La Vita in Cardiff

I've had a lot of carbonaras at a lot of restaurants, but this one was special. Pizza was great too. Lovely staff and we really liked the decor and atmosphere in there as well. Many thanks, will definitely be back.

Great little Italian restaurant, food was good and great service, I'd defo be back 👍🏻

First Italian restaurant I've been to that didn't sell pizza. It's on the menu but wasn't available. Very frustrating. The Pollo con prosciutto chicken was ok but not particularly hot. Not many veg options with no pizzas on the menu. The burrata starter was ok. Service was not great. The staff were pleasant but only offered one drink during the whole time we were there and we had 2 courses! The general atmosphere was ok with a hive of people, music was ear peercingly loud at the start but reduced in volume thankfully and tbh not really inkeeping with an Italian theme. Can say the same about the decor, seems like they've raided a car boot sale with a mix of African head masks, greek busts, dragons, ceramic fish with the walls painted with Octopuses. Very confusing. I didnt get it. Would I return? Not sure. Plenty of other Italian restaurants around with a more authentic vib.

First Italian restaurant I've been to that didn't sell pizza. It's on the menu but wasn't available. Very frustrating. The Pollo con prosciutto chicken was ok but not particularly hot. Not many veg options with no pizzas on the menu. The burrata starter was ok. Service was not great. The staff were pleasant but only offered one drink during the whole time we were there and we had 2 courses! The general atmosphere was ok with a hive of people, music was ear peercingly loud at the start but reduced in volume thankfully and tbh not really inkeeping with an Italian theme. Can say the same about the decor, seems like they've raided a car boot sale with a mix of African head masks, greek busts, dragons, ceramic fish with the walls painted with Octopuses. Very confusing. I didnt get it. Would I return? Not sure. Plenty of other Italian restaurants around with a more authentic vib.

Accepted order on ubereats then cancelled after half an hour. Called the restaurant and they said it was because they were too busy. If you’re not competent enough to staff your restaurant correctly or your staff don’t know what they are doing then maybe rethink offering deliveries. Shocking service.

Great local restaurant, the early bird and BYO is a fantastic deal.

Went to this Italian spot in Cardiff for dinner with some buddies. The servers were very friendly and personable. Pretty decent menu with lots of choices. Good greeting when we arrived and it became busy. We all ordered different entrees and different appetizers. I would say the food itself was OK and the service was excellent. Prices were reasonable.

Perfect for a romantic dinner with a loved one. The staff are all really friendly and accommodating. The food is top-notch! A lovely, intimate family run establishment.

Visited on a Saturday evening, party of 4. Was really looking forward as heard and read great reviews so booked to take family who were visiting Cardiff. An extremely long wait for mains (1hr10mins) and although server did come to apologise for the wait there was no real explanation given. Three meals arrived and we waited another 5mins for 4th meal to arrive. Pasta was undercooked and a very tasteless dish, just full of garlic and no flavour of parsley/clams that were part of ingredients. This main meal was removed from bill. Another meal was tasteless (chicken with tomato) but we were all so hungry by 8.40pm we just ate it.Desserts were ok, but no flavour to the tiramisù. Did not feel like an authentic Italian restaurant at all. Overall a very disappointing and underwhelming experience, both food and service. Would not visit again or recommend unfortunately.

Overall, a very mixed experience - for starters we had the calamari (very tasty) and chips (lovely and crunchy and perfect chips in my opinion) and warm bread with olives (which was actually toast, which is fine, but if you're expecting soft warm bread, that's not what you're getting, and there wasn't much balsamic vinegar and oil to dip it in). For mains I had the pistachio prawn pasta (which was very yummy and I would recommend) and my partner had the carbonara (which was much less good, it definitely tasted like it had cream in so not a real carbonara, which was disappointing). The atmosphere was very lovely, but the service was not very attentive, we waited a while to have our orders taken and then over an hour for our main courses to arrive, also no one checked to see if our meal was ok. It really wasn't terrible, but it wasn't very authentic tasting Italian food, it was just fine.

Went for a quick desert, stayed for the atmosphere. It's a very nicely decorated space with friendly staff and the menu looked awesome.

Amazing food and fantastic lunchtime value menu, 3 course for under £20.. freshly cooked whole you wait, decent portions and staff very friendly..if you haven't tried here then you are definitely missing out.

Very nice early evening meal, looking forward to g forward to going again 😀

I visit this delightful restaurant every week with a group of friends and the food is consistently good. Owner Marco and his sister Ellie have trained a highly motivated team who give us a big welcome every time and Jasmine deserves a special mention for her breezy personality and attention to detail. The food is really good and the seafood linguine that I had on our latest visit was outstanding value at £16. Full of king prawns and topped by a giant langoustine. House wine is also good value but for those keen on paring cost you can bring your own and pay corkage of £5. Looking forward to next week !!

Amazing dishes and reasonable prices!

Very nice and cosy place in Cardiff's Penylan area.

Cracking food and cracking staff

Lovely little Italian. Excellent wine and lunch menu

Lovely local. Tasty food, nice casual atmosphere. I recommend booking, it's very busy at the weekend, they hd to turn a few people way.

Fantastic evening on Friday. Food and service outstanding

Cosy Italian with great food and service

Fantastic little restaurant. Highly recommended for all the family

1st April, updated review. Another trip to Cardiff, and still just as lovely here as I remember. The team are just great, super friendly and accommodating. I'm adding the arancini to my favourite dishes, oh my goodness, just lush! Coming back to La Dolce Vita was like visiting an old friend. I moved away from Cardiff 6 years ago, La Vita, as it was then, had just been opened by Marco a couple of years earlier, & I remember thinking then it was a bit special, and it still is. It's a snug place with lively atmosphere, & I could believe again like I'm abroad in an authentic Italian. The portion sizes are really generous, Andy's calzone was huge as you can see, he had calamari to start with garlic aioli, which was soft and yummy. I had a single portion of the Zuppa di pesce to start, with a side of chips (fries) like Mum makes, which were lovely. The single portion Zuppa was full of seafood in a rich tomato sauce & big, I could have shared it. My Etna pizza was fab, lovely thin base, so moreish, despite the big starter, I couldn't stop eating it. Several glasses of wine & choc dessert later we left happily sated. The service was great, our waiter Tim was fab, as were the other two people serving, really responsive to requests for extras like vinegar. All reasonably priced, it was just lovely to go back. While I live in Swansea, I will definitely be taking my wife here when next in Cardiff, as it's better than any Italian in Swansea I've eaten in.

I’m sure it would’ve been nice if we hadn’t waited 45 minutes for a pizza that they never ended up serving for us. Lucky we asked where it was or we might still be there now…ended up missing the start of a concert for nothing. Would recommend going if you’re not hungry.

came here for pizza and charcheuterie board, delicious!! friendly staff. Place is very popular so would book or come early if coming on the weekend in the evening.

Tried placing an order from here at least 4 or 5 times, considering it’s less than a mile away, I don’t understand why they cancelled the order each time…. Poor service as far as I’m concerned

I love this place. Environment, service and food is amazing. I would specially recommend the puttanesca pasta, it’s absolutely delicious. The garlic bread is fantastic too.

Wow first time in this lovely little place, food was amazing, everything we had tasted fresh and food came out perfect. Will definitely be back

Another great meal, thanks Marco :) always lovely service and fresh food. Busy, buzzy, lively restaurant

This place is very special. If you like the best Italian pizzas you will be very impressed. That main attraction aside the main reason for this post is to share that they gave 25 of us a most wonderful special birthday occasion evening. The food was amazing and staff the most attentive and welcoming you could come across. It took some planning but Sophie proactively helped us - nothing was a problem. I recommend you visit - you will be delighted. We can’t wait to visit again.

Wow!! What a little gem. Staff fabulous & service excellent along with the food. Window seat for 6 was the icing on the cake after a 2 hour request for a possible table reservation … thank you

My little girl and I attended La Dolce Vita this afternoon and loved it, staff were brilliant and the food was lovely, they were very friendly and made myself and my 3 year old feel very welcome and looked after. I had a Pizza and my little one had the Children's deal, juice, pasta and ice cream brilliant value for £7.50. Will be back, thanks guys

Loved everything about this evening, I flew back from Spain today and went out for food with a friend and this was the perfect place. We shared bruschetta, got the two different prawn pasta dishes and then had an ice cream for the walk home. Everything tasted so good we had to get a cheesecake to take back to our roommate. You pay for what you get here with both portion and taste. Definitely going back for a pizza night!

Amazing food and service tonight of micehela (spelling) and luca thanks for being fantastic. Be back very soon x

Recommend a visit . Not a comprehensive menu but what’s on it , lovely !

Cute little cafe worth visiting, very good portions, but heavy with the cheese though but overall can't complain

Very nice Italian restaurant with tasty food and the set menu option were very reasonably priced, £14 for 2 courses with a great deal of choices, the homemade pizza are very good as was the chicken pizziola..desserts great, and the coffee was great...as you would expect being Italian. Staff very friendly and the toilets were spotless..a really nice atmosphere and with lots of choices of restaurants in wellfield road this one is worth a try.

The food is lovely the service is ok. The waitress Chloe was so lovely and so sweet! She apologised and sorted everything for us as there was a slight issue🤗 only losing a star as the manager is so rude and disrespectful, which is a shame as the food is great and our waitress was amazing 🤩

Great food, friendly staff and good value. We’ve been many times and will definitely be going back.

Great little restaurant. Lovely food, and good service. Recommended.

This is a lovely, informal Italian restaurant, good selection of dishes, competitively priced and with friendly, efficient staff. Feels quite spacious even when really busy. Highly recommend

The location of the table was unacceptable. Th staff could not care less. I wouldn't recommend it especially if it's an important occasion.

Don't waste your money. We were a party of 5 and the pizza was the only decent item.

Really lovely pasta dishes, pizza and Italian puddings. Service friendly and efficient especially good for family lunch.

I loved this restaurant, had 2 courses for 14 pound at lunch time and both were extraordinary value for money and gorgeous, the staff and ambience of the restaurant were lovely and I will return many times!

Disappointing night out. Server did not get the order right and then blamed someone else. They then forgot to discount the error so I had to get that corrected. Average food and overpriced. No tip. We have been before but maybe not again.

The worst Italian restaurant I have ever been in. We were a party of 5 and the only half decent plate was the pitzza served to the teenagers. One selection of pasta with mushrooms and roasted red peppers and Arugala was awful. The mushrooms were invisible. Wait was extremely long and restaurant very noisy.

Staff were really friendly but service was slow. Waited an hour for food and it wasn't at full capacity. There was only one vegan option on the menu which was a very basic linguine and sadly was a bit bland, especially for £13. Whilst the portion sizes are good and my friend enjoyed her pizza, overall it was bit underwhelming.

Really lovely atmosphere and the food is delicious.

Food very tasty and service nice

Lost our booking and couldn't seat us when we arrived.

Love the food and the atmosphere

Staff are very friendly and helpful. The food is not fancy, but all the better for it. So, it's really good, freshly cooked Italian fare. Prices are reasonable, too, and it was a nice atmosphere in the small busy space. We will certainly return in the future. Thoroughly recommend.

Really nice restaurant - food was incredible, the pasta fresh, and the gelato really luxurious. The staff on tonight we're also really lovely. Cannot fault it, will definitely go back again soon.

Extremely long wait for food (almost 2 hours after being seated) and once served, they had missed one ordered meal so we had to wait another 15 mins. Staff seemed rushed and not the most service minded. No discount on bill despite long wait and missed meal. Food was ok once it finally arrived by no better than similar restaurants in Cardiff. Would sadly not recommend.

Great restaurant! Food is high quality and you're greeted with great customer service! Definitely one of my favorite local places to go

Lovely food and relaxed atmosphere

Excellent food, great atmosphere, friendly and professional staff.

Full on a damp Wednesday evening in January!! The food and service was fab, as was the atmosphere and music playlist - thoroughly enjoyed and a real local gem to have in roath 😊 highly recommend!

Seen this restaurant for years but never been here, popped in tonight and the place was busy but they found us a table. What can I say, great atmosphere, great staff, great food, good background music, fabulously clean toilets, five star an absolute must.

Very pleased as a first visit. Will definitely go again. Excellent!!

Lovely atmosphere and great and friendly service from our waitress who made extra effort to show us the possible vegan options that could be made, and made our night lovely! Will definitely be back

Good friendly service, food was lovely enjoyed our visit would definitely visit again thank you x

I am well overdue writing this review which has been hanging over me as Dolce Vita went the extra, extra mile for us and hosted the best hen party for my friend! I'm sure as many people planning hens have come across it is hard booking a private venue/area to have dinner for a price per head and this can get tricky if people understandably need to pull out etc and the price goes up for everyone (and so on and so on.) Also, a base cost to hire is often very expensive!! Anyway, I called Dolce Vita to enquire that if we were to arrive late enough on a Saturday, we might be able to hire an area of the restaurant, and also asked if we could bring a drag queen to host! I thought this was a massive long shot, but nothing ventured, nothing gained! To my surprise, the lady I spoke with was very open to the idea and also seemed excited by the prospect! She agreed to a set menu price per head which included a starter and main each and shot of lemoncello and this was very reasonable. She understood that our numbers may change slightly and within reason in the run up, and we locked it all in the week before. The food and drinks were DELICIOUS! Great portions and very reasonably priced, also lots of options for our vegan and gluten free guests. Our drag host then arrived (who was AMAZING) and we did a lot of terrible dancing and even worse singing. The staff not only tolerated us but also sang and danced along for some of it which was really fun! They were also very understanding when our 'one more song' turned into 3.... 🤦‍♀️😂😂 Basically, we can't thank Dolce Vita enough for hosting such an epic night. We were looking for a drag brunch initially and I'm glad we did this instead as it was SO much better and more intimate!! Dolce Vita's commitment to working with the customer and accomodating and fun nature are a credit to them. Thank you again Dolce Vita! 😊👍❤️🍕

without booking on an early Friday night, very busy but we got a table for 4. Good range of items on menu and specials. Drinks and orders prompt. Starters of salami sharing platter and arancini were vey nice and quickly served. Then we hit a kitchen delay problem. Before we raised it, they came to apologise and offer free drinks in the meantime. Eventually three of the four came, 2 carbonara and my massive swordfish plate with 2 huge steaks, ( perhaps a little oil and lemon would have been useful - so easy to mistime and it was nearly overdone - but still very nice ). Once again they apologised for the delay and offered to take it off the bill.Eventually the Italian burger arrived. Large flat bun full of ground beef patty and extras. The food was good and enjoyed - shame about the kitchen problem but they handled it very well with the profuse apologies, courtesy drinks and substantial discount. It wasn't an undue time problem for us. Staff were very pleasant and helpful. Had been some while ago but, despite the issue whatever it was, we would go again.

Nice restaurant but didn't find the high chairs comfortable for a meal

Ask Tim to make you coconut gelato with amaretto biscuits and a shot of expresso coffee .... Thank me later 😉 ❤ ⚘

A lovely family meal. A true taste of Italy, food, staff and atmosphere reminders of Italian holidays.

A real gem - great food, lovely, friendly service, and in a fun and convenient location. The open restaurant front was a boon on a hot day, and felt appropriately continental. Highly recommended.

Starters were really good. We were a table of 4 and ate fish, pasta and pizza. Every dish was seasoned well with fresh ingredients staff helpful especially as one of our party was disabled. Also nice wine and cold beers. Will definitely be back..

We will be booked last minute!! The pizza was very tasty, the service was great, nothing was to much effort. This place is on our door step and we will be back. Thank you for having us 👍🏾

Fabulous buffet and service provided by Marco and Sophie for our guests yet again. Everyone commented on the tastiness and quality of the food. Thoroughly recommended, excellent value.

Great food and very happy to work menu items around dietary requirements such as vegan/plant based!

Serveur agréable et très gentil. Nourriture pas mal mais sans plus quoi… cela manquait un petit peu de relief, il manquait quelque chose! Peut mieux faire!

A great pizza and team to boot.

First time here for a pre father's Day meal. Food and service was very good.

The fact they use uber eats is a joke itself. Uber eats are all for the money regardless of if they actually deliver the order. Never received mine and nothing could be done about it for that reason will never buy from this place again...shocking!!!!

Fabulous indie market in a Monday. Fabulous indie restaurant the rest of the week ...

4 stars. Medium price range. Limited but varied menu for adults and a kids menu.food tasted great we all enjoyed every course. Clean tables, great atmosphere, warm welcome from staff. Well lit, great range of desserts with an inventive twist. Staff exceptionally nice and friendly. Would have been 5 stars but parking non existent and limited in surrounding streets. It was really loud in there, we found it difficult to hear each other talking. No vegan option, struggled to find milk free items. One table had a dog which was permitted to wander around, which as a non dog lover I found uncomfortable.

Fresh food, decent portion for lunch, friendly owners, nice happy vibe about the indoors, will be back with friends and family 😊

Great pasta and pizza dishes, Friendly and welcoming Good value.

A wonderfully calm family aura, helpful friendly staff.. Fresh delicious food.. great drinks. What’s not to like. We had a great night here. It’s a must 🤌

Brilliant food generous portions for great price and the staff cannot do enough for you def worth a visit if haven't tried

We went to this "restaurant" last weekend, we ordered starter calamari and they turned out to be soft and full of oil, as main course we had a pasta with chicken and a pizza, the pasta was nothing but boiled cream and mushrooms tasteless and overcooked too. The location has no real identity and we understand that there are many problems in this place. I do not recommend anyone to experience an unpleasant evening in this place that cannot be called a restaurant.

Had a lovely relaxed evening. Food and service excellent. See you again. Thank you.

We have just left and are dreadfully disappointed. Small 'al dente' (we were told)/uncooked pasta and 2 thin slices of oiled burnt toast as garlic bread. We've been sitting in an orherwise empty and cold restaurant. After paying £38.50 we have had to go across...

Great little place, good food and good service

Such tasty food! Definitely plan to return

Where to start. The staff are so welcoming, friendly and extremely accommodating. I must single out Anna and Olivia they were fantastic. The restaurant is well proportioned to accommodate small and large groups. The menu is fantastic, all of my party commented on how amazing the food was. And the wine and alcohol/ cocktail menu is also very good. I very highly recommend you pay a visit, I know that I along with others in my party will be visiting again soon.

Always love visiting this place. Friendly staff, always a good atmosphere, quick service and most importantly, amazing food.

Fantastic food, the staff are tremendous and always make a fuss of me and my dog Big Ralph - highly recommended

From start to finish,great time. Lovely welcome. Best Calamare ever. Delicous mains. Gorgeous wine,at reasonable price. Great value for money. Highlight of evening,brilliant server.

The food was very tasty and the service was great. Get the pizza! Low key, casual vibe. Very nice indeed.

The food are amazing. It is worth a visit.

Great food in great atmosphere. Friendly staff make you feel so welcome. Well worth a visit.

All the food was delicious. Great value for money and fab location for people watching

First time attending Dolce La Vita. First, the atmosphere was phenomenal. Every member of staff was fantastic, warm and friendly. The chef as well as the waiting staff were all welcoming saying hello, taking pictures for guests. Could not ask for better service if you tried. Second.. the food. My goodness, I love Italian food and this exceeded. It’s beautiful food and not small portions by any means.. definitely Italian portions. Honestly, cannot wait to attend again. The atmosphere and food is perfect. Could not recommend more. Thank you all for such a lovely evening!!

So we really liked this place. Then the owner or whoever, lost the plot and built a ridiculously large bar and the menus were rubbish and we gave it a miss. But have been in since lockdown eased and the crap bar has gone, the...

A pleasant little place. Good food. Good service.

We have been here a number of times before but first time since it was rebranded. Food mediocre. Pizza dough unsalted. Bruchetta disappointing. Seasoning not right on any of it but did enjoy the aranccini. The lady who served us was lovely and it might...