Piccolino Chester — Restaurant in England

The staff at Piccolinos were extremely attentive and good, recommending certain dishes and wine etc and topping up drinks and serving the table very well. The food however was not as great as the staff. We ordered the Olive Piccanti which was fantastic and the Pane Della Casa which was not great, but okay, for our starters. For our mains my partner had Casarecce con verdure, which was very tasty, I ordered a Capricciosa pizza, which unfortunately was dismal. The base was very wet and all the toppings fell off the pizza, resulting in me having to use a Knife and Fork to eat it. The ham tasted cheap too, however this could have been because the base was so wet, maybe this had an affect. For sides we ordered Fries with pecorino & truffle, these were fantastic, and the Rucola e Parmigiano, which was just rocket with cheese on the top, which was nice at first but became rather bland rather quickly. For deserts we had a Tiramisu which was just average, what you'd expect really for a Tiramisu and a Panna Cotta, which my partner really enjoyed. Overall the food was not great, but okay. However the issue I have is the price, as paying £120 inc service charge for food which barely filled me and was mediocre didn't seem good.

There were some other issues as well, however these were a bit out of the restaurants hands - Firstly our starters went to the table behind us, they didn't say that they weren't theirs and proceeded to eat our starters, the staff were very apologetic, but this meant we had another 15/20 minute wait for our starters to arrive.

Also there were a rather large family, including young children sat right by us that were very badly behaved and very noisy, this kind of ruined the environment and atmosphere which otherwise - was fantastic. In terms of the decor/ambiance, other than the young children, It was very good.

The restaurant also gave us 2 free shots, I assume, because it was my partners birthday.

Overall, I would probably recommend...

I’ve been to a few Piccolino restaurants before and really like the chain - has the feel of an independent rather than a small chain, despite being a small chain.

This one in Chester is bright and welcoming, situated underneath The Leonardo hotel, opposite a big car park and near to the city walls. A decent location and only a few minutes’ walk into the City Centre - very convenient for the Roman Amphitheatre if you wanted to walk over after dinner and see the tethering stone.

Booked online, but my booking was lost. No woe though, for they were still able to seat us straight away despite being busy. The table selection is a bit odd - some oversized benches for five dominate, with other tables feeling a little squished and overlooked in between. Got a nice big table on a side bench though, so that was good. Big open kitchen to the side, with more seating arrayed for singletons. A general air of bustle about the place. Wild. Invigorating.

Service was very good - drinks on arrival. The beer was Sardinia’s own Ichnusa - you like to see it. The beer. Disappointed to see they only have Moretti glasses - I like beers served in their own branded glass or in something plain. Not the end of the world, but still.

Food was excellent - giant arancini to start was gorgeous and then the Spagna pizza with hot honey and blue cheese. I like that pizza - plenty of honey on this one. Yum. Tiramisu for dessert, a nice square slab. No complaints at all about the food, all good and hearty.

The people next to us had some sort of sharing steak platter which was huge. It scared me slightly to watch. Such a big piece of meat 😆

Overall an excellent experience and I would definitely return...

We came here to celebrate end of year grades for the teens. It started out having to wait for seats. We didn’t have very clear service I felt, and the music was far too loud for me to even hear the bar staff.

Once seated service was hit and miss. We had someone at times, and then they would disappear.

The menu seemed varied, and we ordered starters- oysters, grilled peppers- they were ok. The presentation on the plate wasn’t great for the peppers. They seemed thrown together. The taste was nice, but not worth the price.

We ended up waiting over 50 minutes for mains after the starters were cleared. After following up we had no explanation just that the food was on the way. 10 minutes later it came out.

We had mushroom risotto, aubergine parmigiana and sea bass. The taste of each was ok, but the presentation was awful. The sea bass had a green mush underneath and courgettes deep fried very hard. Roast potatoes on the side were overcooked and over seasoned. The other two dishes tasted alright but looked like American diner food. I expected much more and a higher standard.

We then waited another 10 minutes for a side order ordered late in the meal. Tender stem broccoli. It was, for me, the best part. No desert as we didn’t want to wait another 40 minutes.

It was obviously our table as people around who arrived after us were served and finished before we were even served. Would have been nice for them to recognise this.

And finally, the music was just far too loud, even for a Saturday evening. There was no need for it and would have been a nicer atmosphere without it.

Not somewhere I...