La Spaghettata

You climb the stairs above Saddler Street and immediately know you're in for something special. The scent of garlic and fresh basil hits you before you've even settled into your table, while the open kitchen lets you watch pasta being rolled by hand and pizzas sliding into the wood-fired oven. This isn't your average student-friendly Italian. The carbonara arrives with properly silky egg ribbons clinging to house-made spaghetti, whilst the margherita emerges with a leopard-spotted crust that's somehow both chewy and crisp. The tiramisu alone justifies the trek up from the river, though you'll want to book ahead – especially at weekends when half of County Durham seems to have cottoned on to what Fabio's doing here.