In La Gaetana, Gianni and his wife Chonticha have created one of the areas most homey eateries. With sea-green shutters and simple wooden furniture, the intimate seating give visitors to La Gaetana the feeling of being in the kitchen of someone's home in southern Italy.

The chefs at La Gaetana specialize in food from the Campania region of Italy and the menu is enough to make your whiskers stand on end. Daily specials are posted on the blackboard, together with a selection of starters, mains and desserts. We ordered a bottle of 2001 Dolcetto D'Alba by Bersan, a heavy red with flavors of blackcurrant and vanilla. Our meal started with carpaccio, slices of cold beef, salmon and smoked duck drizzled in the restaurant's own special sauce; next was zuppetta di fagioli, a bean soup; bacon sauteed in red wine and served with a green salad with an order of mixed bruschetta being added to the dishes quickly piling up on our table; Sea scallop admirers will be pleased as they are drenched in extra virgin olive oil, pesto sauce and slivers of lime and are a house favorite as the pesto is homemade while Gianni also grows his own basil and rosemary.

For the main course, I chose the medium-rare Australian lamb cutlets with sauteed vegetables while one of my dining partners selected the salmon fillet which is prepared to your choice of cooking style of sauce. She chose it with pesto, spinach and brown bread; but it probably is equally delicious with either the spicy tomato or the cream sauce with lemon. Between dishes a sorbet is served to cleanse the palate. My other companion had the lasagna with ricotta cheese, pork, beef and egg filling. It was light, fluffy and another hit of the evening while an honorable mention is the tortellini with smoked salmon and fresh cream.

Staff are efficient and attentive to the needs of guest's as they are no less professional than in any 5-star hotel resturant in the city. A good selection of wine from 800 to 6,500 baht, mostly Italian, allows diners to select from a map of Italian wine regions.