Update: Cantina has now moved in to town and can be found at 20 High Street.
Those who love good food and those who make the trip down to Ventnor often enough will know that it is fast becoming a mecca for foodies on the Isle of Wight.
The town has a good mix of high end, middle range and very reasonably priced restaurants and cafes and that list has just increased by one.
Cantina on Ventnor seafront is a new and very welcome venture. Situated at the Western end of the esplanade in the former Marino (Chiaro) Restaurant, Cantina offers a wonderful Italian influenced menu.The man behind the venture, Klaus Kuhnke is a successful chef, who is also responsible for Artisan Foods and The German Deli at Borough Market. He has started the venture with business partner, Andre Hennig, who is manager of the Cantina.
Artisan breads
Klaus tells us Cantina will be baking their own artisan breads daily and the menus will feature local produce where available. 
For example, if you’re eating tomatoes you can be sure they’ve come from the Island’s ‘Tomato Stall‘.
His experience in the business and range of contacts, particularly at Borough Market, means he’ll have access to several specialist food suppliers.
Day menu
The day menu (between 12-3pm) features a range of freshly produced, affordable dishes.
Why not try white asparagus with roast tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and walnut pesto? Or perhaps fresh pasta with porcini, leeks and cream.
A range of delicious sounding sandwiches and pizzas also feature, as well as main dishes such as seafood stew with chorizo.
Evening menu
The evening menu (6pm-10pm) is slightly smaller but with, as you’d expect, a bigger range of main dishes such as Italian sausages with caramelised onions and rosemary potatoes or pizza with beef tomatoes, smoked ham and Tallegio (an Italian cheese).
Being Italian influenced, of course there are fresh pasta dishes too.
Not forgetting … Chocolate Nemesis
The evening menu also features Chocolate Nemesis served with strawberries, raspberries and cream, and which having sampled ourselves last week, we’d highly recommend.
A range of wines supplied by The Island Wine Co Ltd are accompanied by cocktails such as 
Aperol Spritz, Bicicletta, Negroni Spumante and Venice via Dublin mule.
Diners are welcomed with a free glass of Prosecco and a friendly smile.
You can pay by cash or debit/credit cards.
Cantina is open daily from 12pm-3pm and 6pm-10pm seven days a week
Visit Cantina’s website for more detail.
Please support Cantina by giving them your business. By them and other companies sponsoring features and taking advertising, they enable you to continue to read VentnorBlog for free – Ed
