If you thought you had seen it all when it comes to Italian dining, what with every other restaurant reserving a section of its menu for pastas, pizzas, risottos and so on, we are glad to report that you were wrong. For at The Westin’s Prego, Italian fine-dining takes on a brand new meaning, bringing together ingredients in combinations that result in unforeseen delight for the taste buds. The antipasti introduce you effectively to this ethic, with items such as the prosciutto e melone (San Daniele ham with melon, marinated figs and focaccia), or arancini Siciliani (fried balls filled with veg ragout and smoked scamorza, served with a parmesan fondue). It gets even better in the ‘home-made’ pasta section. Dishes include the lasagna modenese with pork, or the maltagliati marinara packed with myriad fresh seafood in a light, basil-cherry tomato sauce. There is freshly made potato gnocchi in a tomato-basil sauce, finished in the oven with mozzarella, parmesan and a crispy basil chips garnish, or a ravioli stuffed with creamy brescia gorgonzola, and cooked in a romain pecorino and black pepper sauce. The lemon risotto cooked with prawns and asparagus blows one’s mind, as do mains such as tagliata di tonno (which is grilled sesame seed tuna on an orange-basil pesto bed, accompanied with a salad of rucola, orange segments and pine nuts) or Sangiovese red wine-soaked pork fillet, served on a bed of mash infused with nduja and crispy pancetta. Finish, perhaps, with a dessert such as the sorbetto amalfitano, combining the freshness of palate-cleansing lemon in a sorbet with bittersweet almond biscuits.