Restaurant review - I went to Stones Cafe in Fareham and managed to please a grumpy three-year-old

And it comes into sharp contrast when dealing with food.

Eating out is – certainly with the cost of living the way it is at the moment – for many of us a rare treat. It’s something to be savoured as a break from the norm. But most adults don’t want to have to go to McDonald’s, and most children will not tolerate a curry.

So where's the middle ground? Well, some pubs – including the Farmhouse in Portsmouth, a recent Dish Detective stopover – do alright with a mixture of soft play and activities for small ones, and sport-showing tellies for bigger people. But you can’t always go to a pub.

Try some other Dish Detective reviews from Fareham Crumblejack; Garden Shed Cafe; Three Joes

And so, when I was out in Fareham with a cross and feeling-sorry-for-herself three-year-old who had just had some jabs and was refusing to go into nursery, and it became clear that even after a library trip and some walking around town she really wouldn’t be leaving my side for the day, that I thought I’d cheer her up with some food (and I was starving, it must be said).

She did make a play for the Golden Arches, which I refused. We looked in the window of another cafe along there which I’d had my eye on trying for many months, but while the menu looked delicious it just looked a little bit… complicated for those with simpler palates.

So after rejecting those, we went to a failsafe – Stones.

While it is decorated in the gentle brown hues of the coffee house, Stones is a proper cafe. To use a reference that the three-year-old would understand, it feels like it could be the cafe that Sophie and her family go to after the Tiger Who Came To Tea cleaned out their house of all food and drink, and that book came out in the late 60s. If you want fry-ups and simple meals, this really is your kind of place (although it must be said Fareham’s West Street is blessed with great independent venues, who deserve all the support they can get).

I had a proper Full English – two sausages, bacon, two eggs, hash browns, beans, mushrooms and tomatoes. The little one had a burger, chips and beans. Both of us were happy, and it even put her off complaining about her jabs.

I’ve said before that it’s easier to note a weak link in a fried breakfast than a necessarily praise it’s strength – that is, you can have a perfectly decent plate of food but be disappointed if the bacon is chewy or has too much rind, or if the sausages are gristly, or the beans and mushrooms too cold. That 15 per cent of the plate shouldn’t shoot down the meal but it often does. But after a few meals at Stones I’m yet to be served a duffer. They do what they do very well.

And that’s the feel of the whole place. Friendly staff, beautifully clean dining area, quick service, no messing about. Stones is the cafe that every high street should want, and indeed every shopper, both young and old.