You’re never too far away from an Italian restaurant, but the ones that stand out are those that take the Italian ethos of cooking to their heart: fantastic seasonal ingredients cooked simply with flavour important above all else. Legare encompasses that approach entirely, with rustic dishes from across the country made with the best produce available.

The small restaurant is essentially a single room, with an open kitchen and space for roughly thirty diners. With simple décor, the focus is entirely on the food (as it should be), served in a relaxed manner just like those Italian trattorias many of us fall in love with whilst on holiday.

The menu is short but sweet, divided into spuntini (snacks), antipasti, primi and secondi, all growing slightly larger and more robust in size as you work your way down through the list. There’s a focus on pasta, which is all made fresh in the small kitchen, and you’ll find various dishes, flavours and products from across Italy’s regions (think cotechino, Cantabrian anchovies and Sicilian cannoli). While some iconic ingredients can only be sourced from Italy itself, the vast majority of the ingredients come from the UK, giving the kitchen team a chance to throw in a couple of British twists, such as Brussels sprouts with pancetta and chopped egg. The wine list is of course Italian-focused, although there are a few options from other European countries too.

Legare is a fine example of an Italian restaurant outside of Italy. It doesn’t serve strictly classical Italian fare in the purest form; instead, it takes everything we love about Italian food and marries it with British ingredients, a few modern twists and provides punchy plates brimming with flavour in a rustic, relaxed setting.