Delicatezze Manchester Review

I had read very good things about this restaurant and the pictures on the website looked very good so I made a booking. I had originally booked Delicatezze a couple of weeks ago for my girlfriends birthday, we had planned to go for an evening meal, unfortunately we had to cancel due to illness. Still wanting to try Delicatezze I re-booked for Saturday lunchtime, although there wasn’t really a need to book as there was only one other couple in when we arrived at 12:30pm.

First impressions were that the interior didn’t look nearly as nice as the photos on the website suggest and there was almost a bar/pub type atmosphere, the mix of gay anthems and 70s and 80s music played at pretty high levels didn’t help the ambiance any. We ordered a couple of drinks, one prosecco and one coke and were told we could sit wherever we liked, so we sat up on the mezzanine by the the rear entrance to the outside patio area, we would have sat outside had the weather been a little warmer.

Prosecco

The menu’s were two photocopied pieces of paper on a clipboard, one for the lunchtime specials, the other for the a la carte menu, again this little detail made the place seem more like a bar serving pub grub than a restaurant. Perhaps that is the style they are targeting at Delicatezze, but their website doesn’t suggest that. Whatever the case, it left me with low expectations of the food.

Delicatezze Menu

However as we all know, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover so we put the readers on and studied the menu. Had we gone in the evening as originally planned I had already decided that I was going to have the Grilled Lemon Sardines for a starter and the Cannon of Lamb for the main course but as it was only 1pm we opted for the Espresso Lunch offer, one course for £7, two courses for £10.

For starters I chose the pan fried chilli and garlic squid which were very tasty indeed, not very spicy, with just a couple of slices of fresh red chilli mixed in with the salad but tasty non the less. They didn’t scrimp either with approximately 7 or 8 pieces of squid on my plate.

Pan Fried Chilli and Garlic Squid

My girlfriend opted for the garlic dough balls with dips which again were very nice, 4 or 5 dough balls with two separate dips, one garlic, one herb.

Garlic and Herb Dough Balls

For main courses we had the deconstructed carbonara, a lovely dish of fetuccini, chicken breast, and pancetta with a perfectly poached egg on top covered in a deliciously creamy sauce. My only complaint would be that there wasn’t much pancetta with just one thin slice.

Deconstructed Carbonara

The other main course was a good old margarita pizza.

Margarita Pizza

A lovely crispy base covered in delicious tomato and basil sauce and buffalo mozarella. Not a great deal can be said about a margarita pizza but this was a very nice pizza indeed. The tomato sauce made it for me.

We didn’t opt for a dessert so cannot comment on the quality but there was a good selection on the menu. We didn’t even have a coffee even though an espresso was included in the meal deal, this was partly due to the fact that we weren’t offered one. After fifteen minutes of rest after the meal we hadn’t been approached for coffee or desserts so we decided to just ask for the bill.

I would certainly  recommend Delicatezze for the food but I think the whole dining experience could be much better with a few changes. Firstly by changing the music to something more appropriate for an Italian restaurant / deli, this would increase the atmosphere ten-fold. Also, perhaps Delicatezze could change the menus to proper bound or covered menus as the current paper menu doesn’t do the food justice.

At £10 for two courses and an espresso, you cant really go wrong, the total bill for a two course lunch for two people, with one glass of prosecco, one coke and one small sparkling water came to £28. Very reasonable.