There's a fair bit of flexibility at Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi's Marylebone Italian - a ground floor bar-cum-café keeps things informal, and a first floor restaurant offers a la carte options for those after something a little smarter. There's also a cookery school in the mews round the back, and they even organise cooking holidays in Giancarlo’s native Tuscany, should you fancy a jaunt.
The ground floor venue concentrates on accessible Italian dishes – think caprese salads, bresaola, fritto misto, spaghetti alla puttanesca and veal Milanese. They're served alongside Campari cocktails, bellinis, negronis and a house chilli vodkatini – made with homemade chilli vodka and extra dry Martini. Sunday brunches here prove popular.
The upstairs dining room is a little more ambitious, with dishes ranging from North Atlantic scallops with textures of Jerusalem artichoke to tuna tartare with trevigiano, fennel and pomegranate salad, braised lamb shank alla Romana and a black ink taglioni with busara prawns, chilli, garlic and tomato. A short selection of champagnes is the only concession on an otherwise all-Italian wine list divided by region.