Pane Vino Manchester Review

Looking for a light lunch in Manchester on a sunny Saturday afternoon led us to Pan Vino at the Great Northern railway building at the junction of Deansgate and Peter Street. Pane Vino is quite a small venue with limited seating inside and out. With the sun shining as bright as it did on the day we visited thr demand for outside seating was high, so the staff brought most of the inside tables out on to the patio to accommodate everybody’s request.

For such a small place, Pane Vino has a very comprehensive menu, serving everything from an omelette to a traditional full English for breakfast, sandwiches, wraps and bagels for lunch and a full lunch and dinner menu serving Italian style tapas, pizzas and a range of traditional Italian dishes. Pane Vino also has some very good special offers on the menu such as 6 Tapas and a Bowl of pasta or a pizza for £16.50 or the deal we had, which at the time was 4 tapas and 2 bowls of pasta or 2 pizzas for £22.50, I think this has now been replaced on the menu to 2 bowls of pasta or 2 pizzas and 2 desserts for £25.50.

All four tapas were brought to our table at the same time on a wooden platter board, we had ordered pan fried garlic mushrooms, potato crochet, caesar salad (without chicken but chicken is available) and deep fried calamari. Everything was delicious! The mushrooms were plentiful and seasoned just right, the calmari was crisp and golden and the potato wedges, although not what we had expected (we were expecting croquette style potatoes) were soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.  The salad was fresh and crisp and the caesar dressing was nice and creamy.

As a side note, the king prawns looked absolutely stunning when we saw some on another table but they had none left when we enquired. I would definitely order these next time.

Pane Vino Tapas

For main course we had ordered an Amsterdam pizza – cheese, tomato, mushroom, goats cheese and baby spinach and a Madrid pizza – cheese, tomato, parma ham and rocket. These pizzas are priced at £7.50 each if ordered on their own and the tapas are £3.25 each, so 4 tapas and 2 pizzas for £22.50 is a real bargain, we had to check and double check that the price was correct. It was!

We had originally ordered the 4 tapas and the 2 pizzas but we were so full after eating the tapas that we had to ask for just one pizza to share instead. The waitress had no problem with this at all and even charged us for the meal deal that worked out cheaper than the individual items.

Of the two pizzas ordered, we decided to share the Madrid pizza as I don’t like goats cheese too much. I really enjoyed the it, but my girlfriend was not as impressed as me; it had too much tomato sauce and not enough cheese for her liking and she wasn’t over enthusiastic about the parma ham, but this is more of a personal preference issue than an actual problem with the pizza. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the base was thin and crispy, it was a perfect size for sharing and for me, it had just the right amount of cheese and tomato.

Pane Vino Pizza

Pizza preference aside, we both really enjoyed Pane Vino and would definitely visit again. Seating outside is preferable but we don’t get much opportunity with the weather being what it is here in Manchester. Pane Vino is fully licensed to serve alcohol and is suitable for any occasion.

Very highly recommended.