Sotto Sotto

You'll walk past this North Parade spot a dozen times before realising there's a proper Italian restaurant lurking beneath street level. The basement setting works brilliantly here – exposed stone walls and candlelit tables create exactly the sort of intimate atmosphere that makes you want to linger over a second bottle of Chianti. The kitchen takes Italian cooking seriously without the usual Bath restaurant pomposity. Their handmade pasta is the real deal, and the wood-fired pizzas have that perfect charred-edge thing going on that you can't fake. The staff actually know their wines and aren't shy about steering you towards something good. It's the sort of place that feels authentically Italian rather than just playing dress-up, which is rarer than it should be around here.