September 2024.

We were warned by our B&B hosts that this restaurant is considered expensive. In a way it was but sharing plates somewhat diminished that. Overall the impression was good.

It’s located peripherally in accessible downtown Stratford, a bistro-style U-shaped arrangement of tables off a nice storefront presence. Our server was a cheery big girl who engaged in conversation with candour but seemed to obsess a bit repetitively once having taken orders. Two of us started with a Tanqueray gin martini which was nicely prepared on a Martini and Rossi vermouth.

There were nine starters including (charging for) bread and butter. We shared the beef tartare which was delicious and possibly included a bit of mayonnaise, which we hadn’t seen before. There were home-made crunchy crackers to scoop this up. Our main was half each of a marinated “pork shoulder” cappicolo with baked beans and tiny onions which was plenty of food and also respectable preparation of flavour, the pork slices possibly a bit fattier than even I prefer. We finished with a peach clafoutis which demonstrated that the chef is not afraid of sugar.

A Spanish temranillo was simple but balanced and went well with everything else.

With $60 for the wine our half-dinner was about $180 which while it seemed a not bad value for the two of us was really just one meal, supporting our B&B host’s opinion.

Food 8.9, service 7.0 (others with us liked it better), ambience 8.6, value not sure, peace and quiet 8.5. Against others in this lovely town probably a better choice than my scores indicate.