Manchester’s pasta masters

A Tavola has an offbeat charm. Don’t be put off by the exterior. Sicilian delights await within.

Inside, it is a bit of a squeeze. Intimate, as they say. It will be even more of a squeeze after you’ve stuffed yourself silly on authentic Sicilian food. And the food is the thing.

From the look of the place, you might be expecting a few simple pizzas and not much more but you’d be wrong. Pizzas are most certainly on the menu but there are all sorts of dishes, from Sicilian street food to decadently alcoholic tiramisu. What links them is the quality of the ingredients, with many shipped over from respected Italian suppliers.

Ah, those awkward encounters when you bump into someone at a party and can’t recall their name or where you know them from. This is how the conversation goes. “Cibus – you remember, stall at Levy Market. No? OK, pop-up pizza place above Fred’s Ale House…”

Patiscerria and small-batch Italian hand-roasted coffee that’s the name of the game at the award-winning Lupo Caffe Italiano.

“Roma è arrivata a Sale!” – Rome has arrived in Sale – proclaims the website, which is a slight exaggeration, although is at least true of the Roman-style thin-crust pizzas served at Mano A Bocca. Meaning “hand to mouth”, this pizzeria advises ditching the cutlery, the base not unlike focaccia.

Based in the Northern Quarter, this friendly neighbourhood bistro and bar is the place to avanti if it’s a taste of traditional Sicily you fancy – from authentic street food snacks through big plates of pasta to desserts and holiday memory gelato, eat in or take away.

The group of friends behind The Pasta Factory’s story originally hail from Turin in the northern region of Piedmont, so this is the place for authentic Italian food full of flavour, with dishes created from scratch using only the best fresh ingredients in season.

If it’s a stylish lunch date destination you’re after or some suitably chic eats for dinner à deux, Rosso might be the one, resplendent in clean white suffused with natural light and with plenty of Italian-inspired vegetarian, pescatarian and meat-lover options on the menu.

Salvi’s NQ is the baby of what claims to be Manchester’s first independent Neapolitan restaurant, and if traditional, authentic southern Italian cuisine is on your mind, this is definitely a place to sniff out.

Head to any of the ristorantes in the acclaimed and award-winning family-run San Carlo Group and you know you’re in for exceptional ingredients, artfully prepared, and served in super chic surroundings. Bottega is the place for Champagne and cicchetti-style medium-sized plates that are tailor-made for sharing.

Green Quarter start-up and Good Food Guide entry, The Sparrows (sometimes with an umlaut) serves up a variety of continental pasta and European origin dumplings, “made daily with love”. Spätzle, gnocchi, pierogi, pelmeni and more are on the menu here.

SUD Pasta is a must-visit restaurant in Manchester. Since opening their first pasta kitchen in 2015, they’ve taken the city and suburbs by storm.

With restaurants in Altrincham, Ancoats and now Sale, they’re a firm favourite amongst locals and visitors alike.

Another fab addition to the clutch of good, independent Italian restaurants in the city is Vero Moderno. Situated on the regenerated Chapel Street just inside Salford, it joins Salvi’s, Pasta Factory, and Lupo on our list of ‘proper’ Italians which swerve the standard carbonara and bolognese in favour of something a little more considered.