ITALIAN restaurants have come on by leaps and bounds over recent years.

There are, of course, still many with identikit menus that were drawn up in the 1960s and swaggering waiters lewdly brandishing over-sized pepper grinders.

But there’s a newer generation of far cooler Italian restaurants offering lighter, more modern sorts of dishes.

Such as Cielo, recently named as the Broad Street area’s best restaurant.

It’s an incredibly popular place and on the Saturday evening I ate there with my wife and two friends was turning people away because there were no tables available.

That was understandable for the food I ate was enjoyable, the ambience was convivial and the service polished and charming.

First up was a plate of good-quality Italian cured meats served with little balls of mozzarella that was slightly too firm but pickled vegetables that were beautifully pitched.

Other starters – a tomato and basil soup, scallops with caviar, parsnip puree and a butter sauce, a tian of crab and crayfish with avocado puree – were also well received.

Cynically, I ordered a main course because I thought it represented a challenge to the kitchen.

The main component was Gressingham duck breast, but it was accompanied by a sweet potato mash and a Grand Marnier and orange zest jus that I suspeccted would clash through their sugariness.

My fears proved misplaced for the mash was good and earthy (the sweet potato mitigated by ordinary spud, perhaps?) while the sauce had a refreshing sharpness.

The duck breast itself was perfectly pink.

There were words of praise, too, for dishes of chicken stuffed with Fontina cheese and wrapped in ham, calves’ liver with white onions and Barola sauce and halibut with a crayfish mousseline.