Franco and Rita Massimo have now owned Brighouse's longest-established Italian eaterie for 14 years. My association with it goes back still further.

It is a while since we last had a meal there and dropped in on Tuesday night for what was intended to be a quick pizza and a couple of glasses of wine.

Many Italian restaurants can be loud and in your face. This place is the antithesis. It is calm and soothing. A great place after work, which is probably why on a weekday night there were 30 or 40 covers.

Before my wife and I knew it, we had been seduced by the ambience and the wonderful aromas wafting through the high-ceilinged eating area, and were leafing through the latter part of the menu. In other words, the more expensive bit!

La Romantica's decor is pleasantly retro. So many new establishments go for sharp lines and sharp colours. Angles are fashionable, curves not. Yet La Romantica and its arches are a match made in heaven.

The bold colours, the Italian soccer memorabilia – you could never mistake where this family's football alegience lies – the immitation Venetian-style windows, and the neatly presented covers create the perfect backdrop.

We ordred a half bottle of house white, very reasonable at £6 and shared a plate of antipasto with beautiful home-baked bread. For my main course, I had halibut served with a seafood sauce while Vicky remembered a previous visit and plumped for a grilled fillet steak and roasted vegetables.

The halibut was perfectly cooked but the deep orange sauce had me worried at first. It looked strong, but proved otherwise and allowed the delicate taste of the fish to come through. The steak was as tasty as it gets and the veg was good.

I could have called it a day, but remembered reading a story written by a colleague, which mentioned Franco's fabulous family receipe for tiramisu. It lived up to its billing, and that is from someone who rarely touches sweets.

My wife wasn't quite as taken with the strawberry mousse she ordered, but it was only a minor quibble.

What was more of a gripe and had it been earlier in the meal I would have said something, was the duelling music. The piped music throughout the restaurant suddenly found a competitor in the kitchen.

The resulting cacophany. was distracting to say the least.

We finished with a coffee and a Peroni and paid around £30 a head.

La Romantica has a wide variety of dishes and a daily blackboard with fresh fish and other specialities. There really is something to match everyone's taste.

It was obvious from the number of people greeting the owners that this is a restaurant with a regular clientele. We had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours and it will not be as long until we go back again.

Ratings
Name: La Romantica
Address: 25, Phoenix Street, Brighouse
Phone: 01484 400114
Food 4/5
Atmosphere 4/5
Service 4/5
Value 3/5