I have in the past written (and probably will continue in the future to write) about Casanova, a rather fine Italian restaurant in Cardiff’s city centre. I have never had a bad meal there and with the people running it also operating a retail wine business (Vinitalia), selling (perhaps unsurprisingly) Italian wines, it hits the brief in terms of having a decent wine choice (sadly lacking in all too many restaurants these days).

I tend to think there is nothing wrong with multiple reviews of a place over the years, as menus change, chefs/front of house move on, as do fashions. As such, a few years can make for remarkable changes to a restaurant (for better or worse) or you can just really like it and want to go back.

I don’t always want to go somewhere shiny and new and be the first (Editor’s note: He never is) to tell you about the amazing new “whatever is the current fad” (generally a rehash of something that was the current fad 5, 10, 15 years ago – I mean Nordic cuisine as a 2025 trend is so 2010 and are they really pushing bloody butter boards and the already ubiquitous sourdough again – the latter now “holey” mainstream and about as passé as me) places, when there are those “old” places that I just really like (so want to revisit).

I was in town, following Mrs. SF around like petulent child as she did her Christmas shopping (it is now December so the C- word may be spoken) and told me what to buy her for Christmas (far easier than me taking a punt and inevitably crashing and burning on said “took a punt” gifts being revealed on the day.

There are few things I loath more than Christmas shopping (why do people just stop for no apparent reason in the middle of aisles in shops, the street etc.) and thus a major incentive was required to cajole me into the maelstrom of indecisiveness that is Cardiff City centre on a December weekend (come the evening of 24th multitudes of soon to be dead men walking with be instilled with a dynamic sense of extreme and very ill judged decisiveness at their local BP garage shop/Co-op/Spar).

Much like my dog Oscar (aka Dick the dog), I am predominantly motivated by food and that was the canny lure of a “treat” that Mrs. SF cast to get me into town with the suggestion of lunch at Casanova.

It is a place I have always highly rated, but with me in Gotham less and less these day, it is somewhere I have been to recently a lot less than I would have wished.  I eagerly took the bait and off we toddled into town.

After the trauma of John Lewis et al, settling into the comparative tranquility of Casanova and seeing the set lunch menu calmed my twitching (uni)brow, with a multitude of interesting choices for a very reasonable £24 for two courses and £28 for 3 course.

Specials on the day included a rather fine sounding pork tomahawk, which I toyed with but eventually discounted on the grounds that we were having a pork joint the next day.

I pretty much always order black pudding when I see it on a menu and this was no different, with the added benefit of it being spiked with chilli and coming with an Italian sausage.

Lovely earthiness to the pudding, with a good level of heat from the chilli and a tangy ginger ketchup. The sausage was heady with fennel, a flavour I love, and sat on a beautifully silky smooth celeriac puree. The latter brought a pleasing sweet nuttiness to proceedings. An apple puree added a welcome touch of acidity and an al dente bit of tenderstem a touch of green virtue, although I would argue that that latter element was somewhat superfluous to requirements. A token bit of green to assuage the conscious sounds familiar somehow

Mrs. SF loves a bit of smoked salmon (slightly unusual for her, she praises me for my homemade efforts in smoking salmon) and plumped for that.

Pleasingly delicate cure to the salmon, with the whisky just adding a touch of peatiness to the smoke. Beetroot and pickled fennel added both earthiness and a tangy shot of anis. An avocado and lime puree brought a zesty creaminess to the party.

On to the mains, I am a sucker for a hearty stew and the peposo di manzo very much appealed on that front.  Simplicity (yet with bold flavours) is often at the heart of Italian cuisine and you don’t get much simpler than this stew made from 4 ingredients in the form of beef slow cooked with garlic, black pepper and a lot of red wine. 

The beef had cooked down to a spoon tender consistency, infused with the wine and a surprising mellowness of spice from the (large amount of) black pepper on the palate. Lovely rich sauce from the reduced red wine (assume was Sangiovese based on this dish’s Tuscan origins) bathed the beef, which sat on generous portion of creamy and lump free mashed potato.

Nicely seasoned (a lack of a generous amount of salt is the bane of many a mashed potato dish), my only quibble with the mash was a seeming paucity in it of the advertised parmesan.  I didn’t really detect any, if I am honest, which is a shame as I think it would have been a nice addition to the overall dish.

Mrs. SF had the ragu, which was advertised as coming with fileii pasta. Now I am no pasta afficionado, but to me what arrived was more akin to rigatoni (mezzi) than fileii (fileja) as I know it. 

Mrs. SF wasn’t bothered, but it would have been nice to have been advised as to the substitution in advance.

The dish, as delivered, was a masterclass of all that is good about Italian cookery. Seemingly simply, yet with complex flavours to the max.  Slow cooked beef and pork, with tomato, brought an intense meaty flavour to the plate tempered by acidity from the toms. The rich sauce clung on to the ridges in the perfectly cooked (just a touch of retained bite) pasta, with a very generous grating of salted ricotta bringing nuttiness and an almost saline hit to the dish.

Great dish and a good portion size to boot.

As we were having a rather jolly time, we decided it would be rude not to look at the dessert menu and it was nice to see cheese on there without the dreaded “supplement” (gratifyingly not a single one on this menu).

I went for this, which was a generous portion and a nice spread of styles including a rather pungent truffle infused number, an aged parmesan, a goats cheese and a gooey one.

My only little quibble was the rather pedestrian Jacobs (selection box) crackers (but at least they weren’t mingey with the  number).

The truffled honey was nice, but I did somewhat miss the advertised (but absent) onion chutney.

Mrs. SF went for the cannolo and it was a proper whopper

Lovely sweetened ricotta generously filled a crisp casing and was book-ended by crushed pastashio and candied orange peel. 

You can’t finish an Italian meal without a coffee (not included in the set price) and we both ordered a single shot espresso.

Rich and deeply flavoured, with a thick crema, this was proper coffee (you can stick your pumpkin spiced shxte where the sun don’t shine, in my humble opinion).

On the booze front, they have a comprehensive list (more a booklet) that covers wines they sell retail as well as to drink in in the restaurant.

This includes (unnamed) two wines by the glass.

I must say with the current state-of-the-art of wine preservation technology, a few more wines by the glass could easily be done and it is a shame the options on that front are seemingly so limited.

It was, however, a Saturday lunchtime and I wasn’t driving so a bottle was in order and we choose a barbera from Piedmont which was a pretty reasonable at £32 (enough stuff on the list below £30, which is increasingly unusual this day), with it retailing at around the £18 mark in the UK.

Pleasant drop this, with a nice amount of fruit (cherry) and a decent level of acidity. Worked well with my starter and main, as well as the cheese.

The verdict

I really like Casanova, as over the years it is one of those places that has never failed to hit the mark.

Consistently good food and good prices are the things that make this place stand out from the crowd and has me going back frequently (should, on this showing, go back more). 

The set lunch menu is particularly good value at £22 for two courses and £28 for three and, allied to a very good wine offering, makes for a compelling way to assuage yourself of the misery of shopping (Christmas or in general).

Got to be a better bet than a (I suspect deeply unsatisfying and certainty far less convivial) on the hoof £12.50 Yorkshire pudding wrap, £9 cheese burger or £7 currywurst at the Christmas Market hasn’t it!

With 3 filling and tasty courses, coffees, a decent bottle of wine and a tip we paid £107 (with the wine and coffees making up upwards of a third of that, so if parsimonious you could go a fair bit cheaper). I think that is very good value for money.

Place is open on Mondays too.

Really hope places like this survive the likely (come April) hospitality apocalypse. All we can do is to try and support them.

The details

Address: 13 Quay Street, Cardiff, CF10 1 EA.

Website: https://casanovacardiff.uk/