The prices aren't so right

You can still see the vestiges of what was once a small town at this terminus on the District Line, where the Tube finally hits the buffers and forces you to alight. Richmond has a pretty theatre, the Thames for sculling, a green with a cricket square and riverside pubs for drinking. But ripple dissolve to the present and there's a multistorey car park beside the station to engulf the cars of city-bound commuters. The streets are paved with concrete, there are large and eager clothes shops, suave estate agents, and bars promising the happiest of happy hours.

Around the station mouth, there are several restaurants, each waiting to snare unwary locals on their way home. You'll find Bacco next door to the Richmond Diet Clinic (surely this is a missed opportunity for a carefully thought-out joint promotion?), and just along from one of Richmond's most famous pubs - The Orange Tree. The narrow restaurant has several levels and a small bar area plumb in the middle. It's a light and bright place with pleasant but businesslike Italian staff.

And it's a busy place, too. There are lots of middle-aged couples and foursomes, all relaxed and all made confident by the straightforward Italian menu. In summary, the antipasti and primi piatti are more rewarding than the main courses. The cooking here is accomplished, it's just that a starter like malfatti burro e salvia (home-made ricotta cheese and spinach gnocchi, splendidly light and fluffy, served with sage butter and Parmesan) is much more interesting than tagliata ai ferri, which is an Angus rib-eye steak. Other starters include a warm duck salad with almonds, crisp bacon and mixed leaves, all tossed with a balsamic dressing, which is a good combination of textures and flavours. The pasta and risotti section includes rigatoni all'arrabiata, a good balance of rich tomato, garlic, basil and chilli sauce to pasta.

There are always daily specials on offer and the wild-boar sausages are served with a leek and potato mash --plain but good.

Pan-fried calves' liver with stewed cabbage is well cooked: the liver is thin, very tender and, after a bit of initial prickliness ('We don't mix and match menu items'), is improved by a side order of crisp bacon.

The puds list is a round-up of old favourites, such as tiramisu, panna cotta (pink and topped with raspberries this time) and a chunky chocolate brownie. The wine list has some less familiar Italian bottles and enough of them are priced low enough to encourage the inquisitive, and there is a wide range of fierce grappas.

Bacco is a popular restaurant with sound cooking, but the one factor that stops it reaching fourstar status is the feeling that the pricing is a tad strong. For example, adding the strongly recommended side order of mash (£3) could push the cost of your main course to more than £16. Similarly, choosing pasta as an opening move could mean that your starter ends up costing nearly £9. These are substantial prices for a local restaurant.

It must be pleasing to have a decent restaurant waiting when you step off the District Line after a hard day at the office. But it must be even more pleasing to be able to afford prices like these.

Bacco
Kew Road, Richmond Upon Thames, TW9 2NQ