London is not exactly short on Italian flavoured restaurants, but it can always use the good ones, and this one smacks of an expertise. It also smacks (if that is the right word) of lesbian and gay pizzas, an extraordinary fusion of ideas that didn't do much for my appetite. But we live in adventurous times, and maybe I was really missing something.

From the antipasti came deep fried pizza filled with ricotta cheese, ham, tomato sauce, basil and olive oil that seemed to hit all the right places, followed by some spaghetti with fresh cherry tomatoes, basil and fresh Parmesan cheese - simple but well prepared.

Despite a slight aversion to Italian treatment of seafood, which I find sometimes less than respectful, the homemade scialatielli of fresh prawns, more cherry tomatoes, calamari, clams and mussels, served in silver foil was a real treat and still left room for a dish of filetto grigliato, premium Scotch beef fillet done in the chef's special dressing.

One of the benefits of Italian cooking is the way they treat vegetables, using sufficient oil and 'mystery' ingredients (mostly herbs I suspect) to camp them up. A precocious list of ice creams with some of mama's confections is followed by an even more forward list of grappas, amongst them the oro di mazzetti which is alright except that it tends to send you off to sleep.

The wine list makes no concessions - and why should it - and demonstrates well the versatility of Italian wine.