Piccolino Caffe Grande Manchester review - stunning Italian food with a side of Spritz & SPF

There's something about a long Italian lunch that is very hard to beat, especially when it involves Aperol Spritz, huge bowls of pasta and one of Manchester's most beautiful restaurants.

We recently headed to Piccolino Caffe Grande Manchester on Clarence Street, which has been part of the city's food scene for more than 20 years and has recently undergone a refurbishment alongside the introduction of a new menu.

And it looks stunning.

The interiors are gorgeous, with that glamorous, polished feel Piccolino does so well. It's the sort of restaurant that feels special as soon as you walk through the door, whether you're heading in for a long lunch with friends, a date night or getting dressed up for dinner and cocktails.

We started, naturally, with Aperol Spritzes. And with that came a little surprise...

This summer, Piccolino has also teamed up with La Roche-Posay for its SPF & Spritz partnership. Order a spritz and you'll receive a complimentary sample of La Roche-Posay's Anthelios UVMune 400 Invisible Fluid SPF50+ while stocks last.

Aperol and free SPF is a summer combination we can definitely get behind.

Then it was time for the food, and we ordered enough to cover pretty much the entire table.

First up was the Mozzarella & Smoked Provola Cheese garlic bread. Hot, cheesy and incredibly moreish, this was exactly what we wanted alongside our spritzes and disappeared almost immediately.

We also ordered the Tartare di Tonno, made with diced yellowfin tuna, lime, shallots, red chilli, avocado and sweet potato crisps. Fresh, light and full of flavour, it was a lovely contrast to some of the richer dishes on the table.

Then came the Arancini - crispy truffle and mushroom risotto balls filled with mozzarella and served with truffle mayonnaise. Crispy on the outside, creamy and cheesy in the middle and packed with truffle, these were another winner.

For mains, we obviously couldn't visit an Italian restaurant without getting a pizza, so we went classic with the Margherita. Tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil on a traditional Neapolitan-style base - sometimes simple really is best.

But the pastas were where things got real good.

The Rigatoni alla Vodka was an immediate favourite. Fresh rigatoni coated in a spicy vodka tomato sauce and finished with Parmesan, it was creamy, rich and the kind of pasta you just keep going back to for another forkful.

Then came one of our absolute faves from the Piccolino menu, the Pollo al Tartufo, with roast chicken breast, truffle gnocchi and mushroom and truffle cream. The gnocchi was soft and pillowy, the sauce was beautifully rich and if you're a truffle person, this absolutely needs to be on your order.

Finally, we shared the Pappardelle al Ragu, with thick ribbons of pasta, 24-hour slow-cooked beef shin ragu, Pecorino and crispy sage. Rich, comforting and packed with slow-cooked flavour, it was the perfect final dish for the table.

Safe to say, we didn't leave hungry!

Piccolino Manchester is one of those restaurants that gets the whole experience right. The interiors are beautiful, there's a real buzz to the restaurant and the menu has enough classics alongside newer dishes that you'll inevitably spend far too long deciding what to order.

The spritz menu is also made for summer (and summer ain't over yet) with Aperol and Campari alongside limoncello, mango, passion fruit and blood orange options.

And while the La Roche-Posay SPF & Spritz collaboration is a fun little addition for summer, we'd be heading back regardless.

For Aperol, cheesy garlic bread and a table absolutely covered in pasta, Piccolino Manchester is always a good idea.