We’ve just added one of Manchester’s best-known, and best-loved, restaurant groups to Confidential Guides – and we couldn’t be happier to spotlight it to our readers.
Individual Restaurants, the group behind Piccolino, Riva Blu, Restaurant Bar & Grill, Opera Grill and Piccolo By Piccolino is a Manchester-born business with well-regarded restaurants all over England.
Most people know its flagship location Piccolino Caffe Grande with its oyster bar, stunning interior, and sunspot terrace overlooking Albert Square.
But have you explored the full range of restaurants in their family? If you like stylish food, beautiful cocktails, and (weather-proof) alfresco dining, you probably should.
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Book Now Manchester City Centre
Piccolino Caffe Grande Manchester
With its terrace overlooking Albert Square and Manchester Town Hall, and a beautiful interior featuring a 40-seater private dining room, an open kitchen, and an oyster bar, Piccolino Caffé Grande Manchester is a real destination restaurant. (And, notably, it’s one that doesn’t price people out of the experience.)
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Manchester City Centre
Riva Blu Manchester | Corn Exchange
From the same team behind Piccolino, Riva Blu Manchester aims to bring a little bit of La Dolce Vita to The Corn Exchange. With a sleek cocktail bar, open kitchen, and alfresco terrace, it’s styled on the high-society glamour of the 1960s, and “modern Italian” cuisine is the name of the game.
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Book Now Didsbury
Piccolino Didsbury
With its large alfresco terrace, complete with a fully retractable roof, Piccolino Didsbury is perfectly located for an Aperol Spritz in the sun or a full three-course meal inspired by the diverse cuisine from all of Italy’s regions.
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Hale
Piccolino Hale
There’s no shortage of reliably good restaurants in the Hale-Altrincham-Bowden triangle, and Piccolino Hale is up there with the best of them.
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Knutsford
Piccolino Knutsford
Piccolino Knutsford fits in perfectly with the Italianate villas and chic shops of this quirky Cheshire town. Situated on the narrow, buzzy High Street, it offers alfresco rooftop dining, a semi-private area for groups, and a second-floor bar.
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Cavern Quarter
Piccolino Liverpool
Piccolino Liverpool is located in a particularly grand building on Cook Street with a small but perfectly-formed terrace at the front. The impressive exterior seems appropriate because Piccolino always works well for fancy events, birthday parties and glamorous dates.
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Book Now Liverpool City Centre
The Restaurant Bar & Grill Liverpool
With its six foot chandelier and gold leaf ceiling Restaurant Bar & Grill Liverpool is one of the city’s most spectacular dining settings. A £500k refurbishment in 2021 brought to life the original features of this Grade II Listed heritage building. Now it’s one of the most photogenic backdrops in Liverpool, and the food’s not half bad too.
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Cavern Quarter
Riva Blu Liverpool
With its large alfresco terrace, island bar, and handsome architecture, Riva Blu Liverpool has a chic, continental feel inside and out.
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Chester
Opera Grill
Housed in a Grade II Listed building with a neo-classical facade, Chester’s Opera Grill is a grand, 400-seater restaurant from Individual Restaurants (the team behind Piccolino and the Restaurant Bar and Grill).
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Leeds
Riva Blu Leeds
Riva Blu Leeds, an Italian restaurant on Park Row, used be part of the Gino d’ACampo chain before the north’s own Individual Restaurants group stepped in and gave it one almighty glow-up.
The food, service and setting now gets consistently good ratings online – it’s a popular place and we can see why.