San Carlo at 6-7 South Parade, offering up to the minute Italian cooking, is a bright and buzzing restaurant to be opened by the award-winning San Carlo Group, founded as a family business more than 19 years ago. With its genuine hospitality, high quality cooking and a vibrant atmosphere San Carlo is proving to be a winner with the good people of Leeds.

However, though the pace is fast, the atmosphere in San Carlo is informal and relaxed. Diners can take their time to browse over an extensive menu that features exquisitely-presented dishes. We never compromise on quality and that is why everyone says our food tastes so good," said Carlo Distefano, Proprietor. He attributes his success to his own passion for food and his insistence on using only the very freshest ingredients-including importing the best olive oils, herbs, pasta and fresh tomatoes from his native Sicily.

There is a good choice of starters from soups to authentic antipasti and salads. Fish specialities include smoked salmon, wild sea bass, Dover sole, giant prawns, oysters and crayfish.

The Italian ways with meat commend themselves to many of those for whom Italian restaurants are an extension of life itself and when you contemplate calves' liver, escalopes of veal and prime sliced Scottish beef you can understand why. Thoughts of lamb cutlets, one of the best dishes on earth, served in Madeira sauce with rosemary and sun dried tomatoes only a few miles further on, can easily sustain a man for that extra mile, though fillet of beef medallions wrapped in Parma ham in a creamy truffle sauce are very close competition.

Whilst we all associate pizza with Italian food it's believed that the Egyptians and Greeks were eating something rather pizza-like long before Raffaele Esposito, who owned the Pizzeria di Pietro in Naples, clearly seized an opportunity, and baked a 'pizza' for a royal visit by King Umberto I and Queen Margherita. The rest is history. For many the pizza Diavola is the ultimate indulgence, with tomatoes, cheese, spicy hot sausage, onions and chillies.

You might think that all this savoury living would demand some sacrifices when it came to the desserts, but not a bit of it. Italian dolci are some of the most exotic in the world, and the fact that so often they are the work of Mama in her homely kitchen makes them even more tempting. Even the names are extravagant ? take crostata al frutti di bosco, and what do you have? Home made tart, custard cream topped with fruits of the forest. Sounds pretty harmless but not the way the Italian do it with those little hidden extras so dear to a gourmet's heart.

So from a perfectly cooked bowl of pasta and bottle of wine to the finest lobster and champagne, the menu offers the perfect choice for any occasion and its impressive and comprehensive wine list, that complements the dishes, is 90% Italian.

San Carlo Group is proud of its many accolades, which include the industry-leading Les Routiers in Britain Hospitality and Service award and a listing among The Times Top 10 Italian Restaurants. Proud of its many accolades, San Carlo Group has amassed 18 award wins and national, critical acclaim. Reviewing San Carlo Leeds for the Observer newspaper, revered food critic Jay Rayner wrote: 'San Carlo, with its shine and glitz, thick white tablecloths and vast portions at reasonable prices is exactly what this city needed. San Carlo has the ingredients others can only dream of". Check on the San Carlo Website for further information.