Neapolitan Pizza at Tre Ciccio Italian Restaurant in Altrincham, Manchester

Located in Altrincham, a trendy suburb in South Manchester known for its revival of artsy market stalls and prevalent food and drink offerings, Tre Ciccio is a purveyor of traditional Italian neapolitan pizza. As somewhat of a pizza connoisseur myself, I absolutely had to pop along to try it out. It is located right near Altrincham Ice Rink which is perfect for a pre ice hockey meal (as you guys know that’s how I like to spend my weekends) and from the outside looks like a small terrace bar with a pizza oven… However, underground it is so much more!

Walking down the stairs to the main restaurant, I had no idea the majority of Tre Ciccio was on a basement level which goes to a lower ground floor. It’s almost like a secret restaurant, hidden off the street and expands into a beautiful combination of a dark and candelight moody basement room, opening on to a light and airy outside-come-inside ground floor terrace. My pictures don’t do it justice, but honestly, it is beautifully done and the ideal snug date location. In fact, I am pretty sure the roofy even retracts in good weather to allow diners to al fresco. I would love to have a romantic date here… Any takers?

However for my visit yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking my gal pal date, Alice, who as you can see fell absolutely in love with our starters, instead of me! Who can blame her though. We got one portion of Bocconcini Fritti (£6.50) to share and quickly regretted not trying more starters. These were lightly fried and bread crumbed buffalo mozzarella cheese bites with crispy basil and San Marzano tomato sauce. They were heavenly!

Alongside a Sunday afternoon glass of Pinot Blush each, we moved on to our mains. Alice usually opts for fish and vegetables when we go out and is very good at resisting pasta and pizza (can’t relate) and our trip to Tre Ciccio was no different. She chose the pan fried sea bass from the specials menu and a side of wild Italian broccoli with chilli and garlic. As you can see, the portions were generous and the fish was beautifully presented – and tasted just as fresh and good as it looks. It was delicious.

Of course, it comes as no surprise that I opted for pizza. Well, it would be rude not to when Tre Ciccio prides itself on creating traditional Italian neopolitan pizza. I went for the Ortolana (£8.95) which was topped with courgette, aubergine, peppers, tomato suauce, fior de latte cheese, rocket leaves and pesto. Wow, it was amazing! The thin dough had been baked at around 500 degrees in their wood burning pizza oven resulting in a light crust. It was perfect alongside a side of lightly fried Zuccine Fritte (£3.50) that compliment it perfectly.Honestly, you need to try it!

To finish, we each couldn’t resist some true Italian gelato and chose three flavours each as recommended by our waiter for £4.95. I tried chocolate, vanilla and caramel while Alice went for chocolate, pistachio and vanilla. We both agreed that chocolate was the real winner here with real chocolate chips in – my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Over all we had a fabulous meal at Tre Ciccio. The atmosphere is brilliant, the service was relaxed and happy to let us stay and chat for as long as we wanted without bothering us and of course, the food was delicious. As far as I’m concerned, this is a hidden gem and I can’t wait to bring a date here one day…