After passing Calabrisella, which is based on the main high street in Canton a couple of times on the way to St Cannas and Pettigrew along with hearing the rave reviews all over the social web I was eager to try it for myself and so was Mwsh. Having fallen in love with Italian food from a trip to Rome earlier on in the year I was dying to see how it fared against the real Mccoy and the new wave of pizza eateries bombarding the Welsh Capitol of late.
We happened to have an impromptu visit whilst out on a sunny Sunday evening breaking our newly delivered cycle to work bikes in around the bay that saw us venture back into town and around Bute Park. Knowing they had a couple of tables out on the street outside the restaurant we thought we would make the most of the rare sight of sun in the sky and see what the fuss was about.
The Food
Neither of us were feeling that hungry but just an excuse to try Calabrisella so we went for the standard one pasta and one pizza to share between us. I’ve been on a mission to find the best Carbonara so this has become a staple choice and go to pasta dish for comparison when we do go to an Italian restaurant then we just choose whatever pizza we fancy there which happened to be the spicy option the Calabrese featuring Tomato, mozzarella cheese, black olives, chilli, pancetta and a first for me on a pizza baked potatoes. They also happened to have every San Pellagrino you could ever imagine in the fridge too, which had a huge thumbs up from me.
I was given the option of with or without cream in the Carbonara and for some reason said with without thinking, which I regretted at the time as I should of went as authentic to the real Roman recipe as possible and I never put cream in my famous interpretation either. Saying that the dish was very good when it came not that it would be any less with cream I just find sometimes it can be a bit over rich like the one I had at Cafe Citta recently. This wasn’t as loaded with cream so we managed to polish it off without struggling this time.
The Calabrese Pizza though well and truely hit the spot. Thin, cripsy and not too overloaded yet not as tight as some pizza producers who basically give you a margaritta whatever topping you ask for as you will be hard pressed to find any toppings on them. This had just the right balance so that it didn’t all slide off when attempting to chomp on the slices. The right bit of heat with a bottle of chilli oil to hand if you wanted to up the ante a bit. The potatoes were absolutely devine as a topping and don’t know why I’ve never seen it before.
The Verdict
This has to be in my top 3 pizzas I’ve tasted and that includes the visit to Rome. A decent size pizza with ample toppings for sub £10 compared to the barely there and measly toppings I’ve had from street food vendors for not far off that price it goes top of the list of Pizzas in Cardiff to date but not qute beating number one spot from Ambers Wood Fired Kitchen with her goats cheese and proscuitto at The Eisteddfod last year in Abergavenny and 2nd spot being Pizza Sizza Caffetteria next to the Vatican in Rome with their mixed platter finger sized array of cheese beasts.
If you haven’t been to Calabrisella yet then get your ass there soon and if you have been there then you need no futher encouragement for a second trip.