Giardinetto Restaurant

Discreetly tucked away, just off Piccadilly, Giardinetto oozes exclusivity and sophistication. With its frosted glass windows, automated entry system and slick attentive service this restaurant fits seamlessly into its Mayfair location - a definite improvement on its previous basement premises in Charlotte Street.

Despite the move across town, Head Chef Maurizio Vilona continues to offer Ligurian specialities, as well as classic Italian dishes with a twist.

Presentation plays a major part here. Rich, chocolate-brown high backed leather chairs, crisp white table cloths, stark minimalist lighting and an amazing collection of simple but stunning glasses and crockery provide an appropriately fitting backdrop to the main display ? the food?

Delicately cubed red beetroot in its own detailed tailor-made pastry pot accompanies the perfectly cooked guinea fowl and potato cake oozing with nutty olives, rich, wine-soaked tomatoes and fresh, minty basil. The stunning, vibrant green hue of the Genoese traditional pesto minestrone presents a luscious, mouth-watering picture surrounded by the bright white of the crockery and tablecloths.

The food here is pricey but worth it. The traditions inherent in regional Italian cuisine are strongly celebrated with local specialities firmly represented on the menu. The renowned Lardo di Colonnata (from a tiny hamlet in the Apuane Alps) with its delicate spices and intense period of seasoning is used to melt morsels of meat and fish, while wine made from the obscure Aglianico grape is used to infuse the oven roasted turbot.

The knowledgeable and attentive sommelier proved an invaluable resource during the evening. Each varied dish was perfectly paired up with wine to suit and presented in a series of equally diverse wine glasses.

Worthy of particular note was the guinea fowl, the roasted cod fillet with asparagus and red peppers veloute and the chestnut vacherin with Chantilly cream, chestnut mousse and marron glacee. When we arrived they?d already sold out of the parmesan fondue with chanterelle mushrooms and croutons ? so it looks as if that?s another winner.

This place is style personified. Style costs, but sometimes it?s worth paying and this is one of those times.