There has been an Italian restaurant on this Easter Road site for many years, and current incumbent Al Dente is keeping the tricolore flying over the neighbourhood. It’s a small, friendly and personable place with a menu that steers clear of pretentious, fancy posturing. To start, you might try marinated courgettes with sun-dried tomatoes, bresaola or stuffed baby squid. Pasta could include tagliatelle with sliced potatoes and green beans in basil pesto, while the choice of ‘secondi’ might range from sea bass baked ‘al cartoccio’ with roasted vegetables to a rather good venison stew wrapped in steamed savoy cabbage leaves with plum sauce. Desserts are in the traditional mould of tiramisu and zabaglione. Populated largely by locals and presided over by the extraordinarily friendly Graziano, Al Dente remains authentically Italian and a Leith institution.