Italian flair hits Battersea

Fabbrica is very handy for the dogs' home, as it occupies what was once a pub at the eastern end of Battersea Park Road. Most recently, this site was home to Metrogusto, an Italian restaurant whose proprietors gave up the unequal struggle and regrouped to their other branch in Islington. All of which doesn't bode very well for the incoming Fabbrica. When one Italian restaurant decides to move out, it takes a stubborn kind of person to refurbish and reopen as another Italian eaterie.

At Fabbrica the dining room looks terrific. The food is ambitious, the prices are fair (although this place isn't a cheap eat) and the service is slick and very Italian. There are obvious differences to the restaurant that went before - the cuisine is now more classical and the whole operation a tad more upscale. Whether this new broom will sweep in the locals remains to be seen, and cynics should be forgiven for thinking that Fabbrica would do better if it were a little further down the street, somewhere to the west of Queenstown Road.

The room is elegant and modern, lots of polished blond wood on show - acres of floor and the backs of the banquettes - but it works, and the tablecloths, cutlery and flower displays are all classy. The menu is authentically Italian --antipasti, paste, secondi, contorni, tentazioni - and the pricing is straightforward: two courses, £15.50; three, £19; four, £22.50. Dishes come in portions neat enough to make four courses a viable option rather than a greedy one.

From the starters, a scallop-and-prawn salad with red-pepper sauce tastes very good but leaves the appetite intact. A dish of rabbit stuffed with potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary is well done, and looks great on the plate. From the pasta dishes, the classic combination of homemade egg tagliatelle with a ragu made from wild boar is more substantial and rich, if a little oversalted. For main course, the veal osso buco in white wine is an interesting dish, managing to be both hearty and delicate at the same time. A fillet of pink sea bream is served with fennel and dill --the perfect dish for ladies who lunch, and there is also a cod steak cooked in tomato-andolive broth.

The tentazioni could perhaps be more tempting, but a sound enough chocolate tart hits the spot. The wine list is less upscale than the menu, with plenty of regional Italian wines at friendly prices. Fabbrica aims high, and mostly delivers. Whether it goes the way of its predecessor depends on whether the people in this part of SW8 will turn out for an ambitious, stylish, modern Italian restaurant.

Fabbrica
153 Battersea Park Road, SW8 4BX