Best in season

It's hard to know how to pigeonhole Le Vacherin: despite having an English chef, this is defiantly a French restaurant, and the menu is littered with nostalgic, rustic dishes - all very Elizabeth David. But Le Vacherin is not a posh and elegant destination restaurant - it's tucked away at the foot of Acton Lane and serves a genuinely local clientele.

The cooking is good here, well-balanced dishes, intense flavours, good seasoning and a healthy dollop of real passion.

There are two halves to the dining room. As you come in there's a narrow section leading to the bar, and there is a larger room next door. The floors are tiled and the tables come with linen cloths topped with paper slip-covers - as if the proprietors are determined not to stray too far upmarket.

When you name your restaurant after a cheese you are honour bound to offer it on the menu, and here you could have a baked Vacherin with Bayonne ham, new potatoes and gherkins to start with, some gratin Dauphinoise made with Vacherin to accompany your main course, and then have another baked Vacherin to finish with.

Perhaps there's some lingering memory of Seventies fondue, but the baked cheeses are immensely popular and the kitchen uses between 40 and 50 a week. When the pukka Vacherin season is over (October until the end of March, with the cheeses lingering on until the end of May) the plan is to switch to goat's cheese Vacherin for the summer months.

Setting aside the merits of this noble cheese, various other starters also appeal: there's a dozen old-style Burgundy snails with pungent garlic butter, a warm salad of scallops, black pudding and Alsace bacon, a goat's cheese tart with endives and a walnut salad.

'Oeuf en cocotte et ragoût d'Aiglefin' comes to table in two separate china pots, one containing an accurately coddled egg and the other smoked haddock in a cream sauce - this dish works well. A charcuterie plate comes with cornichons and some little onions. It runs the gamut from a decent terrine, through saucisse, shredded duck, smoked duck breast and a slice of ballotine de foie gras.

There are a dozen main courses to choose from, plus a couple of specials: steak fr"tes, pork belly and lentils, a Provençal fish stew or duck cassoulet. 'Joue de boeuf braisée à la Bourguignone' is jolly good - a rich, wine-dark stew, hyper-intense gravy with a few chunks of bacon and the ox cheek cooked until melting point. Or there are old favourites such as blanquette de veau, or grilled lemon sole, chips and tartare sauce.

From the specials a dish of magret de canard comes on a bed of braised chicory with a bitter orange sauce and some very good mash. This is a good dish because the breast comes from a large duck that can be cooked to a crisp outside and still remain pink within, and the bitterness of the accompaniments balances the richness of the duck.

The wine list has some sensibly priced, straightforward bottles on it; check out those from the south-west of France. If you arrive at the dessert course still unconverted to the merits of molten cheese, then opt for one of the classics - petit pot au chocolat, profiteroles, crème brûlée, prune and Armagnac tart. Service here is Gallic, with that crisp and organised feel that can either delight or alienate.