It's a crime to visit a Scottish restaurant with such a glitzy pizza oven, and not order pizza

That’s why elevenses, afternoon tea, brunch, supper and midnight feasts were invented.

And then, to make sure that you’re never more than 30 minutes without a potential snack, there’s the Italian concept, aperitivo - a word that comes from the Latin word ‘aperire’, or to open.

This Italian pre-dinner snack and nibbles fest is designed to unfurl the appetite, like the vast and bottomless titan arum blossom it is.

Best of all, this is not a substitute for dinner. You can do both.

Except in our case. We visited Edinburgh pizza place, Matto, which has venues in Morningside and Abbeyhill, at 6pm, with the full intention to stuff our faces and not have to air-fry anything when we got home. After all, we both occasionally enjoy a nibbly dinner of meats and cheeses, and that’s what this restaurant offers, as part of its new Aperitivo Menu, which is now available from Monday to Friday, 4-7pm, at their newest 18-month-old Newington branch only.

Unfortunately, though I associate aperitivo with al-fresco eating, there is no outdoor seating here.

Not that you’d want to sit on busy Newington Road, with Deliveroo drivers buzzing in both directions.

Instead, you can slide into a pink booth inside this venue, and boggle over the vast faux flower swags in this premises and wonder if they have to Hoover them regularly.

We may have been here for aperitivo, but from the start, we were pining over the pizza.

I’ve been to their other restaurants, and I know they’re good. Also, that’s what everyone else - mainly families and students - was having. These puffy-crusted doughy-scented delights were being delivered straight from their oven, which is covered in gold mosaic tiles, like the disco ball that dangles from the ceiling. Burn, baby, burn.

Still, no diversions, we had a job to do. First, spritzes. These are £7, or, for a tenner, you can add a small bite from the menu.

I went for an Aperol and he did Limoncello, though you can also choose Campari. They were vast vases of ombre liquid. Summery and strong, too. I started to see double disco ovens, after I’d tanked my drink. Then three, when I finished his. (He’s not into spritzes).

We definitely needed some grub to line our stomachs.

The first item to arrive was a bowlful of Fonzies (£2). Basically, these are Italy’s answer to cheesy Nik-Naks. “Correctamundo,” as the Fonz used to say.

Next was a mini charcuterie board (£4.50), which featured two neatly folded slices of Milano salami, a few of those taralli breads, which might be confused with Hula Hoops if you’ve overdone the spritzes, and five titchy cubes of taleggio, all heaped, with rocket, onto a microscopic wooden raft. We made short work of that highly edited selection.

Then there were the mini caprese skewers (£7) - four, with yet more rocket underneath. These were pleasant enough, thanks to marshmallow-sized buffalo cocconcini, tooth-botheringly chilly cherry tomatoes and a folded leaf of basil, plus a drizzle of balsamic, all threaded onto tiny toothpicks.

We also tried the antipasto platter (£14), which was a decent selection of pizza-ish toppings, with green marinated chillies, misto olives in a saline pool, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, a little saucer of garlicky chestnut mushroom halves and two species of breadstick - more of those taralli and some grissini that were ideal for doing the obligatory vampire incisor trick.

The last bite was a selection of pizzatte fritte (£16) - mini fried pizzas - in assorted varieties.

I scored, because my other half doesn’t like goat’s or blue cheese. He’s not keen on anchovies either. There were two palm-sized goat’s cheese, walnut and radicchio pizzas, then a pair of gorgonzola, tomato, and pulped pumpkin, with a basil leaf on top; and a cheese, tomato and anchovy creation.

They were delightful, with crispy golden billowing crusts, and, while he nervously nibbled round the edges like a mortified mouse, I chomped them all.

After that, my appetite was definitely closed (though his was still open).

Still, I do have to ask myself, would we both rather have just had the spritzes and a regular pizza?

And the answer is definitely yes, especially as their full-sized pizzas come in at the £9 mark.

I’m not sure if aperitivo - in Newington, anyway - is likely to catch on. I think I’d much rather try something that’s been cooked in that disco ball oven.

33 Newington Road, Edinburgh, www.mattopizza.co.uk

Read more: “I was desperate to visit this buzzy Edinburgh restaurant and, in the end, there were no surprises”.