Unmissable when you first walk through the door is the large, round, rotating freezer which displays the home-made authentic gelati that the restaurant is most proud of. It encourages you to think about dessert before you’ve even sat down. The interior is bright and eye-catching, with plenty of decorative features to keep your attention as you wait to be served. Most prominently, there is a yellow taxi protruding from the wall on either side of the restaurant. Accompanying this eye-catching design feat, decking the walls are various musical instruments and large canvases showing pictures of food and pizza signs. The atmosphere is cheerful and relaxed, but not overly casual.

Being a kosher restaurant, Tutti Gusti serves no meat, but the menu clearly does not suffer. There are numerous dishes on offer, including soups, salads, pizzas and pastas, all with enticing Italian names and mouthwatering descriptions. After much deliberation, Simon and I chose two very different starters. His Mozzarella in Carrozza (£5.90), fried mozzarella and anchovies coated in breadcrumbs with fresh tomato sauce, was deliciously comforting and flavoursome, especially rich because the anchovies had been fried into the cheese, while my Art 2 Heart (£6.40), a heart-shaped mango and avocado salad on a bed of cantaloupe, rocket and pesto sauce, was an unusual and refreshing blend of flavours.

For main course, we opted for a new addition to the menu, Tuna Flambé (£15.50), as well as ordering the intriguing Crespoline (£7.80), described as pancakes baked with ricotta cheese and spinach. After hardly any time had passed, the food arrived. Although the Crespoline was a little too rich and heavy for my liking, the combination of spinach and creamy, baked ricotta made it an excellent choice for a wintry night. When the tuna arrived, we were astounded by the size of the steaks. They were perfectly scorched and garnished with roasted fennel and slices of orange. The tuna was tender and juicy, subtly enhanced by the fennel. The orange slices added a zesty sweetness which, together with the freshly ground black pepper sprinkled generously on top, gave the dish a bit of a kick. The wine list is extensive and contains rather a lot of reds for a restaurant that serves no meat. All but two of the wines are Israeli and, with prices ranging from £12.50 to £79.00 a bottle, there is a decent range to suit most tastes and budgets.

When we were handed the dessert menu, Simon and I were astounded by the sheer choice. Everything sounded delicious and there were so many categories to choose from including cakes and soufflés, yoghurts, milkshakes, sundaes and children’s dishes. Simon decided to order a couple of scoops of the home-made ice cream (£1.80 a scoop), picking banana and chocolate over more exotic flavours such as biscuit or hazelnut. The chocolate ice cream had that gooey consistency and super-rich flavour only found in authentic gelati, which made it hard for me to stop stealing from his plate. Although I was particularly curious about the alcoholic ice cream dishes, which included coffee gelati with Bailey’s and lemon sorbet with lemon liquor, I went for a more visual treat. My Spaghetti alla Fragola(£5.80) was not spaghetti at all, rather thin tubes of vanilla ice cream, fashioned to resemble strands of spaghetti and topped with cherry sauce and white chocolate flakes – looking remarkably like spaghetti with tomato sauce and cheese! It was a light and fun way to end the meal, the ice cream being delicious and the chocolate flakes so fine they melted in my mouth.

In all, Tutti Gusti is my new place of choice for quality Italian food. The menu is comprehensive and inventive, the food is excellent and the service is wonderful. Best of all, you can buy tubs of their gelati to take home with you.