Manchester, Italian Restaurant Guide

With its menu of quality Venetian tapas, this bright city-centre staple (on the ground floor of Kendal’s the department store, but with its own entrance) wins consistently good feedback from reporters. Those who find its glam namesake a bit snotty say “the service especially is miles better here than at its bigger sibling nearby”.

“Extremely authentic pasta from Puglia” (“you smell how fantastic it is going to be”) has been successfully duplicated from the Altrincham original at this larger Ancoats spin-off, where “the wine is great value, served in painted jugs”. “The minus has got to be the huge warehouse-y, new-build space, which is of a type that’s abundant in Manchester, but cold and samey”.

Going strong for a decade and looking good after a revamp – Rio Ferdinand’s glossy Italian restaurant and cocktail bar in a “lovely listed building” with twin domed ceilings is rated well across the board for its “exceptional atmosphere” and “great food”.

2016 Review: A “stylish”, “light and airy” Italian brasserie, close to the Town Hall, which offers “consistently good food and drink”; it still “manages to be individual” despite being part of a chain.

2018 Review: Founded by friends from Turin, this two-year-old pasta shop and restaurant is just a stone’s throw from Ancoats, FKA Manchester’s Little Italy. The main event is homemade and “excellent”, and there are “top Italian beers” and wines to go with it…“what’s not to like”?

2017 Review: “Love the concept but it can be a scrum at the counters!” This global Italian fast-food franchise, (founded in Hamburg, with UK branches in Soho, Southwark and Fitzrovia) offers a food court format with salads, pizza or pasta prepared in front of you. It can be a bit of a bun-fight, but it’s cheap, and “the food quality is generally good”.