THE Villa Dino at 103 Chepstow Road, Newport, was packed to the rafters last Saturday night as a friend and I arrived, and so we sat in the restaurant's pleasant new bar for a drink before being shown to our table.

The atmosphere in the award-winning Italian was friendly and informal, with a wide age range of customers from groups of families with young children to couples of all ages.

Sipping our drinks while poring over our menus, my friend decided to choose the calamari provenciale - squid in a wine, tomato and garlic sauce - for starter, and one of the specials for main course, the vitello praviana - veal with prawns in an onion, tomato, cream and wine sauce.

My friend said the sauce from her starter was among the finest she had tasted and thought that the ingredients were fresh and that the veal was exquisite.

I chose the delicious gamberi reali all'aglio - king prawns in garlic butter - as a starter, and the salmone primavera for main course, which was good, although I tried my friend's veal and thought it was much better.

Starters at Villa Dino cost anything from £3.25 to £6.50 and include such exotic delicacies as large snails to frogs' legs in garlic butter. Main courses cost between £7.65 for a pasta dish (which are also available as a starter) to £13.75.

There is a good selection of both starters and main courses on offer, which includes a specials board and a vegetarian menu.

Although the wine list is not extensive, we chose a pleasant white wine - a 1999 Pinot Grigio - which cost £12.95.

There is, however, a wide range of beers, lagers and spirits. For dessert, which cost £3.50, my friend chose a tiramisu, which she thoroughly enjoyed, and I had crme caramel, which was excellent.

Including two coffees the bill came to £62.30, and the service was good, friendly and attentive.

We both agreed without hesitation that we would visit the Villa Dino again in the near future. Iwan Davies