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I was dining out with my step dad at an authentic Italian restaurant on Mill Road, called Tradizioni. He is a born and bred Romsey Towner and eats out frequently, especially Italian food. It suddenly occurred to both of us that as far as we were both aware, this may be the only authentic Italian restaurant in Romsey! Sure, there is Limoncello but that is more of a cafe. This is the only place you can really dine out and have the full Italian experience without venturing out of Romsey Town. This surprised me as there are so many great places to eat that I assumed that there were half a dozen.

Tradizioni has been open for 9 years and I have to be honest, I had no idea it was here! It was originally very small which may explain this. They have recently had an extension which has expanded the size of the restaurant and in turn has made the shop front more noticeable. I have walked past it a few times over the past year and been drawn in by its warm atmosphere and bustling life, so I was delighted to finally visit and see if it lived up to what I envisioned.

There is a generous amount of seating outside with two canopies to protect you from the elements. The weather this summer has been very disappointing but I can really see this being a great place to sit outside and people-watch on Mill Road.

The restaurant on the inside is very clean, spacious, and modern with a strong Italian theme. There are dozens of Italian products throughout the shop, from Sanpellegrino lemonade to pasta and tomato sauces.

I was pleased to see a selection of local art on the wall that are available to buy. This adds a really nice personal touch and it is great to see local businesses support each other. This is what Mill Road is truly about. If you like what you see then make sure to visit Cambridge based Naomi Davis Art for more of her watercolor and pen art.

There are no menus in the restaurant which is great for reducing waste. Instead, they have QR codes on the table for scanning that bring up the menu on your mobile phone.

Upon scanning, I was presented with a list of different dishes to choose from, such as pizzas, focaccias, pastas, salads, seafood, and desserts. There is also a wine selection (obviously!) and the option to have Italian beer or Limoncello.

We started with a seafood sharing platter called ‘fritto misto’. This was presented on a bed of salad and consisted of deep-fried prawns, calamari, king prawns, salmon, baby squid, and white fish. For me, the prawns particularly stood out as succulent with a crispy bite. They weren’t huge but were a perfect size for dipping.

Speaking with Andrea, the owner of Tradizioni. He is clearly very passionate about food but also about keeping his food authentic. Learning this, I decided to trust him and let myself be whisked away to Rome for the real experience. He brought out a bottle of Narame Riserva, an Italian red with a beautifully peppery taste with a long lasting finish.

Next, we tried the seafood linguine. This is presented in a large bowl that is then portioned out into smaller dishes for each individual. This was done on request and explains why my plate had bits of stray pasta in the photo.

The pasta quality is particularly particularly good, especially for someone who usually gets mine from Tesco. Andrea explained that they do not make the pasta fresh but use a brand called ‘La Molisana’ an award winning pasta that is widely regarded as the best pasta brand available and has even won the ‘Leonardo Quality Italy award’ in Italy.

Another thing that stood out to me was how the sauce didn’t particularly stand out. This sounds like a criticism but is actually a compliment. Its subtle, delicate flavour of the sauce complimented the pasta rather than overpower it. After all, when you have pasta of this quality you want to be able to taste it. This is the subtle art of Italian cuisine that is often lost on us Brits.

Part of the reason I visited this evening was to try their pizza for my light hearted ‘Simon’s Quest’ blog post. Looking at the menu, pizzas hover around £8/£16 for a half/full pizza. The pizzas at Tradizioni are served as a square base with the topping that goes right to the very edge. This is a huge sigh of relief as I am noticing a rise of large crust pizzas with a small amount of topping in the middle. The style at Tradizioni is, in my opinion, how pizza should be done.

The pizza dough is fermented for 72 hours. This aims to make the dough lighter, easier to digest, and give a deeper and more robust flavour.

At Tradizioni, they let you do half and half pizzas. They will even do it in quarters if you wish. My guest likes a pizza to be simple so he went for the margarita. I had anchovies and olives. This was a fine pizza with a really soft and fluffy base. I would have liked to have seen an extra few olives and anchovies if I’m honest but for £9 I was not about to complain.

We sampled some white wine, picked by Andrea again. This Piantaferro is a Italian white pino grigio. This was a laid back, light, easy going wine that is versatile enough to go with anything. This went perfectly with the linguini.

And finally, I had the tiramisu for dessert. This is not served with Amaretto but is served with coffee. The photo does this no justice but the portion was excellent. This could have fed two comfortably. My guest didn’t want a dessert so I heroically took on the task of consuming it myself.

I had a fantastic time at Tradizioni. I don’t get to many Italian restaurants on the Cambridge Foodies blog because, well, there aren’t too many around because they are often crowded out by the faceless Italian chain restaurants.

This is a truly authentic Italian restaurant which fits in perfectly with what a restaurant on Mill Road should be.

For more information, visit their website.

Thanks for reading!