Food Tourist:- Nonna’s Pasta Reviewed

Nonnas Pasta, which describes itself as a ‘hearty boozy Italian with an American influence, first opened as a pop up last October, but has now announced that it will set up a permanent home at Deansgate Square, Manchester.

The announcement that they are here to stay, has coincided with the launch of a brand new menu, so we headed down to find out what diners had in store.

Deansgate Square is still a somewhat unknown area, located close to First Street, a number of bars and restaurants have called the base of these now familiar tower blocks home, and I can see this area becoming a destination in its own right, very quickly.

As already mentioned, Nonna’s Pasta started its journey here as a pop up, but they are now determined to make their presence permanent.

The restaurant is fairly small and when we arrived, early on a Friday evening, we were the only ones there, having said that, it was still early and by the time we left, the place was practically full.

The menu isn’t huge, but that isn’t a bad thing, and there were enough choices, that you still pondered as to what you would most like to eat.

For starters, we went for the Arancini Balls and Gamberoni.

The Arancini were slightly crispier than I would have liked, but that didn’t spoil the pleasure I had when eating them. The flavour was not only there, but overachieved anything I could have hoped for, with a lovely cheesy middle.

They were served with a standout Nduja Mayo, which made me just want to lick the plate clean.

The Gamberoni were just as good. Plump and juicy prawns were cooked perfectly in a white wine, garlic and parsley sauce, and the only complaint was that we could have done with more of the toasted focaccia to mop up that tasty sauce.

For mains, I opted for a Lobster Carbonara, which consisted of Spaghetti tossed in a lobster bisque, with prawns, scampi and guanciale topped with a fabulous grated cured egg yolk.

Like the two dishes before, this was a flavour explosion and I enjoyed every single forkful of it.

India went for one of there headline dishes – Chicken Ate A Pizza!

This dish was made of a buttermilk chicken parm, topped with a marinara sauce, melted mozzarella and a smooth pesto sauce.

Whilst not the most delicate of dishes, the taste was great and the chicken was really well cooked, still succulent and really moreish.

I struggled to have a dessert, however we did order some ice cream and soon found out why they called it ‘mad’. Flavours range from the usually lemon sorbet and vanilla, to more extravagant Ferrero Rocher and even bubblegum!

The dishes at Nonna’s Pasta are not those you would find at a sophisticated and upmarket Italian restaurant, and I have to say that the chairs and tables where not the most comfortable, but what Nonna’s does have, is a vibe that reminds me of some of the Italian restaurants that I have visited in local foodie quarters of Rome and Naples.

These are homely and very delicious dishes that you can imagine Nonna cooking for her family at home. Comfort food that makes you feel good and makes you want to go back for more!

You can check out the menu and book for yourself at Nonna’s Pasta Website here.

Disclaimer

We were invited to go and check out the new menu at Nonna’s Pasta in exchange for feedback, we were not asked to pay, however the review and all opinions are those of Manchester Food Tourist and are, as always, honest.