LA DOLCE VITA

With walls in wide black-and-white stripes, wavy booths and a gleaming bar lined with thousands of bottles, the Big Mamma group’s third London restaurant manages to make the first two look positively subdued – no mean feat for the kings of Italian-flavoured kitsch. Ave Mario is cavernous, too, seating almost 300 behind a narrow façade in Covent Garden that belies the labyrinthine network of rooms within. As ever, the formula works because the food is just as fun – this time there’s ravioli alla carbonara and stracciatella cake ( bigmammagroup.com).