Does Tre Ciccio pass the Italian test?

Like all Italians, I’m always a bit sceptical when I set foot in an “authentic Italian restaurant” outside of Italy.

More often than not, I leave thinking the food is not good enough, the drinks are not what I was expecting, desserts are not as good as they are back home… and don’t even get me started on coffee!

So when I went to Tre Ciccio just before wandering around the stalls of the Chocolate festival, I wasn’t expecting anything special… Good food? Maybe. Good Italian food? No.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

My friend and I (both Italian) decided to go for the whole shabang, and ordered some antipasti, pizza and coffee (we skipped dessert, seeing as we were headed to the Chocolate Festival).

The first thing that struck me was how welcoming the staff were. More than one of them came to ask us where we were from and sat and had a chat, after hearing us speak Italian (but they take an interest in all their customers, speaking Italian is not a must!).

We were led to a table on the terrace. The sun was shining, and it felt like we were eating outside. It was lovely.

We started with a portion of Bocconcini to share, followed by Tre Ciccio’s famous Rotolini. Both were incredibly light but full of flavour.

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Needless to say they didn’t last long…

We then ordered our pizzas.

I went for a simple Margherita and my friend ordered a Calzone. We both agreed on the fact that the dough, sauce and mozzarella were very good, and put together created amazingly good pizzas.

But I went a step further: that was the best pizza I’d had since moving to Manchester two years ago.

Food definitely passed the test, now came a tough one: coffee.

Turns out the espresso we got at the end of the meal was just the cherry on top. Not only was it good coffee, but so well presented, it made us feel right at home.

If we want to find a fault in Tre Ciccio, it’s that some of the translations on the menu don’t sound at all Italian, like “Seasonal Specials” translated to “Di stagione speciali” instead of “Speciali di stagione”. But however they translate the menu, based on the food I had (and the place) Tre Ciccio gets a 10/10 from me.

I will definitely be going back, and I can’t wait to try their desserts that I’ve missed out on the first time.