La Cantina44 Restaurant — Restaurant in Leeds

Normally I don't like Italian restaurants and would consider them overpriced with small portions, but I was pleasantly suprised by La Cantina 44.

Unfortunately I can't remember the exact names for the meals I had but they where a meat platter for starters, a mixed meat pasta dish for a main and a cheese cake with icecream for dessert.

The platter was outstanding with pickled vedge and salad, well presented, good size and extremely tasty. The main, again was decent sized and very nice, same with dessert.

They only served a couple of beers, something cheeper like carlsberg and peroni (if I remember rightly) not a massive selection but covers most bases.

The staff where fast, attentive, polite but always gave us room to breathe. Only downside was they where a little hard to hear over the bustle of the restaurant.

The restaurant was nice and well presented with nice clean toilets. Allthough they don't have proper out door seating they do have a conservatory like area where you can sit. It's like out side... but with central heating.

I would recommend to anyone that side of Leeds to go give it...

Don't know who he was (manager maybe? I saw him go into this restaurant during closing hours when I was at a red traffic light outside) but I'm heavily pregnant and was literally waiting a few minutes in my car down a one way road, down the side, for my partner to pop into the bank for me as I suffer from a pelvic condition, and a man turned up in a red Honda and started to aggressively shout at me for literally waiting a few minutes in my car. I told him that my partner is literally walking back now and I'll be moving if he wants my spot but he just kept shouting at me. Where I was parked, I'm allowed to (as many others always do, and a car was left parked behind me as well), and especially because I was in the driver seat, waiting for a good 5 minutes for my partner to be in and out. He was awful and rude when he could've just been understanding and calm and waited a minute since my boyfriend was walking back to the car when he turned up. Disgusting, impatient manners. If his manners are like that outside the restaurant, I don't want to know what they're like inside...

TL;DR: decent starter and pasta mains, but pizza was very poor.

Service was friendly and attentive: 5* for that. Decent atmosphere: 4, maybe 5. J wouldn't recommend against going here, but definitely don't get pizzas.

Full version: a mixed bag.

My starter (melazane parmigiana) was really very decent, and a huge portion. Another in my party had mussels, which he really enjoyed.

I had a pizza (rustica) for main, but, unfortunately, it was very low quality. Even visually, it was obvious when it came. Looks like they don't have a proper pizza oven? The others in my party enjoyed their main (salmon pasta and lobster ravioli), but I'm reviewing mine, hence 3*. One of us asked the others, "Is it good?" I was like, "Meh, not amazing." He said, "Yeah, looks bad." The other two mains looked...