Villa Romana Fareham — Restaurant in Fareham

When I went skiing to Tignes, there is a very expensive restaurant there called "The Cave". The steak with veal topping was out of this world and blew me away. For the next two years, I have tried to hunt down a similar experience in the UK to no avail and much disillusion. This includes Michelin starred, branded and famous (ie Jamies). Anyway, valentines day loomed with complex arrangement meaning a last second booking, and to be honest, this session I took at La Villa because all the "best" establishments were full by the time I got round to it. It was "Set Menu" - which didn't bode well. However WOW. I have been blown away! The food was amazing and the service fantastic. My partner plumped for the steak. I avoided it on the basis of my experiance that the UK cannot compete with the French, and went for an alternative. The steak with Stilton topping and port gravy was amazing! Brilliant and all I could hear were expressions of pleasure from her I can only hope I could emulate later (ooo err). She said it was like a head massage in your mouth. The (too) few mouthfuls shared were a delight. The starters were very very good too and the pancake with white chocolate and fresh strawberries rounded it off beautifully. I have to say in counterpoint to the below comments, the service was also exemplary. Pleasant, courteous and very fast. Maybe it was because it was Valentines day - who knows, I intend to find out. Personally I hate hanging around for the card machine to arrive, courses to arrive etc. If I want to take my time, I would like it to be my choice thank you! A faultless evening, and I will be going back again and again if they can keep it up. All this and the 3 course with 2 aperitifs and a amereta - only came to £30 each - I would have happily paid double that and left a tip! Fab place...

The staff are very welcoming and friendly, when you first glance at the menu from outside they appear to be definitely not cheap but for what you get once you take the plunge and step inside assuming they have a free table if you havent booked they are in fact very reasonably priced and what you get is really top quality fayre and the portions are very generous. You will never leave feeling hungry. Food is very well prepared and can be adjusted to personal tastes or allergies on request and is cooked absolutely superbly and so beautifully presented. After many visits here I have never yet had a meal served cold as some reviews claim and even when fully booked with a queue of guests waiting to be seated you never feel pressurised to rush your meal so they can turn the table something some other local nearby "fine dining restaurants" could learn from. In my experience the management are so helpful if there is ever an issue that it makes me really wonder whether some of the negative reviews of this restaurant never even approached the management about their issues and just preferred to be...

If you are looking for somewhere to celebrate a special occasion and price is not top of your considerations then Villa Romana is great. From point of entry to the end of the visit it creates a very good impression. The restaurant is authentically Italian, not a pizza joint, with starched linen and silver service. The team is Italian, giving good service without being "in your face." The menu has options for all tastes and the wine list also covers all bases for Italian wines. The ambience is good and the music tastefully chosen. While we perused the menu we had complimentary cold frittata and some delicious olives. For our meal we had the mixed seafood starter - calamari, whitebait, prawns and sea bass. It was cooked to perfection and served attractively. Our mains were slow roasted pork belly and veal with mushroom sauce. Both were excellent, perfectly cooked and full of flavour. Would we recommend Villa Romana? Definitely for a special occasion, but not for a casual night out because we didn't...