Much is to be expected of a sister restaurant to the famed Mistley Thorn, one of the few Bib Gourmand restaurants in Essex. Probably the biggest difference is the cuisine, modern British with a touch of Californian at Mistley, totally committed Italian at Lucca.

Housed in a Grade II building, Lucca is off to a good start, and there is comfortable seating for up to 100 indoors, with an additional 40 in the vine-covered courtyard garden where a wood-fired oven is also located for private parties.

What then of the menu? It would be easy to say that all the well tried Italian favourites are there, which they are. But that would be to ignore the efforts that are made to go the extra culinary mile to produce dishes with just that subtle hint of difference that sorts out the pizzas from the pastas.