White linen, professional waiters in black waistcoats and long white aprons, fine Italian fare and a warm welcome for everyone from families to tourists to romantic couples and the city’s movers and shakers have guaranteed Chianti a loyal clientele and a well-earned place as one of the city’s best restaurants.

So what if they’re playing Engelbert Humperdinck or if your waiter can’t quite get his tongue around the name of an Italian red (“my Italian’s a bit rusty,” he says, “but I do speak Klingon.”)

In the kitchen, however, a fresh new approach has shifted the focus, with clever reinterpretations of Italian standards like baccala, served in a crisp cigar of pastry, and more vegetable choices that are a dish in themselves (like charcoal leeks with dragoncello salsa, or cavolo nero with cannellini beans). There are also more sharing options – an “apple orchard raised chook”, cooked over charcoal or a slow-cooked goat leg. Another table has the rear portion of the fish of the day, swordfish, complete with tail.

Traditional dishes like tagliatelle with blue swimmer crab, tomato sugo, chili and basil, or the ubiquitous cotoletta – crumbed veal with fontina and sage, described by our irrepressible waiter as “an upmarket schnitty” – are utterly delicious.

Looking after all-comers, then, continues to be the Chianti way.