Pros: the service is very good. Our three main dishes were served very close together, so I asked that they slow down so we could eat everything hot. A few minutes later, a waiter brought our fourth dish, saw that the table was still crowded with the other mains, and took it away. When we were ready for it, the last dish was cooked fresh and was served piping hot.

Cons: there wasn't much to complain about. The pizza (HK$130 each) has a thin, cracker-like crust, with scarcely any puff at the cornicione (the lip of the pizza) so if you don't like this style, it's best to head somewhere else.

Recommended dishes: it's a short menu, listing a few starters and snacks plus pizza and pasta. Caprese salad (HK$110) needed a little rough-flaked salt to bring out the flavours of the mild buffalo milk mozzarella, sweet tomatoes and basil. Fried squid rings (HK$85) were tender and had a light coating. We liked the prosciutto di Parma pizza with rocket and shaved parmesan, but even better was the rich, gooey, four-cheese pizza with mozzarella, taleggio, scamorza and gorgonzola. The waiter recommended the pasta Amatriciana (HK$120) with penne (there's a selection of pasta with all the sauces), which was a good choice. The rich tomato sauce had plenty of flavour from the bacon and gently simmered onions. Carbonara with linguine (HK$140) wasn't the classic version - it was made with pancetta rather than guanciale (cured pork jowl); and the sauce contained cream besides the eggs. Although nicely seasoned, it was so rich, the four of us were glad to be sharing.

What else? Delivery is available to some neighbourhoods around Kennedy Town. There's a second branch of Piccolo in Tai Hang (tel: 2824 3001).