The restaurant has a pleasant ambiance and is actually deeper than it appears from the street. The reception area in front is followed by two dining rooms, the latter opening to the kitchen. The rooms are attractive with nicely set tables and tiled floors.
The menu is fairly extensive with a list of starters in the 5 pound range, pizzas for about 6.50 followed by pastas and a large number of meat dishes in the 10-pound-plus range. We chose a panzanella salad and a Caesar salad as starters. Since the Caesar isn’t actually an Italian dish, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the rather odd dish of frise lettuce, not romaine. I’m not sure if the whole thing was odd or interesting. I wouldn’t order it again. The panzanella salad, on the other hand, was fine. Our main selections were leek cannelloni and spaghetti carbonara. Both were quite good.
I’m not sure if there was actually a wine list–-five whites and five reds were posted on a chalk board as the house wines. We chose a Montepulciano at 11 pounds, and it was very good.
This was a nice evening--I would certainly try it again and move on through a varied menu. To see more, try Villa Italia.