For years Ches’s Café in Crown Road has been reliably dishing up early morning bacon sandwiches and fry-ups.

But recently the focus has changed. It’s still a very good place for an English breakfast, but it has recently adopted a different guise at lunchtime and evenings – Ches’s Trattoria.

Wikipedia states “a trattoria is an Italian style of restaurant, less formal than a ristorante. There are generally no printed menus, the service is casual, the prices low, and the emphasis is on a steady clientele…the food is modest but plentiful and is served family-style (i.e. at common tables)”.

This description is pretty much spot on for the new Ches’s Trattoria.

Ches’s is on two floors. Upstairs is the café, downstairs is a more intimate, restaurant-like room. On a recent visit, six of us were booked for 8pm, and on arrival we were shown to the downstairs room.

The choice of starters is quite extensive. Seafood salad, Parma ham and melon, mixed salami, tuna and cannellini bean salad, mushrooms with white wine and garlic are just some of the dishes on offer, all at about £6 to £8. For main course there are about a dozen different pasta dishes, and 15 or so different types of pizza, all in the £7 to £10 price range.

In the end we went straight for main courses, without having a starter. Four of us ordered pizzas and two ordered linguine. The kitchen was busy, and we waited for a while over glasses of wine (BYO, because they are not at present licenced).

 When the food did arrive, the dishes arrived all at once and piping hot. The pizzas were large, fresh and tasty, and the linguine had a wonderfully intense and genuine Italian home-cooked flavour.

A quick poll round the table for marks out of five for the food returned votes of fours and fives from everyone. And the bill, for six people? £65.50.

The Verdict

Italian home cooking served with real warmth, friendliness and pride. It gets very busy at times, so don’t expect to be in and out in twenty minutes. But for a relaxed evening out with friends at a price that won’t break the bank Ches’s Trattoria is very hard to beat. Highly recommended.

Other notes

Booking is essential on weekend evenings. They also do take-aways.

As mentioned before, they are not currently licenced so you are welcome to bring your own wine etc. No credit cards, only cash or cheques.

Ches’s Trattoria          48, Crown Road, St Margarets, TW1 3EH

                                    020 8892 4615