The King’s Road stretches a long way past the Saatchi Gallery and the Bluebird Cafe: a long way, that is, past tourist country. Go far enough and you’ll get to World’s End, where you’ll find not some apocalyptic wasteland or, indeed, much to suggest that this is the ‘downmarket’ end of the King’s Road, but rather a superb little eatery committed to fresh produce and simple (though never simplistic) fare: The World’s End Market. It’s interior – housed in the chassis of the historic World’s End pub – is all hefty wood, antiqued brass light-fittings and clean checkerboard floor tiles with a light and spacious ambiance.

Nothing to distract, in other words, from the food and quality ingredients (some of which are proudly displayed on the fish counter, so you really know what you’re getting). In fact, you can even pick your produce fresh from The Market next door and get it cooked up for you. I didn’t take advantage of this particular feature – trusting the chefs to do the selecting for me – and began with a starter of a poached egg sitting on white asparagus and shiitake mushroom with grated Parmesan. It certainly wasn’t an over-complicated dish, but everything was beautifully executed and cooked with great balance. Next came seared Yellowfin tuna that was, again, sensitively cooked and tastefully seasoned, but free from the “over-chef-ing” you hear people fussing about: not a complaint you’ll see coming from my mouth, admittedly. Eating out should be something of an occasion, no?

All that being said, when pudding came in the form of a chocolate fondant that was everything I had hoped, I realised that The World’s End Market knows what it’s about and sticks to it; take good ingredients, treat them well, and don’t mess around with them. And what could be wrong with that, really? You’ll find no lily’s being needlessly gilded here, that’s for sure.

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