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The Dinner Detective: Piccolino, Clarence Street, City Centre
Dinner Detective20/ 1/2006
Unlike restaurant reviewers on many papers, the Dinner Detective eats out incognito and always pays for the viewers. That way, the Dinner Detective gets the same treatment as the readers, and can provide a more accurate idea of what to expect.
BY the time I found Piccolino in its hideaway near the Town
Hall, it had been recommended to me by so many people as the best
Italian in Manchester that it had a lot to live up to.
And most of the people who had recommended the place must have been
in there on the night I went along - certainly anyone planning on
popping in to sample the food would be well advised to book first,
as there were no free seats and not many spaces between the tables
to cram any more diners in.
The menu is a comprehensive mix of pizza, pasta, fish and meat
dishes and took a while to trawl through, so we began with a bottle
of Chianti Rufina (£16.95), chosen from the wide-ranging wine list
that included half bottles, always a nice touch.
I started with a roast vine tomato soup with baby mozzarella
(£3.95), which was deliciously thick and had just the right amount
of sweetness in the flavour.
Chasing the cheese around the bowl also made it an entertaining
eat.
My companion opted for a rocket and parmesan salad (£3.95) to
start, which was described as a good version of the classic.
For the main course I chose spiedini di pesce (£14.95), a skewered
kebab of swordfish, halibut, prawns and scallops cooked in garlic
and lemon juice. The seafood was obviously fresh and perfectly
cooked and the courgette fritti (£2.75) went well alongside
it.
My opposite number went for costata di bue con potate (£14.95), a
marinated chargrilled rib of beef with mini potatoes and a
delicious sauce which attracted high praise.
The dessert menu was comprehensive, and we shared a pannacotta
(£4.25) and a honey and pine-nut ice cream (£3.95), both of which
were delicious.
For such a busy restaurant the atmosphere was pleasant and chatty
rather than too noisy and the service was good even though the
staff were busy, so the sheer weight of numbers would not put me
off a return trip.
The only thing that drove my companion and I to distraction was
someone's peculiar habit of jerkily dimming the lights every hour
or so, as though to enforce a change in `atmosphere' - everyone was
having a good time as it was, so there was no need for the
effort.
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