Review: The new Casa Italian restaurant in Whitehaven

The new venue, which is in the former Casa a Roma restaurant on Queen Street, has been renovated beautifully, while keeping many of the charming features of its predecessor, including the amazing painted ceiling and Italian bust sculptures.

The menu is extensive and there is a good variety of food with Italian classics such as pizza, pasta and risotto, along with meat and seafood dishes and plenty of sides.

The menu has a wide selection of food and drinks (Image: Newsquest)

The drinks menu has a good selection of Italian inspired cocktails, along with traditional Italian beer. There are also mocktails, cider, Italian soft drinks and spirits.

There are so many tempting dishes, it was difficult to choose but I went for the classic bruschetta to start, which is served with vibrant tomatoes, onions, a garlic focaccia and drizzled with a rich pesto and balsamic glaze. It was very tasty and full of flavour.

The classic bruschetta (Image: Newsquest)

For the main course, I opted for the Penne Al Forno – a pasta bake with a creamy blend of chicken and sweetcorn and topped with melted mozzarella and parmesan. It was fresh, creamy and very filling - the perfect comfort food. I also shared a side of chips which were homemade and cooked to perfection.

Penne Al Forno (Image: Newsquest)

I chose chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. The texture of the brownie was just right and the warm chocolate sauce was rich in flavour.

Chocolate brownie with ice cream (Image: Newsquest)

Servers were attentive and eager to please, making the effort to check that everything was ok throughout the meal. Food arrived quickly and staff were genuinely pleased to receive positive feedback. It’s clear that good service is a priority.

I was really impressed by the variety of good quality food, excellent service and stylish décor. I’m really pleased to have an Italian restaurant in Whitehaven again and I will definitely return.