New order: Tonarelli cacio e pepe at Palatino

The dish

Tonarelli cacio e pepe, Tellicherry pepper and pecorino at Stevie Parle’s new Roman restaurant Palatino (71 Central Street, EC1, palatino.london). It’s just spaghetti with black pepper, pecorino cheese and a dash of cooking water to emulsify it into a silky sauce but this no-frills dish is made with a deft hand and has won over the capital.

The USP

It’s buttery, smooth and costs just £6.50 (or £12 for a larger portion). This is unpretentious vegetarian-friendly fuel, popular with staff at the shared offices in the Palatino building. Opinion is divided as to which pasta works best for this recipe — at Padella they go for pici, a clumsier affair, which has a thick, chewy texture, but here the spaghetti makes the whole dish feel glossy and sleek.

The drink

Looking to Rome for inspiration means good wine. It is decently priced and can be drunk by the glass, carafe or bottle. There are also Italian cocktails — think plenty of sunny citrus and liqueur. The house spritz is pine needle and sour cherry, Cynar and Merchant’s Heart floral tonic.

If you want to go on, Clerkenwell Grind will fix you a reviving espresso martini (2-4 Old Street, EC1, grind.co.uk) or you could go for a post-dinner turn about the dance floor at The Ace Hotel (100 Shoreditch High Street, E1, acehotel.com‎)

The dessert

If you are restrained enough to just have pasta for lunch with no starters or meat, you deserve dessert. Palatino’s chocolate and sour cherry tartuffi ice cream with whipped cream is literally an amaze ball — a globe of hard dark chocolate that cracks satisfyingly when tapped, chocolate ice cream oozing out onto sour cherries that add tart edge. There’s also an impressive line in cakes, crisp Campari and orange ice or a trad Tiramisu.