Located in Manchester's city centre on Clarence Street, just off Princess Street and close to St…read moreAnne's Square, Croma is an "independent gourmet pizzeria", with a few branches around Greater Manchester, with this being their only city centre location. Having been impressed by their Prestwich branch, where I most recently awarded it a three-star rating (previously a four!), I decided to try this out after stumbling across Croma on UberEATS. Originally the app didn't allow me to specify gluten free - this is something which needs addressing however after a quick call with the store, the manager seemed friendly to assist and make sure my order was gluten-free and I could still get my food. The restaurant its self is an impressive old building, it is up a couple of steps to get in - which could be a problem for some. I ordered a Gluten Free Americana pizza, the pizza its-self was quite good quality, the passata was a little runny at times but overall the pizza was a decent pizza, especially for gluten-free, much beating most other takeaways I could have had including Domino. The overall prize was good too for delivery, my pizza came delivered the short half a mile journey to the Hilton Manchester Deansgate for £11, the delivery free was set by UberEATS and cost around £2.50 in that total. The pricing for eating in, however, is pretty much average, with it being a small restaurant they lack the offers which bigger chains do, meaning it could work out slightly more expensive than rivals, including (but not limited to) Bella, Pizza Express and Zizzi. The menu selection is pretty good too, if you like pizzas but maybe not so much for everything else. is this somewhere I'd order from or visit again? Yes, and it does definitely warrant a solid three-star rating, issues with pricing when dining inside, selection other than pizza including starters and sides, and the access issues mean I sadly don't feel I can go any higher than a score which would match Croma's other branch I've visited in Pretswich, of three-stars.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the food here. I have become a regular customer now. Wish I had found it…read moresooner as I now live in Birmingham so I'll be missing it when I go back to uni. But I love it really authentic and quirky.

The latest addition to the Croma mini empire…read more This place is on the main strip in Didsbury village and I'm sure it will do very well. It's a large, light and bright space with a vaguely nautical feel to it (probably due to the big model ship my seat faced). It's painted all white inside with big windows looking onto Wilmslow Road and it's been well designed for comfort and relaxation. I don't know how my photo of the purple allium flower on the table came out so dark actually as my overall impression of the place is very bright and spacious. Croma is mainly pizza and pasta, no complaints here! I knew what I wanted straight away (for once) and got the Agelfino pizza. This was smoked haddock and cheese on a thin base. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I kept on saying it the whole time I was eating it too, to my friend's delight! My friend was happy though, as all the pizza is available on gluten free dough, for an extra £1.50. My pizza was £8. The restaurant could do with sharper knives though as our biceps were getting a workout cutting the pizza piece by piece! The only bit I didn't appreciate was having to ask the waitress for my change back after waiting for a few minutes. I'll decide on the tip love!! However I will be back as I loved my pizza Agelfino.

After trying a slice of croma's pizza at the pizza off, it was well and truly on my to do list…read more Popped in for lunch with my mum. She opted for an aubergine based dish which tasted epic. Aubergine, cheese and tomato. I went for a pizza which had spicy sausage, onion and mushroom. Really enjoyable but I was a bit gutted I didnt have my mums dish. For desert we shared a banoffee mess, my fave!! The restaurant itself was really light and airy, the staff were attentive and friendly. I would certainly return.

Delicious Italian food! I have heard of Piccolino before,…read morebut 25% off offer is the one that finally drawn me in. Very elegant design, attentive staff and amazing finger-licking food! The staff is very happy to advise on dishes, the service is quick and everything we ordered was just superb. I would definitely like to come back to try out more options!

A very nice restaurant with white tablecloths and a very orderly chic layout. Clean and classy…read more The food was modern Italian. The gluten free pizzas are alright, it's difficult to make it taste good, but the toppings were nice. The calzone was perhaps doughy, but the filling was a pleasantly spicy njuda, and there was an adequate amount. The staff were kind and jovial, and very happy to do what they could to make our stay more comfortable. There was an old glass with some water still in it. Perhaps water accidentally added, perhaps a glass leftover from a previous diner, but they were quick to replace it. Overall I would not say it is worth the price, but it is perfectly fine.

I normally avoid deep dish/super bready pizza as I'm not a fan of it in general but given my…read morecurrent love of beige food I thought this place might work for me. The menu is surprisingly extensive with lots of starter and side options and a 'doughrito' alternative to the pizza. If you're sharing a pizza, a 10 inch would give you plenty of room for various sides - I wouldn't recommend the deep fried lasagna which didn't taste great (and I'd just had good fried lasagna at the Hare & Hounds in Mill Brow the week before) but we all liked the mozzarella wedges. I really would like to try the deep fried dauphinois bites and buffalo and chive ranch tater tots with bacon bits. I got the buffalo chicken pizza pie and really enjoyed the tangy spicness which probably lifted the carb/grease factor. All the others looked good too and were devoured. You can take away any leftovers. The crust itself was great - it seemed more like an English piecrust or quiche pastry than the heavy bread like dough I was expecting. The beer selction is awful. Does Brewski not realise there are some good American breweries? How can you sell Budweiser with a straight face? In better news, there were some mocktails which although £5 were worth it for the varierty - I had the cloudy lemonade which was nice. Apparently the vim up north cocktail (gin, lemon vimto) was - unsurprisingly - a little much, but I do enjoy the involvement of vimto on a Manchester menu. Service fairly good, bear in mind you've got quite a wait for your pie to be cooked (20 - 25 mins for 7inch and 40 mins for 10 inch). I wonder if Andy will review and mention that he pulled the emergency cord in the toilet by mistake - HA!

Booked a table for 2 people for 4pm on a Saturday. It's a…read morevery cute little place. Festive bar and nice seating. Very busy, no other tables were available. We had some cocktails which were lovely. A little pricey, but very tasty! Food is made to order, could take anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on what you get. We got a deep fried lasagna, Buffalo messy tots, and a deep dish garlic bread. Took about 25 minutes for all the food to come out. The deep fried lasagna wasn't the best. It was really dry and was sweet for some reason. Everything else was really good though. Loved the garlic bread pizza! This place is a bit pricey. 2 drinks, 2 starters, and 1 main cost almost £60. They automatically add on an "optional tip" too. Bill was more than I through it would be, but still a good place to eat at!

Ask Italian is situated in the middle of a busy retail park in Horwich and only a few minutes walk…read morefrom my office. Any time we have a team lunch out - it's always here and it's always great. Pizza is, obviously, always my first choice here. Their pizza bases are thin and crispy and they love to experiment with a huge choice of toppings too. The pizza pictured, was lovely! I have tried some pasta dishes here too - the mushroom tortellini being one of my favourites. If you ever find yourself in Middlebrook retail park and get hungry - I would recommend Ask.

I have wanted to try out Ask, in Bolton for a while now, located at the Middlebrook Retail Park in…read moreHorwich, it is in quite a nice location, next to Bella Itallia, just up a lif in the retail park, as this is located in a large retail park there is alot of competition for this cusine type such as Bella Itallia or others, including Nando's for Chicken and Chiquito for mexican food. The staff here did seem quite nice, and inside it was the quite a nice place as well with some italian decor going back to the roots of this restauraunt, this was nice. I ordered a Gluten Free Margharita Buffala pizza, which simply is a Margharia with Buffalo Mozzerella, it was quite nice, albeit there was probably too much buffalo mozzerella, and big lumps of it, the base was quite nice too but sadly it was a little soggy. I also ordered some potatoes to go with my meal, they were quite nice with the oil they put them in and a nice gluten free side, if you are a coeliac like myself. The service did seem quite quick, but I felt rushed as they come over when I hadn't decided what to order yet, and then came nowhere near me so I had to do a huge wave across the restauraunt, like a kid would do to say goodbye. The pricing seemed reasonable, especially with my Tastecard which gave me 2-4-1, albeit this was only one lot despite there being 4 diners overall, which was a shame. Overall, this is quite a nice place, but is sadly too much on the average side to warrant anything over 3 stars.

Salvi's Mozzarella Bar is an independent, family run Italian in Manchester. It is located in the…read moreCorn Exchange and can be accessed through the entrance with steps outside, or by being escorted through the basement by security if you require a lift, which is the case for the majority of the restaurants in the Corn Exchange which have a basement other than Pizza Express. Manchester as a city, one of the main and major cities of the UK is dominated by chain Italian restaurants who have multiple branches to each of their names, so Salvi's is a refreshing change and although the pricing is slightly higher as you'd expect from an independent (they have two branches in the city) with a lack of offers you'd normally receive from the major chains, one could say it is justified due to higher quality food and service than the average Bella, Carluccio's and Prezzo etc. They do have some gluten-free options such as the risotto which I opted for, priced at £14.95 this is perhaps slightly above average but based on the quality and portion size it is justified, however, I do feel a smaller portion perhaps at a lower price would have been a good idea, or perhaps with a side dish such as some form of potatoes, as these were proper Italian sized portions which alongside the traditional Italian decor, reminded me of being back in Rome. (Large A5 menus too!) I ordered the Risotto Ai Funghi, it was seasoned perfectly with a mixture of the parts of the mushroom which made it taste fresh, with good, juicy pieces of the vegetable throughout the dish, added with the saffron it was quite enjoyable. The rice could have been slightly softer similar to other risottos I've had such as at the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel, in Manchester but all in all the taste, freshness and seasoning was all very good. The staff throughout did seem quite nice, there was slight confusion at first in taking my food order but this was sorted quickly, I also liked that despite being a naturally gluten-free dish they wrote gluten-free on my receipt and when sending my order to the kitchen which of course let them know so they'd cook it separately etc. It would have been cool to see a gluten-free menu or a member of staff talk to me about more gluten-free options (being able to order pizza and/or pasta would have been fantastic), but they still did a good job. I also liked how attentive the staff were in ensuring I was never out of the water, the water was presented in a premium jug which I also liked, it felt as posh as tap water could get. The spirits and booze are also priced well here if you fancy a drink at around £6 for a double mixer. Moving back on to the overall feel - a slightly dark and cool vibe, similar to what one would expect at a proper Italian restauraunt reminding me of being back in Rome also made this a much nicer place to be in than the typical chain Italians which dominate the city. Other than the food quality, I also found the takeout containers to be good quality, with the portion being so big I had to take home just under half of my risotto, it took a few minutes to come back from the kitchen but it was once again presented beautifully in a Tupperware dish and brown paper bag, this is compared to messy, dodgy cardboard boxes and bowls I'm usually given so this was a nice gesture again. I would have liked to see risotto on the menu with meat hower, with the only two I noticed being a saffron and mushroom or seafood risotto, but that isn't meant to take away from the good quality risotto I did have and enjoy on my visit. Also adding more gluten-free options such as pizzas and pasta and talking gluten-free guests through them would also be nice. The main issue I had during my meal was an issue with the grated parmesan which I normally have with my Italian food eating out, I was told it contained gluten which confused me as it is cheese which is naturally gluten-free so I'm not sure if they add something to it to give it flavour, but if they do it certainly doesn't need it and the fact they're adding gluten to cheese really makes no sense, but then again this could have been a rare mistake from the staff member. One of the few good quality Italian in Manchester city centre, not without its flaws such as those previously mentioned and the restauraunt feeling a tight squeeze (despite being large, they seemed to sit all tables next to each other - I understand why they'd do this to improve service and cleanliness but even a gap of one table between customers would have been so much more relaxing and comforting), but overall this is a great, yet not perfect place but the quality of food and service definitely deserves a four-star rating, this once again goes to show how good this place is like the lowest it has ever been rated on Yelp is numerous four-star ratings.

I very much enjoyed the sight of distressed overheated Italians joyously realising that this place…read moreis about as close to being in the piazza back home as they are going to get in Manchester. Aperol Spritz is the best in town and the food looked and smelled amazing, especially the garlic prawns. Am excited to come back to eat. Only thing is they need to get some outdoor furniture - people sitting on the high chairs from the bar in side that were lowered to a uncomfortable level weren't as relaxed as they should have been in what otherwise is a delightful slice of la dolce vita overlooking one of the smartest, if not exactly picturesque, areas of the city centre.

The food was delicious, customer service was great, the ambiance was great as well, the pizza was…read morecheesy, gooey and super tasty, truly one of the best Italian restaurants in didsbury, but there is still some room for improvement when it comes to the toilets.

Aah, Croma and I go back a LONG way. In fact, I was there at the launch party, exceptionally…read morehungover and incapable of eating anything, when much to my dismay, all the food and wine was on the house. Gutted!!! The restaurant is divided into 2 areas: the front decor is fresh white walls, large fireplace and beams, rather like a kitchen in a barn conversion and the rear of the building is a long, glass conservatory, perfect for parties but in the Summer it would require you to wear sunglasses and factor 50. Croma doesn't do surprises; the menu never changes but the food is nice and I think its consist nature is a positive attribute.How irritating is it to enjoy a meal somewhere and when you return a few weeks later, salivating in anticipation of a repeat performance of your favourite dish, it is nowhere to be found on the menu and you are stuck with the steak. The service is fast and friendly with young staff but the floors are uneven and the harsh wooden chairs and tables are a bit rickety on the bumpy tiles. This place is seriously anti smoking and even at the outside seating you get told off like a naughty school girl for lighting up!! These are only small complaints though, all is forgiven by Croma's doughballs . They accompany the amazing duck or tandoori chicken salads and are my naughty little treat. Croma also does a tasty lasagna in a little dish and the sticky toffee pudding is calorific and terrific. Croma is my lunch- with- the- girls place and evening- with- the -hubby place.Daytime gets busy with mums and babies and Croma is a very child friendly venue. It is great value- a meal for two with drinks is approximately £20 and you leave satisfied and chilled out. You can go there for its occasional wine evenings or for Chorlton Arts festival. Me? Well I go for the doughballs.

Food is amazing had spaghetti bolognese tiramisu and peroni…read moreService was quite fast and they are really nice Ambiance is very homey and great crowd

Customer service was fantastic. We didn't have to wait long at all and the staff were very…read morefriendly. The pizza was the best I've had, and the salad was delicious too.