Vesuvio

Owned and managed by two friends from Naples – both excellent chefs – Vesuvio brings the flavours, techniques and passion of Southern Italian cooking to Worsley in a big way.

Nico Vanacore and Giuseppe Lombardo are quite a duo. Between them they’ve built a reputation for offering some of the most varied and true-to-its-roots Neapolitan food to be found in Greater Manchester. Fans of Cicchetti Manchester might recognise Giuseppe’s cooking – he was head chef there before he left to open this place.

There’s so much Neapolitan pizza around nowadays, it’s easy to forget about the richness of the Campania region’s wider cuisine. At Vesuvio they bring it fully into focus with fresh fish dishes – think octopus, swordfish, scallops, mussels and more – and quality cuts of meat such as T-bone veal steaks and slow-cooked porchetta, its juices soaking into a bed of roughly chopped vegetables. They’ve got that Italian knack for taking a few humble ingredients and turning them into something you’d happily travel miles to eat.

It extends right across the menu; pasta dishes are creative, authentic and unusual, while desserts are homemade and capture the sweetness of life in the southern Mediterranean. It wouldn’t be a true Campania-leaning restaurant without an obsession with wine. The list is handpicked to complement the seafood and robust flavours.

There’s pizza too, of course, because some days, only food you can rip apart, roll up and devour will do. It means Vesuvio straddles the line between casual neighbourhood spot and special occasion restaurant – something reflected in the cosy yet chic decor.

Vesuvio is yet another reason perhaps why everyone is moving to Worsley nowadays. Though it’s worth noting that it’s easy to get to for non-locals too – it’s just five minutes from the Worsley junction on the M60 or a £10 Uber ride from the city centre.