I beat Ali, taken inside restaurant (7)
I believe the answer is:
italian
'restaurant' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'i beat ali taken' is the wordplay.
'beat' becomes 'tan' (tan can mean to beat or hit).
'taken' is an insertion indicator.
'tan' going around 'ali' is 'talian'.
'i'+'talian'='ITALIAN'
'inside' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for italian that I've seen before include "drink" , ", I can appear volatile" , "Romance language" , "Neapolitan, for example" , "I, a Latin may be a Roman" .)