It was a fairly last-minute arrangement for me to meet friends Lucia and David at the highly acclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s St Martin’s Lane. As they weren’t able to meet for a meal beforehand I decided to eat at that old favourite of mine (they can’t keep me away!), Bancone. It’s in my top three of favourite restaurants along with The Palomar and Brindisa. I never eat much at lunchtime and prefer to eat a meal in the evening, but had to leave home too early to eat before I set off into central London. Bancone was an obvious choice being just round the corner from the theatre, and it’s an ideal place for a solo diner, sat at their lovely bar (the bancone!). It’s also possible to eat quite cheaply – especially for London these days – if you only have a plate of pasta. Pasta is what they do. There are no other mains but you don’t need other mains when pasta is this good. They do gorgeous starters though and when I go with friends, we usually share a couple of those and have our own choice of pasta.

My intention had been to have a simple supper of pasta but once sat at the bancone, willpower slipped into ‘treat yourself’ mode and I ordered a starter too, along with a mocktail; Botivo Aperitivo (£7.50), a delicious non-alcoholic drink I’ve enjoyed there before.

For my starter I had Burrata, Crispy confit tomato ravioli, pistachio pesto (£13). Bancone always serve wonderful burrata, I like anything ‘pistachio’ and the crispy ravioli sounded interesting. The first ravioli was a little more chewy than crispy, the second one was perfect, and it was a lovely starter.

My choice for main was guided by my love of aubergines. I had Roast aubergine, dashi broth, tagliolini, chilli (£16). Of course ‘broth’ was a guide to it being quite a warm dish, perhaps better suited to spring or autumn rather than a hot summer’s day, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

I got talking to a lovely woman from Singapore who was sitting next to me. She studied in London and so comes back here quite often and Bancone is one of her favourite places to eat too. She was off to see ballet at the Royal Opera House and we got talking about theatre, ballet, art, etc. and so it really made the meal special to have a like-interested person to chat to.

I decided against a pudding and coffee at Bancone as it was still quite early – I was meeting my friends at the theatre at 7.00 for a 7.30 start. I thought that instead I’d have a coffee at Santa Nata (another favourite place) with one of their gorgeous pastel de natas. The branch in New Row was ideal, just a little further up St Martin’s Lane and the theatre was visible at the end of the road.

And the play? Despite the rave 4* and 5* reviews, I wasn’t greatly impressed. I didn’t like the opening at all but as it went on, I enjoyed it more but it wasn’t until the end, when Cyrano and Roxane look at the honesty – or not – of their relationship, their responsibility for their own behaviour and whether they’d been honest with themselves, that I felt, ‘this is what I come to the theatre for’, good, mind-exercising words and debate. There was a lot of word play from the beginning, but we aren’t talking Tom Stoppard here; some of it and the jokes were quite weak I felt. It seemed to me overall that the emphasis of the production was on showy special effects and choreography. The audience seemed to love it and there was lots of clapping, laughter and cheers, but as an attempt to modernise this famous 1897 play, it didn’t really come off for me. Adrian Lester was the big star name, playing Cyrano, and very good but for me it was the brilliant Susannah Fielding, playing Roxane, who really stood out.

As an aside, every time Roxane was mentioned, I couldn’t help the sound of The Police’s famous 1978 song ‘Roxanne’ playing in my head. Their Roxanne (two ‘n’s) was a prostitute though while Cyrano’s is an intellectual woman of Parisian high society.

It was a long, nearly three-hour play, and when I got back to Waterloo station, I found many trains were cancelled or delayed. It took me nearly two hours to get home instead of one, but it ended on a lovely, kind note. It was so late – past midnight – when I got back to Twickenham station and rather than walk (20 minutes!) or wait for a bus, I dashed to the black cabs waiting outside. There were only two and the first already taken. Phew! One for me … as I gave the driver my address a woman rushed up behind me. Would I mind sharing the cab and cost as she lived near me? Thus I enjoyed another spontaneous conversation, though this time about the hazards of train travel rather than art! And as the driver pulled up to my house, the woman kindly turned down my offer of money and said it was okay, she’d pay.