Vittoria

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The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

'It's not that big,' the waiter protests, seeing your eyes pop as he sets before you a magnificent ham shank reposing on a pile of borlotti beans and attended by five little mounds of herb-flecked mash. And this could follow three golf ball-sized polpette, every drop of their sunny tomato sauce scraped up with toasty wedges of garlic bread. There's a clue to Vittoria's success in its location: away from the main drag with no captive tourist or big pre-theatre crowd, the Crolla family's restaurant and caffè bar on Leith Walk owes its 30-plus years of success to a solid local following too canny to put its hand in its pocket for mere style points. It's a bustling, rambling place with space for big tables and a special room for a gathering, but the Italian retro interior also provides cosy nooks for intimate dining. Quite different in style, a second branch of Vittoria opened in June 2007 on George IV Bridge, with some 200 covers within. The day-long choice at both venues runs from Scottish breakfast favourites to fresh soups and pizza, while pasta comes simply with olive oil and garlic as a preamble to hearty meat and fish dishes, or unctuously sauced, perhaps with Italian sausage, cream and nutmeg, for a main. And if you've space, the ice-cream wouldn't be better in Rome.