Villa Toscana - maintaining standards

Back in the days when Brockley Central's occasional restaurant critic used to bestow purple prose on anything and everything he'd have probably found a way to wax lyrical about Villa Toscana. Certainly it was hard to shut him up when he first went to Le Querce three or four years ago. Older, though, and perhaps wiser - certainly lazier - he doesn't propose to dwell at length on Villa Toscana's charms.

Fortunately, everything you need to know about Villa Toscana can be summed up in two words: "Italian restaurant". And there's nothing wrong with that.

Sure the light's a bit harsh, some of the meat spent a little too long in the pan and the entryway is just weird, but the flavours were very good, the service totally charming and the portions huge.

In short, it's a solid standard Italian restaurant, very like La Lanterna was before it (although without the pizza). And it's good to have it on the strip.