Walk into Nottingham’s tiny but characterful Sexy Mamma Love Spaghetti and be transported from trendy Hockley to downtown Naples. Sexy Mamma is the third opening in pretty much three neighbouring streets by chef and owner Edin Gondzic, whose patisserie is already a Great Food Club-recommended venue. His new Sexy Mamma venture may be quirky, with its hand-painted fascia and almost no presence on the internet or social media, but the food is out of this world.

When we visited, the hand-written menu, which changes daily, included sautéed chicken livers with rosemary butter; pumpkin and sage ravioli; king scallops with chilli and garlic linguine; and grilled swordfish. We had the veal escalopes in a Parmesan crust with a Milanese risotto, wild mushroom and Italian sausage ragu with penne, and the rhubarb panacotta. All were superb. Our starter of wild game minestrone soup was one of the best soups we have eaten.

Sexy Mamma is small, with only 20 or so seats upstairs and downstairs and a few outside, so you would need to talk to the staff if you wanted to bring in a larger group. But with the Italian music drifting from the radio, the olive boughs in the window and Chef Gondzic providing a warm and enthusiastic welcome, this charming place is well worth a visit.

By Abby Brennan, Nottinghamshire editor