AS FAR as formula restaurants go, this brand has got its purpose off to a fine art.

The only surprise, then, is that after 25 years there are still only four of them.

With the three other eateries being in London, this delightful building on Sheep Street remains the closest Cafe Pasta to Birmingham.

For simple food, it does the job better than Bella Italia which has a prized site on New Street.

Perhaps Cafe Pasta’s closest cousin is Pizza Express, with which it used to have sisterly links.

But while the latter is eyeing up expansion plans of more than 300 new restaurants in the years ahead, it seems as if Cafe Pasta will always be niche despite the universal popularity of Italian food.

Certainly I have always enjoyed going there because there are three completely different spaces in which to sit.

In the front window, you watch Stratford’s own world of international visitors walking by at your leisure.

In the mid-section you can dine intimately, almost as if you are in Shakespeare’s day.