For the cheese lovers, today we are celebrating National Cheese Day. Here are a selection of our owner, and co-founder Marc Palladino’s favourite cheeses from his time spent in Italy and working as a chef.

Provolone Piccante, known for its distinct sharp flavour, is a semihard cheese made from cow’s milk. It is aged at least 4 months, and some consider it to have a spicy flavour. Its origins lie in Southern Italy, and the cheese is produced mostly in the Po Valley region, particularly Lombardy and Veneto. The name is derived from the Neapolitan words prova or provola, which mean globe shaped. This cheese is a great addition to any cheese board and goes well with a glass of Chianti Classico.

Gorgonzola, one of the world’s oldest blue-veined cheeses. Unskimmed cow’s milk is used while preparing the cheese. Generally, it takes three to four months to attain full ripeness. This cheese has a crumbly and soft texture with a nutty aroma. It can have a mild to sharp taste depending on its age. Mainly produced in the northern Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy, Gorgonzola. Consumed in many ways on pasta, pizza or on its own with a glass of Bordeaux or Zinfandel. We use Gorgonzola on our Palladino Pizza.

Talleggio, this mild-flavoured cow’s milk cheese has a soft and creamy texture, a strong aroma, and a fruity flavour. Historically linked to the Alpine valley of Val Taleggio, from which it takes its name, Taleggio cheese has been around since Roman times. Currently it’s produced in northern Italy’s neighbouring regions of Lombardia, Piemonte, and around the province of Treviso in the Veneto region. It can be eaten on its own, due to its delightful melting properties, we use Taleggio with a pizza or antipasto.

We can’t talk about cheese and not mention Buffalo Mozzarella. Full of flavour, the perfect cheese for a summer salad, or to serve with a simple drizzle of good quality olive oil. Made with buffalo whole milk, this pearly white sphere of cheese has a unique flavour and is made exclusively in the Delizie Alburnine region of Italy. Once you have tried a premium buffalo mozzarella, you most definitely won’t be able to look back, we use Buffalo Mozzarella on our Insalata Caprese.

We stock all of these cheeses in the restaurant, and they can be made up as a cheese board. Ask your waiter when you arrive with your party.

With Government restrictions on indoor hospitality easing on May 17th, we can’t tell you how excited we are to welcome you all inside! It’s been a tough year for all, and it is beginning to feel like we are (hopefully) slowly coming to an end of this difficult time. We remain extremely grateful for the support that we have received from our customers, family, and friends. We are now taking bookings for the 17th of May and onwards. Whilst we will of course adhere to the strict Covid guideline, you can be sure that a warm welcome will be waiting for you along with some good, hearty, Italian food!

In the meantime, you can still order your favourite Pizzeria Villaggio meal for home delivery or collection. Plus you can get any pizza or pasta dish and dessert for only £11.95 when you opt for our collection service.* Take a look at our online menu to view our selection of dishes. 

*Offer for collection only, a £2 supplement applies to gamberoni, frutti di mare, and calzone.

We are delighted to announce that Padrig Jones is now working with us as a Creative Chef Consultant.

Padrig brings a wealth of experience and will be working with our existing kitchen staff to build on our passion for creating simple dishes using fresh locally sourced ingredients, cooked in the authentic Italian way. Padrig attended catering college in Cardiff, working in his spare time for David Evans at Spangheros in Westgate Street. “Looking back, it was a kitchen full of talented chefs who are now holding their own in restaurants all around the world.” Padrig had designs on working in a French restaurant and started work at Le Cassoulet in Cardiff – which at the time was famous for its casserole from southwest France made with bean, sausage, pork, and duck confit. Receiving a Marco Pierre White cookbook as an 18th birthday present, his passion for cooking further developed. He said: “The food Marco was cooking was above and beyond anything else at the time and I really wanted to work with him.” So, at the age of 18, Padrig went to work in the Hilton in Park Lane in London as a first commis chef. “I loved it”, Padrig said. On his days off Padrig would work unpaid in other restaurants including Marco Pierre White’s Harveys in Wandsworth. He was then offered a job at Marco’s new restaurant called The Canteen in Chelsea – also co-owned by actor Michael Caine, where he worked under Stephen Terry – now at The Hardwick in Abergavenny. “I spent 2 years at The Canteen. It had one Michelin star serving 500 covers a day. A Michelin star requires absolute consistency from a restaurant, nothing is good enough. Working there really enabled me to push myself.”

In 1997 Padrig decided to come home to Cardiff and set up a new restaurant called Le Gallois as head chef, with sister Elen and her husband Francis Dupuy, Le Gallois started life as a family bistro and over a ten year period, it set the standard for fine dining in Cardiff. Padrig also spent 5 years as Innovation NPD and Development Chef for various companies. Padrig and our owner Marc are life-long friends with his parents founding customers of ours back in 1986. This will be the second time Padrig has been with us, as whilst he was at sixth form at Glantaf school he had his very first job in catering with our founder Umberto, working as a waiter then moving into the kitchen. “As a child, we used to go on holiday to Italy and France and I’ve always wanted to cook, I asked Umberto if I could work in the kitchen and the rest is history. If it wasn’t for Umberto I may not have had my career as a chef – he gave me my first chance.” Commenting on the arrival of our new chef consultant, owner Marc Palladino said “I have known Paj for 30 years, he is the most instinctive chef I have ever worked alongside, with a fantastic palette. Even though he’s Welsh, I think there is some Italian blood in him somewhere!”

As we head towards the end of our first week back, we want to say how great it’s been serving food on proper plates and having customers sat on seats and at tables – we have missed you all! Thank you to everyone who has supported our family run-business this week, it’s not perfect with the Great British weather but as we have done in the last few months, we will crack on and make the best of what we’ve got!

We are already looking forward to welcoming you all back indoors on May 17th, until then we have availability for outdoor dining under our canopy and are open for collection or home delivery. Don’t forget, you can also get any pasta or pizza and dessert for only £11.95 when you opt for our takeaway collection service.* Take a look at our online menu to view our current selection of dishes. 

*Offer for collection only, a £2 supplement applies to gamberoni, frutti di mare, and calzone.

During lockdown, we’ve been getting experimental in the kitchen and have now added 2 new pizzas to the menu!

If you drooled over our Christmas-themed Babbo Natale Pizza – topped with festive favourites turkey, stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, and sprouts – then we definitely think you’re going to love our latest creations. Introducing the Porco Pizza and the Brunch Pizza.

The Porco Pizza is packed with Italian sausage, pancetta, pepperoni, and meatballs with tomato and fior di latte cheese, and is ready to satisfy those meat cravings. Our Brunch Pizza? Well, we thought we’d combine our two favourite things together (brunching and eating pizza, of course) to bring you mushrooms, egg, pancetta, Italian sausage, pepperoni & meatballs all served on a light crispy pizza base and made fresh to order. 

Whichever one tickles your tastebuds, we’ll be able to deliver it to your door or get it ready for collection.

We’ve hit 10,000 followers on our social media!

We still can’t believe it.

Grazie mille to everyone for supporting our family-run business, it really does means the world to us during these challenging times and it is wonderful to read the kind comments and messages that we receive. We’ll continue to keep you up to date with everything happening at the Pizzeria on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages, as well as on our website. You can be certain that we’ll be putting some tasty prizes up for grabs on our social media pages (so keep your eyes out for our competitions), as well as revealing our exciting new additions to our menu.