Caldesi in Campagna

It is not everybody who would seek to expand into a town that happens to be the only one in Britain with two three-Michelin-starred restaurants already well established. But then Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi are not just 'everybody', and with three other successful restaurants up and running they are clearly entitled to tread where others might not.

The results support this supposition, and an a la carte menu really says it all. A primi of warm thinly sliced roast pork stuffed with Italian herbs on salad leaves and green lentils sets the tone before moving on to the pasta dishes with a ravishing Sicilian tortelloni stuffed with mozzarella and aubergine with a cherry tomato sauce.

No Italian menu is complete without its pesce dishes and the char grilled king prawns and squid with oven-roasted baby fennel and cherry tomatoes resounds well. So too does the wild boar stew with red wine and tomato sauce on truffle polenta, though oven-baked lamb cutlets in red wine with wild mushrooms and shallots work well for me.

From the dessert menu out of a choice of six, including the cheese selection, with doughnut sticks with Strega crème patisserie and Sambuca jam there really is no competition. It may be bold and brassy and Italian, but this is an Italian restaurant - par excellence.

The wine list is almost Italian, as one might expect or indeed hope for. Some of the Southern and Sicilian wines are particularly noteworthy and when it comes to dessert wines . . . . . .

This is one not to be missed.