One thing’s for sure about this week’s new discovery – the Grove in unfash W6 – it’s safe from being gobbled up by the big boys. The corporate bean counters would faint at the size of the portions. 
 In fact, we fell upon this jolly former gastro pub by chance, en route to review a poncey new place just along the road, and boy were we glad we did. For the Grove’s got such a lot of going for it considering it’s no more than a local restaurant/bar tucked away by the back end of Hammersmith. Even more interesting its owner, Zeljko Radojevic, who’s a Yugoslav chap who decided to settle in the area and set up shop with the restaurant in November 2000.
 But a little bird tolls me Zeljko puts integrity before profit. Here’s a man who has studied the effects of the agricultural chemicals in food, and is so passionate about the subject he’s prepared to charge the same price for organic as for non-organic food and settle for a lower mark-up. In fact, the whole reason he bought the Grove as a business in the first place was because he liked the feel of the premises, the area and its people. The leafy, laid-back street has something of the feel of Chiswick about it yet you could stroll there from King Street and the Lyric theatre. Mind you, the boozer he inherited, by all accounts, very much your drinking’s bloke’s local-big on baccy, football and mine’s pint. I wonder what its old regulars make of it now.
 As we arrived, on a sunny Saturday, people were propped up at the outside tables engrossed in the weekend papers and the grub, even as we poked our heads through the door, certainly looked promising. Inside, a table for eight twenty something were toasting each other’s personal brilliance but the moment we’d found our table our waitress was over with a smile and the offer of a drink. Hello? Not quite yer average ale house.
 It seems that with brother in law Igor helping to run the business seven days a week, the chef’s encouraged to rotate a regular 50 dishes, in addition to accepting bookings for parties and exhibitions upstairs. The menu, billed as modern European, is a cosmopolitan mix, and the food comes in aforementioned greedy boy portions. From a choice of 11 starters we chose a Ceasar salad with pancetta and avocado (£5.95) and grilled Mediterranean vegetables with three cheeses and pesto (£5.75). The Ceasar was properly crunchy with, hallelujah, all the correct bits and bobs.
 My main course – tender, chargrlled chunk of rib-eye – was fair old whack of prime steer and came accompanied by good rustic fries and a mixed salad. My guest opted for the oven roasted cornfed chicken wrapped in parma ham and stuffed with goat’s cheese, all very moist and enjoyable, though the crushed potatoes were un peu overcooked. Since people seem to bring their kids here (in squads), the puds are worth a look-in and the deserts or the cheese platter cost £4 each. Truth to tell we were already well stuffed but hey, you know us, still managed to make inroads on a gooey slab of fudge layered banana Bonoffee pie.
 The wine list is well stocked – with organic wines, if preferred. And there are plenty of wines by the glass in both 175ml and 250ml measures.
 The friendly service I can honestly say is as good as you’ll get. But a gold star to our Aussie waitress from Wagga Wagga. The locals themselves are a bizarre mix of bods – every type from a builder to bank managers, City boys and their birds and the odd show biz luvvy lunching on exes from the Beeb. We were well taken by the funkiest and happy vibes of the Grove. It’s exactly what you want in a neighbourhood restaurant: to nosh and friendly but not in-yer-face serving staff. Nice one.