CONSIDERING that Italy is a country of such culinary contrasts, it’s amazing how many identikit menus you find at Italian restaurants in the UK.

There’ll be the usual suspects – various pasta dishes, veal maybe served in a lemon butter sauce, steak in a peppercorn sauce, chicken in a tomato sauce.

Such establishments have barely changed their dishes for the past two decades.

Which is one of the reasons why Filini, the restaurant in the Radisson SAS Hotel at Holloway Circus, is a favourite place of mine to eat.

Chris Duffy and his brigade work with top quality – and often unusual – ingredients and turn out modern, vibrant food that reflects much of what is best about Italian cuisine.

Sometimes little is done with the ingredients – a selection of brilliant quality cheeses and meats need no special treatment, for instance. But often there is skilled and imaginative cookery.

A chance to sample the restaurant’s new seasonal menu revealed a lovely bruschetta topped with roasted vine cherry tomatoes and surrounded by dark, tangy olives whose bitterness was beautifully mitigated by a drizzle of honey and olive oil.

Next came a remarkable risotto made with dark rice, red wine, mussels and prawns – a combination that spoke of southern Italian seaside towns.

Shin of beef, slowly braised in Barola, was wonderfully tender and flavoursome and came atop a mound of pearly white polenta spiked with pungent truffles.

A selection of desserts remained largely unfinished – but hugely admired – because of the heartiness of the food that was served.

Chris, who emerged from the kitchen to explain many of the dishes that were being shown off, spoke with passion and knowledge.

These are qualities that were displayed in the food.

* Filini, Radisson SAS Hotel, Holoway Circus Queensway, Birmingham. 0121 654 6000.