Lina Stores - Soho, London

If there is an Italian shop in London that's more iconic than Lina Stores, we aren't familiar with it. Founded in 1944 when Soho's warren-like streets were replete with Italian immigrants, its pistachio-green walls have been synonymous with high-end Italian produce and especially pasta. Now, hot on the heels of a spate of restaurants serving delicious pasta at cut-rate prices (Padella, Pastaio, Flour & Grape), Lina Stores has launched a second pasta restaurant on Greek Street.

The no-reservations eatery looks as if it were transported straight from the byways of a tiny Ligurian town. There's a bar upstairs that can accommodate 12 diners and a separate, larger room downstairs that bring the total number covers to 51 - the same as the restaurant's address. The design, undertook by Red Deer, is pure Art Deco and could easily exist on a Wes Anderson set. Striped green and white floor tiles match the pastaio's uniforms. Traditional terrazzo flooring makes you feel as if you're on holiday.

Perhaps the most notable installation, though, is head chef Masha Rener. Fresh off her organic farm in Umbria where she singlehandedly launched a restaurant, she's brought her classic Italian cooking chops to bear. After an Italian Sour made with Maley gin, Italicus liqueur, nettle syrup, lemon and egg white, we tucked into a couple numbers from the antipasti menu. A salad of radicchio and puntarelle with anchovy dressing was bitter, salty and refreshing. Aubergine polpette with San Marzano tomato was as good as any parmigiana we've had in the capital. But the star of the show was indubitably the panino con porchetta - a symphony of garlic, rosemary and juicy, fatty pork served simply in a fresh crust of bread.

Following on from the promise of the antipasti, we weren't let down by the pasta. Thick ribbons of pappardelle interlaced with rabbit ragu, rosemary and taggiasca olives were silky and homely. Pici alla Norcina is Masha's signature dish. The thick handrolled pasta entwined with meaty porcini mushrooms and hanks of Umbrian sausage. We rounded off the evening with an outsized, crisp cannolo impregnated with sweet ricotta and dipped in melted chocolate and crumbled pistachio.

Lina Stores is everything we hoped it would be and a definitive chapter in the evolution of one of London's eldest Italian markets. We recommend you visit as soon as you can.