Strada

Strada with a spectacular view of the front of the cathedral. Prime locations, standard food but service brings it down. Total shame.
I’ve been there a few times and although i love the food, and the fact you can use tesco clubcard reward vouchers, the service is a bit damp. One of the waitresses is a bit short with MOST of her customers. We’ll walk in or book on a night and they still give us a horrible table, right by the door with the wind gushing beneath our… wings, sorry, i meant feet. Unlike Bette Midler’s song, this ain’t a great feeling.
The food is great, I highly recommend the pumpkin risotto because aside from the fact i LOVE pumpkin, it’s seasoned so well! It’s topped with fried pancetta and its amazing! The pasta’s are okay, I’ve tried their seafood pasta and I didn’t really enjoy it. Also, if you’re a bit of a fatty like me, stay for dessert, their arancia cheesecake is very unique, creamy, sweet with a hint of fragrant bitter orange. It’s not so tangy like a truck has hit you in the face so I’d definitely recommend it!
If you can, if you do book, request for the tables at the back, it’s so cold at the front of the restaurant.

Upon visiting Canterbury Cathedral, this is the restaurant that caught our attention for lunch. As tourists, I didn’t realize it was a chain until I later saw it again near Regent Street in London. Regardless, we were quite pleased with our choice and I’d go back again.
I started with the side spinach salad: Fresh spinach salad tossed with avocado, semi-​dried Italian tomatoes and crisped pancetta with pine nuts and parmesan shavings in a mustard dressing. Tasty. Then I had the Spaghetti Ragu: A rich, slowly braised minced beef, red wine, onion, tomato & herb ragu, served with spaghetti pasta. Fantastic.
My daughter had their cheese pizza, the type that is wood fired and has a nice, thin crust. She devoured it all, crust and all, which is a testament to its taste.
It’s colder back here in Oregon than it ever was during our 10 days in London and Paignton. That spaghetti ragu sounds really good right now…

Meh, so-​so.

Good offers for those with a Canterbury Residents card. Normally buy one get one free, but even Friday and Saturdays get 20% off.
That said, we got what we paid for
The service was brief and sporadic. The food wasn’t bad, but a little bland. The Rossa pizza had a very pleasant ‘heat’ to it, but like I say, lacked in flavour. Good base though!
To be honest, with Pizza Express and Ask only down the road, I am not sure I would repeat a trip to Strada.

This is a consistently good quality Italian chain in the middle of the historical centre of Canterbury, close to the Cathedral Gate.
There is a very good value set menu at lunchtime, which hits the spot.
Always busy, but spacious so does not feel too crowded.