When you think of authentic Italian food, your mind might not immediately jump to a restaurant in St David's shopping centre in Cardiff serving pineapple on pizza and something called 'Cardiff Sauce'. But Ciliegino is a labour of love by two Italian men who are trying to balance authenticity with their crowd-pleasing dishes in their first UK restaurant.
Surrounded on almost all sides by chain restaurants, Ciliegino has to do something to stand out - and has managed to become Cardiff's top-rated restaurant on TripAdvisor. Owner and managing director Giuseppe Portella told WalesOnline: "I think what is making the difference in our restaurant is we are one of the few really authentic Italian restaurants.
"We are not a chain, we are really independent. The ingredients we take are coming from Italy, some of them we import directly and many others we have a local supplier. Food at chain restaurants sometimes is frozen or prepared before... our pizza dough is proven for 48 hours and our pizza chef goes there every night with the flour to make the dough and prepare our sauces."
