Vino Rosso sets high standards for Italian cuisine in the way their food is presented, in the quality ingredients used and in the freshness of the product. It deserves every success.

The Venue
Chiswick is known for the vast number of restaurants now operating in the area. It’s a popular place for the well-heeled diner and, although the choice runs the gamut from the most familiar chains to the very individual, you have to be good and different to survive in W4. Vino Rosso, situated just off the main Chiswick High Road, is surrounded by competitors. It’s a tiny unit, easily missed if you’re in a hurry. But step inside and you’ll find an elegant treat of a place, bright, modern, stylish with clean-cut decor that is simplicity itself. Note the use of wine bottles and coloured glasses as decorative objects and those crazy light fittings are something else again.

The Atmosphere
The easy on the eye decor provides most of the atmosphere, with the cream-coloured stiff-backed chairs and the solid tables making the place look very attractive. Everything looks neat and tidy, spick and span, qualities that extend to the food. Even the toilets, which are quite palatial and novel in design, are scrupulously clean. It is the type of place where you feel it’s where you want to be. Lunchtimes are quiet but the atmosphere in the evenings should be fairly special.

The Food
The a la carte menu is delightfully different from most Italian restaurants, so it is refreshing to ring the changes with such dishes as tonnarelli pasta with lamb ragout, duck ravioli Piedmontese style with fried sage, and seafood ravioli. Antipasti include smoked ham with Savoy cabbage, pecorino cheese and Sardinian bread and buffalo mozzarella with Parma ham and ratatouille, while main courses offer rack of lamb with polenta, goat’s cheese pesto and red peppers, grilled swordfish with capers, tomato and green beans and a mixed seafood dish.

Lunch is extraordinarily good value for the quality (£13.50 for two courses, £16.50 for three): fresh Parma ham with figs makes a luscious combination neatly presented and spread out over the plate. Tomato and buffalo mozzarella with basil provides more great fresh tastes combining ripe tomatoes with the whitest of cheese. The sea bass fillet in a Parmesan crust is quite strong in flavour, offset with rocket salad and fresh tomatoes, while the corn-fed chicken breast with bacon and salad was top of its class: simply roasted with a crisp skin and lovely moist flesh, it could not have been bettered, and the accompanying roast potatoes were perfection, hot, crisp and dry. Vanilla panna cotta with wild berries sauce and melon sorbet with mint syrup or Italian cheeses are some of the dessert choices.

However, that’s not all at Vino Rosso. On arrival you are presented with a lunchtime aperitif (in the evening it’s champagne or bellinis) plus a bowl of olives and homemade breads. With the coffee comes a plate of sweet nibbles which puts a delightful finishing touch to the meal. An everyday lunch can turn into a very special occasion, so there’s certainly nothing ordinary about Vino Rosso.

The Drink
Italian wine forms most of the list here, for obvious reasons. There’s a good range of bottles at all prices from the very acceptable house wines of red Montepulciano or white Grecanico at £14.50 to the Tuscan Sassicaia at £120, if you really wish to push the boat out.

The Last Word
It is good to find an Italian restaurant quite unlike most others which is not afraid to do something different by offering a totally unpredictable menu. With excellent ingredients and stunning presentation and those very welcome extras, Vino Rosso wins hands down.

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