First-time visitors to Wimbledon's town centre would be forgiven for thinking there were few food options beyond the typical high street chains.

But recently-opened Made In Italy looks set to shake up the Broadway's culinary offering with genuinely authentic southern Italian food imported straight from the Amalfi Coast.

The menu is all about Naples, and the food on offer is an impressive imitation of the city's infamous doughy pizza, fried seafood, rich lasagne and cheese-filled risotto balls.

Think mozzarella is the best cheese on a margherita? You haven't tried burrata - an artisan soft cheese which melts in the mouth you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in the borough.

Pizza Express this ain't. Set back from the street with a spacious front terrace, the 160-seater restaurant will be one of the few venues in Wimbledon to offer a quiet outdoor dining area when the garden area opens next month.

Run by Mimmo, an Italian who moved to London as a child but has retained all the warmth of the charisma of a Neapolitan, the restaurant has a strong family vibe making it popular with babies, toddlers and children's parties.

If you're worried about dodging screaming children, there are thankfully a number of tables in secluded nooks and crannies to escape into for a private meal.

Wimbledon Times:

'The prosecco is chilling': Made In Italy restaurant manager Mimmo 

The Italian farmhouse decor clashes a bit with the contemporary Italian pop music on repeat - which you won't be familiar with, for good reason.

But a large group of language exchange students giggling throughout their meal and gathering for a group photo at the end of the night might not have had such a good time if the soundtrack was a more obvious choice of well-known Italian love songs.

At the heart of the restaurant is a large woodfire pizza oven, where dough is mixed and stretched by hand by chefs in full view of diners in the open kitchen.

Piles of prosciutto, salami, olives and tomatoes lie waiting to be piled onto pizzas, bruschetta or flatbreads to accompany antipasti.

Secret to their success must be that 90 per cent of ingredients are imported from Italy, with only the most perishable foods made locally, like the bread produced in their kitchen.

Not content with the British cheese offering, the company, which has already established branches in Notting Hill and Chelsea, has its own mozzarella and ricotta factory in central London.

Some of which I was lucky enough to enjoy in my Sicilian cannelloni, a cone-wrapped dollop of sweetened ricotta famous in southern Italy.

With most pizzas under £10, you might be surprised to hear this is also among the more affordable Italian restaurants in Wimbledon.

You don't really have any excuse not to try it for yourself. As Mimmo says, the prosecco is chilling.