How times change! My earliest memories of the building occupied by Fratelli on St Mary's Hill are of an up-market antique dealer's, with the wonderful arched 12th century crypt housing a mixed bag of ageing bits and pieces. Now the crypt is the downstairs dining room and whatever might be said about the customers the food is anything but a mixed bag. A gourmet approach in the kitchen offers Italian food of considerable integrity, with all the great Italian classics and then some, on display.

Such has been the support that branches have opened at Kibworth Harcourt and Castor. Presentation and content are of a high standard. Sicilian house wines head an Italian list that mainly hovers round the £20 mark. It is perhaps a reflection of the times that premises of great antiquity (Castor is an old thatched 'gentleman's pub' of the 'thirties) adapt so easily to a different purpose, where eating is the main preoccupation.