The Old Star Inn restaurant in Collingham has undergone extensive refurbishment and has recently re-opened as La Bellezza, an Italian restaurant. A sign outside in the car park offers stone-baked pizzas to take away and the manager informed me that these were proving very popular. After our evening meal I ordered one of these take-away pizzas for my sons and their verdict was a resounding “gorgeous”.

A modern interior with a mixture of original features and contemporary design, with non-intrusive lighting, results in a cosy atmosphere in this new Italian restaurant.

The menu offers various starters, pizzas, pasta and several fish and meat main courses. I chose fresh asparagus with melted butter as my starter while my partner opted for the smoked salmon and rocket salad. The asparagus was fresh, perfectly cooked (still with a ‘bite’ to it) and at a modest £3.75 was a delicious and inexpensive beginning to my evening meal. My partner’s salad arrived with a generous portion of rocket in the middle of the plate, covered with warm, thin slices of smoked salmon. Very moreish. This smoked salmon salad was another modest £4.75 and these low prices continue throughout the menu. The manager said that they had purposely kept their prices low and were pleased to say that they were now doing over 100 covers on a Saturday and 30-40 covers on a week day.

My partner chose the seafood rissotto (£7.25) for his main course, while I decided to try the grilled veal with rocket and parmesan salad (£12.95). We were not disappointed with our choices, the seafood rissotto arrived piping hot and scattered with a generous portion of seafood, including prawns, mussels and calamari.

My veal had been grilled and had that wonderful barbecue smell that immediately transports you back to a holiday abroad in the sun and eating alfresco. It was accompanied by a lovely rocket and parmesan salad. For myself I would have cooked the veal less, but I know many people like their meat well done. We’d ordered one portion of fried zucchini that was a delight.

Wendy and Jan Olivier are trying to use as much local produce as possible and all ingredients were of a very high standard.

Desserts, which are bought in, included Cool Mint Fling and Lemon Meringue Freezer Cake and prices start from £2.95. Overall our meal was very good and we also enjoyed an excellent and well priced bottle of Pinot Grigio.

l La Bellezza is open seven days a week, Monday to Saturday, noon-2.30pm and 5pm-10pm. Sunday Noon-10pm. Call 01937 579310.