaise and grated cheese - so good that I have occasionally been tempted to have this and a pudding as a rushed lunch.

As for the fish - well, fish is fish and plain cooking suits expectation best; the excitement here is not in a pointless complication in the recipe, but in the choice - yours - of the sauce. A John Dory is £14.80, and a fillet of halibut £16.90.

The puddings are another strength - the best bread pudding light and melting, a chocolate souffle light and melting too, a home-made cassata to vary the ices and sorbets, and morsels of all to be had together in a delice (£6).

For anyone happy to explore the backwaters between High Street Kensington and Earl's Court, this is a peaceful and pleasant way of spending an unhurried evening.

Stratford's
7 Stratford Road, W8 6RF