591 by Anatoni’s, Canton, Cardiff: review

On March 7, 2024 by The Plate Licked Clean

I don’t have anything new to say about Victoria Park’s 591 by Anatoni’s.

Don’t worry, though: no one else has, either.

Local pizza reviews trudge a well-worn path. Almost 3 years ago, reviewing Scaramantica, Tony Frawley’s former place, they were already ‘…a well-worn route to Review Predictability via Cornicione Parkway and Airy Crust Central.’

But here’s the point. In 591’s case, it’s actually a good thing. Something to celebrate, even.

Pizza may come and pizza may go in Cardiff- the Brass Beetle has recently shut, while a new Dusty’s has opened in Llanishen- but it’s Tony Frawley’s return to Cardiff which had pizza lovers excited at the end of 2023: because for years now, wherever Tony has been, has been the place to eat pizza.

As it turns out, I am 591’s first ever customer, but hold off reviewing during the soft launch, as is the custom. They’re still tweaking. Over a few visits I see dishes change from meal to meal- notably the garlic bread (sorry, ‘THAT garlic bread!!!’) which is already winning cult status.

Since then I have been in a handful of times, for predictably satisfying pizza, and for the easy warmth of hospitality Tony and Anna have always offered.

The setting may be different, with its pale walls, stripped wood and flashes of copper trim, but the pizza is exactly what I’ve come to expect. In Tony we crust.

So, no: I’m not going to bore on about individual pizzas at length.

Neither am I going to call them ‘pies’, because someone has to have standards, goddammit. There is a clutch of debuts, many of them meat-free. I try four or five, all predictably [insert pizza cliché here], with the Gino Sorbillo and the Carbonara- the latter cleverly mimicking its namesake with the ooze of its yolk a bonus- and the Santa Anna, spiky with ‘nduja, all impressing.

And yes, I had a bus stop calzone too. (What? It’s a thing). Because I am nothing if not a man of appetites.

And that’s why it’s not a problem, because 591 is very much a case of seeing Anna and Tony fitting back into their inimitable groove. It’s business as usual.

There’s no sense of coasting, though. Take the garlic bread. And you really, really should, you know. After I’ve finished the first one to come out of that oven, Tony says he’s unsure about it: does it work? Should it stay on the menu?

My reply may have stayed on the polite side of, ‘Are you f*cking kidding me?!’ But only just. This is a lovely thing. Over a few visits I watch it evolve, and it gets even better.

If you sit there, polite with cutlery, you’re missing the point. This deserves the tactile, the up close and personal. You need to eat this with your hands, breaking that lightly burnished crust and pulling apart the soft layers underneath until your fingers are butter-slicked and perfumed with that gently pungent waft. You will tear. You will scoop. You will dip, you will smear, you will dredge, until the soft dough is positively drenched with that rich, aromatic slick. Yes, you will be all the happier for it: and yes, like me, you might find yourself ordering another to take home. It casts a long shadow: all subsequent garlic breads will be judged by this standard.

It’s £3.50, too: and if you know of a more satisfying way to spend that in this city at the moment, please feel free to tell me about it.

I can wait.

(After I share my visits on Instagram, a local chef messages that he has called Anatonis but they have almost run out of dough, with just one portion left. He drops the pizzas from his order to secure the garlic bread, and one can only applaud the wisdom and decisiveness involved in the teeth of such a thorny dilemma. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the kind of reader you want.)

So: 591 by Anatoni’s. As I said, nothing new to say. But that’s no bad thing, here: Tony back in the city, doing what he does so well, is something to celebrate. This will be my go-to when I want the good stuff. This is business as usual for Tony Frawley, and that means pizza as good as it has ever been in Cardiff. Just like it was three years ago. And really? That’s all you need to know.

As the man said, Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss.

591 Cowbridge Rd E, Cardiff CF5 1BE

https://www.591byanatonis.com/

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