The Med restaurant, which has been a favourite with Yorkshire and Lancashire families for the past 19 years, is owned by former opera singers Robert and Barbara Ferguson and Robert's sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Dariel Perez-Rodriguez.
Spanish-born Dariel is front of house, while the other three work in the open-plan kitchen.
They don't sing while they work but Robert says being an opera singer and a chef have a lot of similarities. Robert, who was born in Athens of British/Greek parents met Barbara, who comes from Barkisland, while they were both students at Manchester Royal College of Music. She went on to become a principal soprano with the English National Opera Company while he was a principal tenor with Sadlers Wells, both in London.
They moved north in the late 70s to join Opera North as founding members and loved Yorkshire so much they decided to stay, renovating part of the former Co-operative store in the centre of Ripponden into a 48-seater restaurant in 1989.
According to Robert, cooking is very theatrical. "It is an art, like singing, because you are entertaining people.
And just like the opera your audiences are different every night. Sometimes you get an enthusiastic crowd while other times they are more subdued."
Noisy or quiet, it seems the two couples, who live above the restaurant, must be doing something right because they are busy most evenings, and some of their regular customers from Cald-erdale, Huddersfield, Oldham and Rochdale have been eating there since they first opened.
One of the restaurant's strengths is that it caters for the whole family and doesn't have to cost the earth.
There is an extensive choice of pasta, pizza and ice-creams so youngsters can enjoy a two-course meal for under £10, and favourites such as lamb moussaka, chicken, lamb and pork kebabs, steaks, salmon and chicken marsala (breast of chicken pan-fried with onions, garlic and mushrooms flambeed in marsala and finished with cream) are always on the menu.
Like most other restaurants the variety comes off the specials board and there are always half a dozen new starters, and fish and meat dishes of the day to try.
I think it would be fair to say the three chefs stick to tried and tested Med recipes, pan-fried, grilled or casseroled that are simple and don't need much messing with.
A few herbs, spices and oil is often all that is needed. One of my favourite dishes is pollo alla diavola, half a chicken marinated with olive oil, oregano and cummin seeds with a greek salad and a few potatoes on the side.
The meat is moist, the salad crisp and the potatoes tossed in salt and olive oil.
I stuck to the potatoes and salad when I went last week but this time had grilled sea bass.
The fish was enormous and, like the chicken, had been cooked to perfection needing only a bit of oil and some fennel seeds to liven it up.
My other half had a very filling spinach and prawn crepe for starters followed by Ecuadorian lamb, a cassserole with tomatoes, peppers and coriander.
We then shared a raspberry pavlova washed down with a Chilean chardonnay wine. There is a decent sweet menu, which at £3.50 a go, is good value.
It was Gary's first visit to Villa Margherita and he had nothing but praise for the food, service, atmosphere and price – the bill came to under £60.
Having been before some years ago, I think Robert has a point about atmosphere.
If you fall lucky and get a good crowd in, the atmosphere is electric and adds to the whole ambiance of the evening. Get a poor crowd and it can be average.
Villa Margherita is a good local restaurant. It wouldn't have lasted this long if it didn't deliver.
It might not light everyone's fire and be a bit staid but it's still got a lot going for it.
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