Solina, a handmade pasta restaurant from the family-run Walcot Group, has opened at 27 Westgate Street in Cardiff, opposite the Principality Stadium.
The 220-seat restaurant opened on Monday 28 September and served more than 600 covers on its first day. It is the group’s second Solina, following the opening of the first on Bath’s Grand Parade in September 2024.
The restaurant is in a Grade II-listed city-centre building that was previously home to a microbrewery. Pasta-making takes place in an open-plan kitchen, where chefs make the pasta from scratch on site every day. Dishes cost between £8 and £15.
The Walcot Group is a family-owned hospitality business run by James Still with his parents, Martin and Debbie Still.
“Solina is all about handmade pasta at a price you can come back for every week,” said James Still. “We’re a family business, and we do things the same way in Cardiff as we do in Bath. Our chefs make the pasta fresh every day, and the meat for our ragus comes from our own butcher’s shop. Cardiff has given us an amazing welcome, and we can’t wait to become part of the neighbourhood.”
Martin and Debbie have owned and run pubs and restaurants for more than 35 years. They bought the Pear Tree Inn in Whitley, Wiltshire, in 1997 and later owned the Methuen Arms in Corsham. The family opened Walcot House in Bath in 2019 and has since expanded the group across the southwest and south Wales.
The group now runs Walcot House, Little Walcot in Frome, Mother & Wild in Corsham, Solina in Bath and Cardiff, and Green Street Butchers in Bath. The White Hart in Widcombe, Bath, will open soon.
The Cardiff kitchen is led by Head Chef Miriam Delogu, who joins Solina from the Bosco Group, where she spent more than three years and rose to Executive Head Chef. She has family roots in Sardinia and Emilia-Romagna and learnt to make pasta with her grandmother in Italy. Cardiff was the first place she lived when she moved to the UK 15 years ago.
“Opening Solina Cardiff has been a huge project and I’m incredibly proud of what the team has created,” said Miriam Delogu. “For me, Italian food is about generosity, simplicity and bringing people together around the table. That’s really what we’ve tried to capture in the menu.”
The egg pasta is made with Shipton Mill Type 00 flour and the semolina pasta with Martimucci S4 semolina, milled from 100% Italian durum wheat. Datterini and Cuore di Bue tomatoes, olive oil, and some seasonal fruit and vegetables come from Italian suppliers.
Meat for the ragus and other dishes comes from Green Street Butchers, the Walcot Group’s own butcher’s shop in Bath, which buys whole carcasses from independent farmers, with a focus on heritage-breed livestock and native game. The group’s production kitchen makes the ragus from scratch, while the Cardiff team makes the pasta, focaccia and desserts on site.
Antipasti on the menu include Lasagne Fritte with Béchamel, Roast Tomato Sauce & Parmesan and Wild Mushroom Arancini with Pistachio Pesto Mayonnaise.
Pasta dishes include Pappardelle with Duck Ragu & Parmesan; Radiatori with Sausage & Pancetta Ragu, Roasted Red Peppers & ’Nduja; Rigatoni with Slow-Cooked Beef Shin Ragu; and Tagliatelle with Cornish Crab, Datterini Tomatoes & Chilli.
Vegetarian and vegan options include Casarecce Cacio e Pepe and Linguine with Olive Oil, Chilli, Garlic & Parsley. Desserts include Tiramisu, the menu changes with the seasons, and gluten-free pasta is available on request.
The bar serves cocktails and mocktails alongside wine and draught beer, and the dessert drinks menu includes a Tiramisu Espresso Martini, made with spiced rum, Kahlúa, coffee, Licor 43 and cream.
A first-floor mezzanine is due to open, and there are plans for a roof terrace and a dedicated event space.
Solina takes walk-ins only. When it is full, guests can join a virtual waiting list and receive a text when their table is ready. It is open from 12pm to 10pm Monday to Saturday and from 12pm to 9pm on Sunday.
