All-new Italian restaurant offers premium dining experience to Chichester foodies

Piccolino, on South Street, threw open its doors on Tuesday November 5 with a glamourous champagne reception.

More than two hundred members of the community joined the team to toast the restaurant’s opening and sample some of its premium Italian fare. With 110 seats in the main dining area, and a further 16 on an outdoor patio, owners hope to bring ‘a new era of modern Italian dining’ to the historic city.

And it seems as though they’re getting off to a good start, settling in with a winter menu that puts a contemporary spin on Italian classics. One stand out is the 25 layer lasagne, introduced to celebrate the restaurant chain’s anniversary, matching 25 sheets of lasagne with a rich wagyu beef and a truffle bechamel.

Joining it on the menu is an authentic Roman Carbonara served from a giant Pecorino cheese wheel, and a salt-baked sea bass, filleted table side.

The restaurant opens in a South Street site previously occupied by Three Joes Pizza, which closed earlier this year after less than a year in the city, and which was itself preceded by Lime Squeezy, which closed after only two years. It’s a difficult unit, which some Chichester residents have described as ‘cursed’, and, with Pizza Express, Franco Manca, and Zizzi in the same street, there’s plenty of competition.

But Piccolino has restaurants across the UK, with branches in Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, and Manchester to name a few, so the team is confident they can make a success of a historically difficult venue.

the Andrew Garton, CEO of Individual Restaurants, said: “We are delighted to welcome the community of Chichester to the first Piccolino in Sussex from today. We pride ourselves on providing the finest, authentic Italian cuisine, hospitality and dining experience to our guests and this brand-new restaurant will be delivering the outstanding service Piccolino is known for. We cannot wait for the city to experience Piccolino.”

To find out more about the restaurant, and browse the menu, visit piccolinorestaurants.com.