My friend Victoria, who accompanied me to the Italian restaurant Edera in London's Holland Park, worked as an actress in Italy for a while and learnt the language by collecting useful phrases such as, 'My nipples are like acorns.' This particular one she would later pass on to new female recruits to the troupe without giving a translation, save to tell them it was something they should say to Italian waiters if they had appreciated a meal.

I did not tell Edera's maître d' that the meal we ate there had taken me to an acorn-like level of arousal, mostly because I think it bad form to make unsustainable claims for oneself - even on the coldest of days, I barely get beyond petits-pois. Nevertheless, it was a good meal, and in places, very good indeed. Chef Max Cotilli's Italian food is firmly anchored by tradition, while not being beholden to it. He likes bold flavours and textural contrasts and he will go off-hymnal to achieve the desired effect.

There is not much to be said about the room. I suspect there's some upmarket version of Ikea hidden away in London where you can buy your modern restaurant in flat-pack form: Blond wood floor? Check. White walls? Check? All you need know is that Edera, Italian for ivy, is owned by A-Z Restaurants, the thoroughly professional restaurant group behind places such as Zafferano and Aubergine.

One of the things they offer here is good value, which is as common in Holland Park as a nun in a brothel. Three courses at lunch are £19.50, rising to £26 at dinner, though you can order four courses for a little more if you choose both antipasti and pasta. We went for one of each. I started with a plate of pappardelle with artichokes and crispy lamb sweetbreads. It was a generous portion and a rich one, the glossy pasta laid atop a purée of the artichokes, which had been spread on a light balsamic dressing that gave an acidic edge to the dish.

Victoria's starter of just-seared beef fillet in red-purple slices came with shards of fried garlic and pieces of fried spring onion that added an Asian tinge to the whole, and again, beneath it all came the acidic lift of a balsamic reduction. My main course of duck confit with white beans at first disappointed, for I like my confit skin crisp and salty, and this was not. It all soon cheered up though, for the crisp, salty edge had been provided by delicate rounds of battered red onion, which demanded to be eaten in tandem with the meat. The accompanying salad tasted as if it had been dressed with a little sesame oil, again adding an Asian touch. Victoria's main course of chicken came with an unctuous sweet garlic purée and managed to have both a rendered skin and meat only just on the right side of being cooked. It's a neat trick. There were other things on her plate but I can't immediately recall them, which suggests that they needn't have been there.

I finished with spiced roast pineapple with a fine sweet ginger sorbet and Victoria chose a mango jelly that needed the lubrication offered by a mango purée and citrusy cream, but which rewarded the effort. There is a moderately priced, entirely Italian wine list and service is so accommodating that, had I decided to make entirely inappropriate reference to the state of my nipples at the meal's end, I just know they would have taken it in their stride. Perhaps I should have done, if only to be polite.

· Edera, 148 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 (020 7221 6090). Meal for two, including wine and service, £70-£90.