Croma Prestwich

My last, and only, visit to Croma in Manchester was part of a night out with my best friend. I remember enjoying my pizza, but was so concerned about getting sauce on my dress, that the particular details of the meal have since been lost on me.

While I was back in the UK this last weekend and my parents were trying to figure out somewhere to eat for the whole family that was child-friendly, I was pretty underwhelmed by their first suggestion of Pizza Express. After perusing a few review boards and seeing Croma’s name pop up again and again, I managed to persuade my parents to book a table. Of course, at that point, the pressure was on, because it had now become “my choice” – if anything went wrong, it would be on my head.

The Croma in Prestwich is a lot lighter and airier than I remember the one in the city centre being. The floor-to-ceiling windows and fact that the tables aren’t too squashed together makes it feel like you have the place to yourself, especially on an earlier Saturday lunch, as was the case for us. As my niece entertained herself with the gift bag and crayons they’d left for her, we checked out the pretty extensive menu.

I ordered the Garstang Blue and Goat’s Cheese Pizza (pictured at the top of the post), while Scott ordered the Roasted Vegetable and swapped out the pine nuts for anchovies (don’t laugh – we love anchovies on pizza). 

When they arrived, the pizzas were hot and bubbly and the crusts were soft yet slightly crispy. Mine had a good proportion of cheese and the red onion and tomatoes were perfectly cooked. I could have done without the mushrooms on there, but that’s just a personal choice and certainly didn’t affect the great taste.

The addition of the aubergine on Scott’s was a winner in my book, but we both agreed the slices of tomato were far too big. So much so that they made the base a little soggy. Apart from that, the flavours were good and there wasn’t too much anchovy to overpower the rest.

From what I could gather from the rest of the party, all of the food was good. Two people had the Melanzane Parmigana which came with big slices of olive bread to mop up the extra sauce (always a plus with that dish) and someone else had the Chilli Salsiccia pizza which I would have had food envy over had we not become vegetarian. Even my niece’s child-sized Margherita pizza was big and gooey and she finished every last bite.

I was skeptical to ask for the dessert menu as it can invariably be a bit lacking in Italian restaurants, but the list was big and impressive. I ordered the hot treacle tart with lemon zest crust and Scott ordered the sticky toffee pudding which claimed to be the Cartmel original.

My treacle tart wasn’t as I expected (i.e. gooey), but was absolutely delicious, especially with the thick cream on the side. For anyone who doesn’t like lemon in their desserts, this probably isn’t for you, as the lemon flavour was fairly prominent, but I found it a nice twist. The sticky toffee pudding was gooey, rich and sticky; basically everything you would ever want from a sticky toffee pudding, so no complaints there.

I really enjoyed our meal at Croma Prestwich and, as promised, it was child-friendly. The food was delicious, good portions and not over-priced and I’d go back for the extensive dessert list alone. Definitely worth a visit.

• 30 Longfield Centre, Prestwich, Manchester
• Open every day from Midday
• www.cromapizza.co.uk