Phanganist took their friend Teacher Jessica on a girly date along with the company of Leo Beer who introduced us to ‘Italian Food Style’ restaurant.

In the busy, bustling Thong Sala Food Market, frequented by backpackers and locals, Italian Food Style stands out from the rest with its minimalist European atmosphere and very Italian chef and owner - Roberto.

Roberto hails from Rimini in the Romagna region of Italy where, in his own words -

‘Pasta was born!’

“I have been a chef since the age of fourteen, by the age of eighteen I was already managing kitchens.

Now I am fourty three so I really must be a chef!”.

Each part of the pasta is lovingly homemade and fresh, Roberto has his lovely assistant ‘A’ who helps to make it.

Roberto explained to us that there is not just one, but three different kinds of ravioli, including spinach and ricotta which we went for.

There really is something for every type of palette, you choose the type of pasta you want; tagliatelle, tagliolini, gnocci, ravioli and lasagne.

Then you chose the type of sauce you want with it from; fresh tomato, mushrooms, butter parmigiano, salmon, bolognese, carbonara, blue cheese and pesto.

We had the ravioli with the pesto sauce and a lasagne which you can either have as a meat or vegetarian option.

The pesto sauce was creamy and fresh, mild and delicate but not lacking flavour.

We had seen the pasta being made, but even without you can really taste the freshness of it which makes a huge difference.

The lasagne was perfectly balanced, rich and creamy but not greasy.

Crisp around the edges yet not dry and wholesomely satisfying as it should be.

If you are looking for authentic, delicious pasta then look no further than here, what a real gem to find tucked into the popular food market!

Maybe you can take some candles just like we did for that added ‘Italian ambience’...