For a bite before the theatre, restaurants don’t come much more convenient than Jamie’s Italian.

Virtually next door to the New Theatre, it’s also just around the corner from the Oxford Playhouse, where we were heading after our pit stop between office and audience.

There’s no set pre-theatre menu (it’s under consideration) but it’s well used to serving those heading for a show and there’s a good selection of lighter bites if you don’t want to tuck in to a big meal before curtain up.

We started with a couple of “nibbles” (both at £3.95): crispy music bread, which was wafer-thin and crispy, topped with slices of pecorino cheese, dotted with chilli jam and delicious sweet mini chilli peppers stuffed with tuna and sat on a ricotta and mint mix.

The pastas conveniently come in two sizes, so the smaller version of prawn linguine (£7.75/£13.50) was just right to stave off a rumbling stomach during the performance, without inducing a post-meal nap and embarrassing snores in the second act.

The garlicky prawns were elevated to star billing with the addition of fennel, tomatoes and chilli.

My friend went for the only pasta which came in one size – vegetable rotolo al forno (£11.50). “I may not be able to finish it all,” she said.

But presented with pumpkin, squash and spinach, rolled in fresh pasta sheets and baked with tomatoes, ricotta and basil, served with parmesan and herby breadcrumbs to sprinkle on top, she polished off the lot. Well, she was feeding a cold.

Jamie’s has lovely, relaxed bistro-style décor and is a great place to linger, but we were in a hurry.

Not sure if we had time to fit in a coffee and make curtain up, we asked our server who helpfully rushed the order through.

It’s open daily from noon, so for an encore visit, we’ll arrive earlier.

Jamie’s Italian, George Street, Oxford 01865 838383