The first thing you notice are the gleaming red chairs and red wall panels – the colour of a decent Neapolitan sauce.

Bucci is a rowdy, cheerful, informal hangout, and a favourite of ladies who lunch. The cooking is almost always first rate. The menu listings will be joy to the ears of lovers of Italian cuisine, with staples such as bruschetta, burrata, arancini balls, focaccia and pasta aplenty.

We recommend the spaghetti with Moreton Bay bugs cooked with white wine, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. We also gave high marks to a blackboard special of risotto with chunks of yellow fin tuna, capers, tomato and chilli.

Bucci is an attractive restaurant, with large windows providing a good vantage point to watch the flaneurs on trendy James Street.

Must-eat dish: Smoked lamb shoulder