Pietro, the proprietor – he will probably bring you your wine and food – comes from Ischia, a volcanic island at the north end of the Gulf of Naples, and the large photos on the walls of his restaurant give it away – most of them being of the island.

I have not been to Ischia, but know Italy well enough to have eaten in places very much like this one.

You find them down side streets; they don't shout their presence
with big signs and gaudy lighting but have a way of lurking and easily escape notice. They are, however, always busy, their clientele being fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandchildren and great- grandchildren for whom they are as much places to feel comfortable in as have a meal.

It's a little surprising to find one on the Otley Road in Headingley. Italian restaurants that take root in English towns and cities tend to present themselves with more of a flourish.

This diminutive-looking restaurant is on a corner and is part of a parade which has the larger, more flamboyant Olive Tree restaurant on it. If you weren't looking for Pietro, you might easily miss it. Plus, the Otley Road is not one to dawdle along in the car on the look-out for unobtrusive eateries.

You might be lucky to park nearby in the main road, but more likely a tour of the locality will be involved, and perhaps some cursing of the ubiquitous double yellow lines.

Inside, the restaurant looks round-the-corner, down-a-side-street basic: there are tiles on the floor, pine cladding and those Ischia pictures on a wall, plain wood tables and plain wood chairs, and a tall glass cabinet displaying cakes and pastries.

Chianti bottles on the tables with candles in them and encrusted with dripped wax lend a slightly '60s air.

Round the back – you pass it when going to the first-floor washrooms – is a much larger eating area but when we went it was not being used.

That evening a couple of families were sitting at a long table, and the voices of children increased the sense of eating out in Italy.

The children were, perhaps, especially noticeable because Pietro doesn't have background music. What you hear are voices which, on this occasion, were a good deal more agreeable than someone else's choice of music.

We had the £20-a-head menu, and the dishes we chose from it were in keeping with the unpretentious premises we were eating in.

One starter, panzarotti, is breaded, deep-fried potato dough balls – the size of table tennis balls – with cheese and peas served with tomato sauce. Crispy crusted and mildly cheesy, they had a chunky texture which put me in mind of rustic fare. The other starter, more complex and interesting, was crespelle del pollo, a pancake filled with chicken, mushrooms and peas baked with béchamel sauce and topped with cheese. It may not be intended that the two dishes should be shared, but the one set off the other very well.

Pietro brought us a house white (£10.95), a basic but pleasant enough Ciccarielo. It actually suited the meal very well.

Involtini di tacchino is turkey breast rolled up around mortadella (thinly-sliced pork sausage), cheese and asparagus, cooked in a white wine sauce and served with chunky sauté potatoes. Turkey can't help being dull, but the additions to it in this dish meant it didn't matter.

When the kitchen here does a fillet of sea bass, it bakes it wrapped in paper which the fish is then served in. It comes with thin slices of potatoes and courgettes, and accompanying the dish are the chunky sauté potatoes we've already met.

There was one-to-one disagreement at our table as to whether this way of doing sea bass works or not. I voted in favour. I liked the paper method and thought the flavours well preserved. The contrary view was that the fish was overdone, but I wasn't convinced of that.

Meanwhile, the two families had departed, and the restaurant had filled. It is obvious that Pietro has
his fans.

He told us the puddings we chose – pannetone and profiteroles – were bought in. The cakes are made on the premises, but not these items. Both, however, were of a superior quality and rounded off the meal in a most satisfactory way.

I liked this place – the atmosphere, the modesty, the small scale, the absence of background music, and as a finishing touch, there is no adding of a "optional" service charge to the bill.

I am not in the least surprised at its popularity.

We paid just under £53. It is best to take cash because cheques aren't accepted and credit cards incur a five per cent transaction charge.

Pietro Italian Restaurant, 70 Otley Road, Headingley, Leeds, LS6 4BA, Tel: 0871 811 5097. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 6pm, last orders for food, 10pm; Sunday from 6pm, with last orders for food at 9.30pm.