Let's grab lunch: Kitchen Italia

If preparing your own lunch isn't the dish of the day then you can do a lot worse than get yourself along to Kitchen Italia. 'Dishing up delicious pasta' is their promise and they do exactly that. The layout of the restaurants is a la Wagamama - casual long benches or comfy booths if you want a slightly more private group, this is a place you can scoff and go or linger for longer. The food is all freshly prepared so you need to be ready for dishes to turn up when they're ready rather than everything coming in one go, but this is easily overlooked when you taste the food. Pasta dishes for under a tenner and a great range of side salads and dishes to compliment your choice means you can mix and match to your heart's content. Place mats that explain the different pastas are a neat little idea and are actually quite helpful in envisaging what you're ordering. Friendly (if not over enthusiastic staff) complete the package.

We've eaten tiger prawn, spicy sausage with fennel breadcrumb and aubergine pasta dishes - all packed with taste and flavour. The rocket and aged parmesan salad is a perfect distraction and easily enough to share. Birra Moretti in the fridge and carraffes of affordable white wine means all the essentials are here for a quick bite, a client lunch or a bunch of you going out for dinner. Currently in Covent Garden and Westfield, let's hope more Kitchen Italia's appear soon.

Click here to visit their site