I took a quick mid week drive East to try out the highly rated Vittorio’s situated in one of Newport’s more leafier suburbs. Most people eating out in Newport head straight to the Indoor Market, I love the market, but on my recent visit there I was getting a bit disillusioned with the cost of the food for what you received. I don’t mean in quality, just amount, especially when compared to offerings in Cardiff Market. Anyway, I had heard good things about Vittorio’s, and as I am a lover of all things Italian I knew I needed to go, but as you’ll see, it didn’t quite meet my expectations.

On entering I was suprised how busy it was, pretty much full, this must be a good sign, I’m also taken aback by the size of the restaurant, capable of 90 covers. A wood clad ceiling, exposed brickwork, pillars and tiled flooring let you know you’re in the right place, we walk through the restaurant and are seated around the corner at the rear. Here you can see the Pizza chef, and the ever decreasing pile of pizza boxes suggest their takeaway service is a good revenue stream.

It’s a standard Italian menu here, the usual favourites amongst the starters and mains, and as mentioned they have quite an extensive choice of pizza. It also mentions they have a specials board, this was nowhere to be seen from where we were sat, so we asked about them to our server “I haven’t even looked at the board” was the reply and took one of our phones to take a picture of it and brought it back. 10/10 for thinking on your feet I guess but It would have been better if you’d known what the specials were.

My Bruschetta Classica at £5.50 was really nice, good portion, the tomatoes were fresh and the levels of basil, garlic and oil were spot on. The ciabatta itself was toasted just right with a crispy edge, no issues here.

The Polpette Della Nonna at £13 didn’t carry on in quality where my starter left off, I didn’t find it very visually appealing, the sauce looked like it had split slightly and I found the meatballs a little salty, sorry Nonna! The flavour of the sauce itself was lovely and rich and I finished the meal, it just wasn’t at the level I’ve had from other Italian restaurants.

Another service issue came when ordering drinks, now they do 2 beers, both Italian, one of which is Peroni, but when ordering the other beer the server didn’t know what we were referring to and had to fetch a menu for us to point to it. Also the music was so quiet and you could only occasionally hear the odd bass note, and I was sat next to a speaker, all you could hear was chatter.

Tiramisu £6 for dessert, and it was great, the mascarpone, coffee soaked sponge and marsala wine all singing in harmony, quite a small portion but absolutely no complaints with it’s flavour and textures.

When it came to pay we were given the bill but then left for ages to finally be told to pay at the bar, surely if you had said this when leaving the bill it would have saved us sitting there waiting for absolutely no reason. I think this was the biggest issue for me, the service felt clunky and a bit disjointed, you didn’t feel reassured, looked after or get the sense the servers had much knowledge of the menu.

But look, Vittorios is seemingly not short of business, is highly rated and has been there since 1989, they are doing very well. My experience was just what it was, and I feel with a bit more focus on service they could be even better.