It takes a brave man to open a restaurant in the current recession: a braver one still to open one in Marylebone. London’s foodie mecca is already ricidulously over-endowed with eating places of every type from chic cafés to steakhouses. Blandford Street alone boasts L’Autre Pied, Trishna and Michael Moore. Does it really need another?

It seems that it does. Restaurateur Arjun Waney whose other ventures include the super-successful Zuma, Roka and La Petite Maison has spotted a gap in the market for an upmarket Italian wine bar and restaurant with simple food and interesting but good value wines.

If I have a criticism it’s very slightly corporate -  you could be in the informal restaurant of a five star hotel - and the service is a bit hit or miss. But I did go in the first week after it opened. It took an age to get a menu, much confusion over whether I had a dining companion or not but the restaurant manager Umberto Scomparin, a GM of the old school couldn’t have been more attentive. All he lacked was a giant pepper grinder.

My friend chose slightly better than I did, her fritto-misto type dish of calamari e zucchini just pipping my more interesting-sounding suckling pig carpaccio - above, right. (Carpaccio only in the sense that it was finely sliced, not that it was rare.) Just a touch on the bland side though it went wonderfully well with the bargain bottle of Pietracupa Greco di Tufo 2007, the delicious sort of thirst-quenching dry white you can drink right through a meal - interestingly made from biodynamically grown grapes. At just £21 it was a steal.

Jo also had the better of our two mains - a fabulously savoury, umami-rich dish of meat ravioli with sage, butter and veal jus - the ravioli shaped like bonbons instead of the classic pillow shape. I wished I’d ordered it. Again my home-made tagliolini with langoustines was under-seasoned.

If I went again - and I would for the wine list alone, I’d probably just order some cichetti or ‘Italian bites’ as the starters are called or a pizza: there’s a wood-fired oven and the ones our neighbours on the next door table had ordered looked seriously good.

There are also some temptingly retro dishes such as minestrone soup, vitello tonnato or spinach and ricotta cannelloni. I haven’t seen those on a menu for a while. Or not at least in a newly opened restaurant. Oh and I've heard the gnocchi is good.

The pricing isn’t greedy - for the moment at least - so I’d certainly give it a whirl. The bar is open all day long which makes it a useful place for a late lunch or a glass of wine and a snack after a work. One to add to the list.