Piccolinorestaurants Recensioni 

A restaurant of many contradictions.

We visited the Chichester restaurant last night with family. Seven in total, with a 14 mth old.

The restaurant itself is really well appointed and, on the face of it, looked amazing. A lot of work had gone into getting the feel and layout right. Good seating, innovative use of the space (with a wide open raised deck area at the back) and stunning hung lighting.

As soon as we sat down, however, cracks were showing. The seats were tight and a bit cramped. The large circular table itself was not solid and wobbled from side to side on its pedestal.

Service was relatively prompt to start with and the restaurant was well staffed.

Things kinda went downhill from there. The first thing was the lighting being dimmed. You know, the “you couldn’t see your food” dimmed. It could not maintain a static light level, so it kept brightening and dimming by itself throughout the evening. This was disconcerting at best and actually pretty annoying at worst.

Service was slow. We arrived at 4:45-5pm and we paid as soon as we had finished our main course without dessert or coffee. This was at 6:30.

Some of the dishes were amazing, the gluten free calamari was one of the best I have tasted outside of Greece. The wagyu lasagna with the sauce on the side was also really very good. Other dishes were…. Pedestrian to be honest. The calzone was ok, the carbonara was also….. ok, but really nothing special. Certainly not worth the price tag (I’ll get to that later).

Continuing the theme, the bathrooms were very well appointed but shockingly cold. You know, those cold bathrooms when you stand that little bit closer to the hand drier. Hot water was hard to find but otherwise it was….. ok. My daughter said that the cold and low lighting was the same in the baby change room. which made changing a small person extremely difficult.

The service was confusing too, some staff were genuinely happy to see us but to be honest, most were indifferent.

We sat in the rear of the restaurant on the raised deck area which was really well laid out (albeit a bit cramped) the area is surrounded by a balustrade and glass panelling. The balustrade itself sits exactly at average eye height. This proved genuinely infuriating when trying to get staff attention, and there were lots of staff who wandered by oblivious that we were trying to get the bill.

We ran out of time for the dessert or coffee because the service was so slow. Had I seen the bill at this point, we would have left because of this. Removing the food for the child the bill came to almost £42 per person. This is without dessert of coffee or an excess of alcohol.

So many parts of this restaurant have been really thought about but not thought through. The lighting, on balance, was annoying. The bathrooms just freezing. The deck area was lovely but boy was it cramped and that balustrade!! The service slow and in places unwelcoming. Some parts of the menu were really fantastic. Others, not so much.

On balance, sadly, not worth the price tag.

Visited Picclinos Manchester 29th Jan 25. My wife ordered the Casarecce Pollo and stated that it was excellent. I ordered Spaghetti Frutti Mare, when the meal came it was nothing but seafood shells. When I removed all the shells there were very little seafood. The 1 king prawn was cooked as incinerated should be pink but was dark gray as if it had been cooked a very long time indicating that it was not fresh very disappointed.
If you visit this Resturant don’t order the seafood

What an amazing dinner & celebration made even more special by the attentive staff. They were all a step ahead of the game, topping up glasses, making everyone feel so welcome, and delivering delicious food so quickly with such friendly, helpful, kind attention. Wonderful experience!

Particular mention goes to Alessia - total super star! & Nadia, Luigi, Fabio, Maurizio e the Neapolitan waiter - Thanks Verry much guys!