Possibly Cardiff's best Italian. But the competition ain't up to much

A leading Welsh chef was heard to lament only the other day the dirth of authentic Italian restaurants in Cardiff. She's got a point. There's no shortage of entrants for this particular prize, but few (if any) even get through the first round.

So can La Boheme make any impression? It certainly has a loyal following, but then you need to if you're going to survive in a street which looks like a short cut to a late-night punch-up. And there is a certain authenticity. Staff are definitely Italian, and very friendly with it, and it has that rough-and-ready feel of the kind of place you might go to fill your boots for 10 Euros on a wet Thursday in Padua.

The set dinner is a reasonable deal: £10.99 for primi and secondi plus coffee. But don't expect anything too thrilling on the menu. Salsiccie was an honest, healthy and reasonably tasty starter with a nice dash of fennel, and the lamb shank was a reasonable approximation of what can be a beautiful dish. But there was no real zing to anything. Whitebait came without any accompaniment, and the beef linguine can best be described as perfectly edible, although you might struggle to stay awake such is the dullness on the taste buds.

So La Boheme isn't going to electrify the restaurant world. It probably is fairly authentic, but a representation only of a rather lazy Italian trattoria which hasn't had to do much to keep its clientele. Witness the write-up from the Western Mail framed proudly on the wall, the browning paper and curling edges only just allowing you to see the date: 2002.