SAINT PIZZA is a new business which emerged peeping through the rubble of the pandemic's impact on the Island's towns.
Having enjoyed a couple of their delicious takeaways, we were finally legally allowed to eat inside.
Taking our seats at an upcycled scooter, we decided to have a pizza and pasta dish between us, to cover all bases — if you'll pardon the pun.
Getting creative, as the menu exhorted, Cat chose her base notes: sourdough, tomato and mozzarella. She added prawns and a pile of veggies, plus goats' cheese.
Cat's dining companion channelled their inner Matt, choosing juicy homemade meatballs in a rich marinara sauce "oozing in classic Italian flavours" and served with spaghetti.
The dinners arrived in quick time, as one might expect from a restaurant that cut its teeth on takeaway trade. Cat's dinner fitted perfectly on its wooden paddle.
She levered up a soft and yielding slice of pizza and tucked in. Puckered sundried tomatoes punctuated the pizza with their own brand of concentrated tomatoeiness, playing a duet on Cat's tongue with the earthy goats' cheese.
Read more: The County Press guide to pizza places in Newport
The prawns were none of those reformed ersatz 'prawnies' she'd had recently in a mainland korma. Tenderstem broccoli and spinach added colour, flavour and vitamins, making this 'fast food' a nutritional, and tasty, option.
Spaghetti and meatballs was just the comfort food Cat's companion needed, and it hit the appropriate spot. The rich, flavoursome sauce cuddled the succulent meatballs in a welcome, homely embrace.
Part of the fun of spaghetti is coiling it onto one's fork; Saint Pizza's version had shorter lengths, denying Cat's companion the opportunity to splash some of that tomatoey marinara down their vintage top — which, from a laundry perspective, might have been for the best.
With so much gossip to catch up on, Cat's pizza was half untouched, so the rest was boxed for the next day, when she and Matt enjoyed it for lunch.
It travelled well; remaining moist and tasty despite a night in chilled cardboard.
Saint Pizza has done a grand job in creating an attractive venue with a really good pizza offering, plus some excellent and imaginative pasta dishes.
Now that it is an eat-in place, we can concentrate on the robust mains. The dilemma is pasta or pizza? We'd be happy to recommend both.
Pizza £13.50
Pasta £10
Matt and Cat's bill
Total £23.50
Saint Pizza, Newport: Three Stars
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