I recently tried out the Italian restaurant Vapiano’s, located in the Corn Exchange in Manchester which has been transformed into a dining complex which has 13 different restaurants. This place is a very relaxed, simple dining experience with self service stations serving pizza, pasta and antipasta. You are given a Vapiano credit card before you are seated, the idea being that you swipe the card at each station once you place your order. This makes the ordering process fuss free and easy. The restaurant is vibrant with casual benches to sit at and a wide choice of dishes available to select from. The chefs were all super friendly and knowledgeable about the dishes and ingredients were very fresh.

Last week I went to try out Azzuro, Didsbury’s only independent Italian restaurant. This intimate family run restaurant makes a welcome change to the chain restaurants that you find in the city centre. Chef and owner, Emil personally serves most of the dishes himself, creating fantastic food with lots of Italian flavours. The staff were all extremely friendly and knowledgeable about the food and the restaurant itself. The menu has a range of classic Italian dishes and some more unusual dishes which feature on the specials board. To start we shared the baked goats cheese which was served on a bed of asparagus spears and balsamic dressing, such an amazing combination and acquired taste if you like goats cheese! Another interesting dish was the bruschetta two ways which featured marinated cherry tomatoes and a garlicy cannellini bean mash, something I had never tried but really enjoyed.