Address: 61 Wollaton Road, Beeston, Nottingham
Telephone: 0115 922 2268
Rating: 16/20

The lady behind the counter seemed rather surprised. "A restaurant?" she said. "In Beeston? Are you sure?"

I was sure because I had booked a table at La Toque for lunch, but inquiries at various points as I made my way from the railway station to the centre of town suggested that La Toque had yet to make a substantial impact at a grass roots level. I'm not sure why - Beeston may be more famous for its boilers than its gastronomic excellence, it may lurk in the shadow of the more famous Nottingham, but that is no reason why it should not have a reputable eatery. After all, any French, Spanish or Italian equivalent of Beeston has its La Toque, and is proud of it.

Anyway, eventually I found it on Wollaton Road, which leads out of town. It was chocolate without and chocolate within. As it turned out, I was the only person who did find it that lunchtime, but this did not inhibit the cheeriness of my welcome or, to judge by the laughter and chat, the high spirits in the kitchen. I found this rather encouraging: a happy kitchen is more likely to produce happy food, in my experience.

So, between sagacious discussions with the irreducibly cheerful French maître d' about wine, broken ankles, the failure of Beestonians to take lunch sufficiently seriously and other matters of the moment, I settled down to the business of the day: roast quail with an aubergine and parsnip tartlet, and crisp beetroot and leek salad; fried lemon sole fillets with sautéed prawns, crushed potatoes with dill, tagliatelle of candied pepper and cucumber and lemon grass sauce; and white chocolate mousse with vanilla-roasted pineapple and peach sauce (I make no apology - a chap needs a fix of ultra-kitsch goo every now and then).

The chef is a fellow called Mattias Karlsson, whom I have never heard of before, although I believe he came to Beeston by way of Le Gavroche and other classy kitchens, which suggests that he knows how to cook in the French style. Indeed, he does know how to cook and the style is unregenerately French. The quail was tender and juicy. The lemon sole, an easy fish to reduce to unappetising mush, was firm and fresh. Even delicate elements such as the vegetable tagliatelle had definition and flavour.

However, technique is not the same as taste - that is, taste as in what goes with what, taste as in telling combinations. And, to be fair, I think Karlsson has taste, even if it is not quite my taste. There were no glaring mismatches, no bonkers combinations. Flavours were comfortable with each other, more so than the menu rubric suggested. But there was something distinctly 1970s-ish about the cooking and plating arrangements - protein piled on a central base, decorative molehills of garnishes at various points around, big sauce. There was something of the 1970s about the combinations, too. There was a liking for rich-sweet and not-so-sweet elements, for rich goos and cheesy sauces. Various dishes made use of gorgonzola, crème fraîche, mascarpone, brie de Meaux and goats' cheese. The aubergine on which the quail breasts and legs rested was as thick as a down duvet and equally soothing, but it lacked flavour. It was a texture, not a taste, and the overall effect was a touch cloying.

The lemon sole was more successful, lighter, the individual parts more distinctive. The potato was easy with olive oil and lively with dill. The vegetable tagliatelle might be a bit Tuesday, but still made a contribution to the overall balance. Even the prawns had more flavour than you normally get.

And as for the pudding, what can I say? It was as atrociously, disgustingly pleasurable as you would expect. Sophisticated? Possibly not. Cutting edge? Oooh, no. Funky? I rather think not. But fun? Frivolous? Foxy? Yes, please, mother.

And yes, the bill, too, please. What?! £45.28! Ah well, that was a better reflection of my spending power than La Toque's pricing structure. It does a good-value set lunch, but I went a bit à la carte, and added a bottle of delicious St Nicholas de Bourgueil at £22.80 to the total. So don't blame them, blame me.

Obviously, one man eating on his own cannot do justice to an entire menu, and nor was there anyone else there whose plate I could ogle. So, inevitably, a meal of this kind is a snapshot of a restaurant's abilities and style. Even so, I think the style is quite obvious - French in all its parts (good wine list included, in spite of the presence of one or two non-French wines) and in its whole, even if it is the France of the regions and of a few years ago. Maybe the baffled lady was right - La Toque is a bit odd to find in so British a town as Beeston, but lucky Beeston, say I.

· Open: Lunch, Tues-Fri, 12 noon-2pm; dinner, Tues-Sat, 7-10.30pm.
Menus: Lunch, £12.95 for two courses, £16.95 for three. Dinner, £18.95 for two courses, £24.95 for three.
Wheelchair access & WC.