A VISIT to Carluccio’s in Chester city centre was gratefully accepted following a more frantic than usual week at the Chester Standard.

We settled in to the recently revamped restaurant, with its darker, more atmospheric setting, with a warm welcome from the friendly staff.

The restaurant, part of a chain founded by late chef Antonio Carluccio nearly 20 years ago, faces a lot of competition on Bridge Street, with eateries old and new springing up with their own continental offerings.

But Carluccio’s more than holds its own through what it has to offer through its many pasta dishes and steak selections.

As our party of three mulled over the options presented on the autumn menu - which was accompanied by a separate list of specials - Steve Creswell and I (Mark Dowling) chose to split a bottle of Gavi (Via Delfini, Piedmont), which had the dual benefit of honing our minds on what we wanted to pick for our courses, while simultaneously taking the sting out of that hard day’s work. Colleague Matt Warner, meanwhile, was driving after the meal, so contented himself with a glass of fresh apple juice, one of several soft drinks on offer.

After finalising our choices over olives and dunking various types of bread (from flatbread to focaccia) into balsamic dip, we were ready for our antipasti.

I chose the chicken liver pate, a generous helping served with grilled ciabatta and red onion marmalade and set my appetite up perfectly for what mains.

Steve’s eye was drawn to the Caprino e Caponata, not least because he fancied trying to pronounce it correctly to our very helpful waitress (it turns out he couldn’t).

It consisted of goat’s cheese and a Sicilian-style aubergine stew which complimented each other very well indeed. The stew in particular was packed with punchy flavours which certainly got the taste buds tingling.

Matt plumped for the specials menu, opting for the fried ubriaco cheese with truffle honey. As expected you can’t go wrong with melted cheese and the savoury gooeyness was well balanced with the crispy coating and the sticky sweetness of the honey. This might be a good option for little diners – as it is a posh version of the crispy, nuggety things children seem to like – especially if accompanied with ketchup.

As for the main courses, we all picked pasta, but diverged on our dishes. I opted for the Gemelli alla Luganica, a twirly pasta dish with spicy sausage and tomato ragu, which for me succeeded in the balance between having enough flavour while not overloading the senses with spices. This was served with garlic focaccia bread which, while undeniably delicious in its own right (containing as it did a generous helping of olive oil), did make me slightly regret my foolish-in-hindsight decision to go for three successive courses with bread in them, as I struggled to finish the course.

Steve, meanwhile, turned to the specials menu and went for the Pork Saltimbocca, which came wrapped in Prosciutto ham with sage, white wine and butter sauce, served with ‘nduja potatoes.

The whole dish was excellent, but special mention has to go to the potatoes as he had never tried ‘nduja before – a spreadable spicy sausage paste. They were simply delicious.

Our waitress also recommended a vegetable side order, so Steve plumped for the broccoli which came garnished with chilli, garlic and toasted almonds. To be honest there was probably enough on the plate already, but this side dish proved so tasty he wolfed everything down with little trouble.

Although there was plenty of meaty traditional options on the menu, Matt wanted to go for one of the distinctly Italian dishes. When in Rome and all that.

The Lobster Tagliolini and Seafood Linguine both sounded delicious, but he plumped for the more autumnal sounding Lamb Ragù Rigatoni. Made with a generous helping of tasty and tender slow-cooked shoulder, paired with the large tubular rigatoni pasta, this was a sumptuous dish of flavours and textures. Matt opted for a generous sprinkling of parmesan as the grooved pasta is perfectly suited to grab on to the cheese compared to smoother varieties.

Learning from my mistake, for dessert I scanned the menu and mentally crossed off any bread options. My sweet pick was the Torta di Cioccolata (£5.95), a chocolate and almond cake with a hearty scoop of vanilla ice cream resting delicately atop. Despite feeling pretty full by this stage, once this was presented I found the appetite to tackle this pleasant offering, which went down well and capped off an excellent meal.

Steve rounded off his dinner with one of his all-time favourites, tiramisu. It was definitely up there with the best with that lovely light and creamy mascarpone offset by the slight bitterness of the espresso and coffee liquor.

Matt concluded his evening meal with the chocolate bread and butter pudding. More sumptuous, warming goo here off-set with the cold refreshing accompaniment of vanilla ice cream.

He would have preferred some crunch, but as a comforting, warming dessert it fit the bill.