Croma

Great pizza and friendly service.
I was sceptical before eating here. The strange toppings on the menu had me worried that this was a gimmicky pizzeria. However the pizza turned out to be high quality and very tasty.
The treacle tart with mascarpone I had for dessert was amazing.

This is similar to pizza express but a whole level or two upgraded on food and overall atmosphere.
The food is very fresh and prices are reasonable considering. Plates are hot and atmosphere is relaxed and tranquil. Pizzas are lovely but don’t go for the spicy ones… because the simple fresh ingredients just work better with the simple recipes amd flavours are better appreciated.
Staff can be a bit stuck up though haha…
Golden tip… the sticky toffee pudding is the best in town!

YES this is going to be my ‘real’ pizza fix in MCR after being treated here Xmas Eve. Thank you O! It was perfect. Now, should I make it weekly or monthly? In Italy it’s daily, by the slice. It’s a culture thing.

I’ve been here a few times sitting in and a couple of times for takeout too! They don’t take bookings and it can get pretty busy but its good to know they have a lot of seating and the staff are great!
Having only recently found out about their early bird menu (which runs throughout the week up until 7pm) we decided to head here on Friday after work. We were seated straight away and opted to all go for the cheap deal which for two courses plus a glass of wine or peroni was only £11!
You are limited to either the standard garlic bread or the dough balls to start which are the cheapest on the starters menu. The dough balls were good — maybe slightly on the dry side but either way tasty enough and very light. The second course has more choice with you being able to pick any pizza off the menu and an added bonus upon asking meant that we also were able to go half and half!
I opted for half peri peri chicken and the mushroom pizza — yum! The fact that we all went half and half meant that it was a complicated order and the waiter was good fun as we swapped and changed mid order!
The pizzas were great — lots of yummy flavouring with cheese — spicy chicken and mushrooms. It was the perfect combo in my eyes! One of the mains came with jalapeños which it wasn’t meant to — but easy to sort ourselves we didn’t say anything. Great eye of detail though the waiter spotted it and apologised for the mistake. It was a lovely early dinner before we all headed off — thanked by the owner on our way out which was nice also. Only £11 down I was more than satisfied — this definitely may become a regular haunt for us mid week!

Early bird menu 4pm — 10pm weekdays only £10.95! What a find! Glass of wine/​bottle of peroni/​soft drinks + garlic bread/​side salad + ANY pizza off the main menu! Then only an extra £3.00 for a dessert from a choice of three. Absolutely amazing value for money and for food I’d be happy to pay much more for. I went for the Anantra duck pizza — delicious. Great flavours. Would definitely recommend this lovely restaurant, with it’s great service & atmosphere!

After leaving work we went for the Early Bird special (between 4 – 7 M-​F) What a fab deal! Glass of wine, garlic bread & any pizza for £10.5!
Next time I’ll be getting the salad option instead of the garlic bread, because although it was tasty it was the size of a calzone & didn’t leave much room for pizza.
Nice high ceilings to give the room some ambiance & a very polite, dedicated server. Couldn’t ask for more. We will be back :)

I headed here on a Wednesday evening with my book club (term used loosely). We had attempted to book in at Dough but couldn’t get a table.
The staff were charming and friendly as soon as I walked through the door and this remained true throughout the evening. I can be quite picky about service in a way — I want staff to be friendly, visible and attentive without being overbearing or annoying. Staff at Croma ticked all these boxes for me.
We started by ordering a bottle of the cheapest wine on the menu (which was okay, white wine mostly tastes the same to me!), the garlic bread with cheese, and the olives. Our lovely waiter pointed out that a single order of bread would not be enough for all of us — but rather than getting us to order more he asked if we wanted a pizza base with garlic oil and cheese. Yes please! This was just what I wanted it to be, and the olives were great, with chunks of marinated mushrooms and peppers in there.
I’ve forgotten the name of the pizza I ordered, but I remember that it had steak and blue cheese on it. It was pretty delicious, with some sharp watercress to cut through the rich runny cheese. The pizza was a decent size, big enough to be good value but not big enough to necessitate a lie down afterwards.
Overall I couldn’t fault the food here at all, or the price — I paid £20 and was full and ever so slightly tipsy. No complaints here. While it’s not my favourite restaurant in Manchester, Croma is a solid option for an Italian-​esque meal if you ask me.

I love Croma. For me it ticks all the same boxes as Pizza Express but has a little more variety. I love the building for a start. The open space lends itself well to the clattering and chinging of plates and glasses that I love about Italians. It’s cheap too! You can easily eat and have a beer as a couple for under £25.
They have a great pre theatre menu until 7:30 too!

Went at 5.30 and got the early bird special, a glass of house wine, garlic bread, pizza and coffee all for £10.95. A cheap deliciously satisfying evening!

As part of an attempt to bring my co-​workers into the wonderfulness that it Croma, I organised a tasty lunch.
Fourteen of us rocked up at lunch-​time (having only booked for ten) and the staff were more than accommodating, setting up a couple more tables for us…
The restaurant itself is organised across three levels (with a little snug hiding away near the back). The top level is a mezzanine which is cozy and intimate — ideal for a hidden away romantic date. The main floor houses most of the tables, and is where you’ll likely end up sitting if a couple of you go for lunch or dinner. Downstairs is where the magic happens (and where we were sat). You get a view over the kitchen — brilliant.
Sunday through Friday they offer a very reasonable lunch deal, with a Soft Drink, and a choice of one of three pizzas costing just under £6.
Starters are all pretty much under £6 and standard pizzas are priced between £6 and £10, depending on what you go for (as of April 2014).
I had the Chorizo Picanto; a spicy, meaty pizza which was all tingly in the mouth, with three kinds of fresh chilli and soft, peppery Chorizo. To start I had the soft, buttery garlic bread with Mozzarella — wonderful!
They have a full bar, and a wide selection of both alcoholic and non-​alcoholic drinks, including a rotating specials menu.
You should definitely check out Croma, the service is quick and friendly, the food tastes great, and the price is more than reasonable…

Went to Croma last night for a friend’s birthday. The food was very good. My Greek pizza was fresh and delicious also the base was just right. The service was friendly and efficient and the décor is quite up market for a pizza chain. The reason I have only given Croma 3 stars is because of the atmosphere. It was so noisy in there it was hard to hear each other speak. Which is a shame when it’s someone’s birthday and you want to catch up with people you haven’t seen in a while. Might go again on a quieter evening in the week.

Despite working around the corner, I haven’t been back to Croma since my original visit in 2012. Wow. That’s a long time — but it has all been rectified!
My fellow marketing assistant was leaving us to go to bigger/​better (in her mind!) things, so that could only mean one thing; a slightly boozy lunch, with plenty of carbs to soak it up before we got back to the office.
We were seated quickly as a table of 4, though it was right near a table full of babies and next to the incoming table of about 10. Menus were handed to us but service throughout was more miss than hit — wine glasses were moved abruptly, menus felt a bit snatched, and there was no conversation offered aside from taking our order.
Sharing some dough balls and garlic bread plus cheese — it should always be plus cheese — set us off on the right track. Our pizzas arrived and I was very much looking forward to my goats cheese, pepper and courgette offering. Unfortunately my manager’s pizza came with meat, which she specifically asked for without, but they took it back and managed to turn around a new one quite efficiently.
When we did get to tuck in, there were happy faces around the table. Everything worked very well together, and even the base wasn’t the disappointment we so often face in Manchester based Italians.
Another bottle? Why not!

Croma’s early bird deal is an absolute bargain. One of the best consistent restaurant deals in Manchester I’d say. Between 5−7pm, for £10.95 you can get a glass of house red or white wine or Peroni or soft drink, garlic bread or dough balls or mixed leaf salad and any pizza or main course. That’s less than I would spend if I was cooking for myself at home!
I normally go to the Croma is Chorlton (I think the quality of the food is better there) but this time I went with a friend to the one in town which people often find hard to find… head to the Starbucks on Albert Square by the town hall, Croma is behind that.
I found the service efficient and friendly. We got served fast even though it was busy. Brilliant place to bring kids as they are very much welcomed and looked after. Go after 8 if you want to avoid children (it can get quite noisy).
I love the choice of pizzas and the crazy toppings. You can get the more basic standard pizzas too, as well as very nice pasta and salad dishes. The garlic dough balls also rule.
I also have to give them props for their Irish Coffee, that was yum and very well made.
So Croma is a great place for all; for dates, for catch up meals with friends, for large parties, for a quick fix, for families and even by yourself (as i saw several people eating by themselves).
One thing to watch out for is parking round there. We were sat by a window and saw several shady characters surveying parked cars.

Totally one of the reasons I continued to live in Manchester. I am an American wife of a British man and he lured me to Manchester with Croma.
Though they have changed the recipe of my favorite pizza, I have so many fond memories of this establishment. The atmosphere is always romantic and intimate. I have had many fantastic dates here, as well as girls’s nights. We even had our «international» rehearsal dinner for our wedding here — and people from USA to UK to Saudia Arabia to Chile to Mexico to India LOVED it. This was also our «I had a bad day I need pizza NOW!» restaurant.
I recommend going out of your comfort zone and trying a unique pizza such as Hoisin Duck (Anatra) or indian (Chicken Tikka Masala). Also great pre-​theater (*theatre) menu — 10 pounds for a starter, glass of wine, and gourment pizza?! prices and the staff is always on point.
*The food I miss most about my years in Manchester is the City Center (*Centre) Croma!!!

Pizza Express, how dare you. How dare you charge so much more than Croma does for essentially the same food. No, I’m not talking to you any more. Get out of my sight.
Wait, wait… come back, Pizza Express, I was a little bit hasty… Okay, so Croma’s starters are far more delicious than yours, the dough balls more moist and fluffy, and the garlic bread my maid of honour and I chose topped with tomato and basil was quite frankly orgasmic in comparison with your strangely shiny and chewy version (but spookily, SPOOKILY, the same size and shape… conspiracy theories afoot).
Yet there are a couple of things that Croma got wrong. There seem to be a large range of pizzas that come with the irksome warning: ‘No tomato’. This translates as being sans passata base. So isn’t that… simply ingredients on… dough? I went for a Greek pizza, which had feta cheese, sunblushed tomatoes (my favourite things in the world, I could eat those bad boys like sweets) and gargantuan, juicy green olives that were ridiculously lush. But… oh, Pizza Express, I have to say, from the moment next door’s Greek arrived prior to ours and the lady complained to the waiter that it was dry, I felt uneasy. First of all, I’d never whinge to a waiter about anything, I’m far too British. (I’m apparently French somewhere along my bloodline according to those family history reports so maybe I should adopt more of a French attitude to food…) Lo and behold, mine too was a little dry… and very difficult to cut. The topping, however, was mind-​blowing. Delicious. Win some lose some?
The brunette had opted for a pizza with asparagus and sunblushed tomatoes as well as that cheese I really like, I think it’s called fontal. But hers also strangely came without a tomato base, and thus was dry and equally difficult to cut. The pair of us felt like we’d lifted weights by the end of the meal, which I guess is good for our guns. I’m all for experimental, but Dough’s got it right by keeping the texture of their pizzas essentially the same as those we’re traditionally used to, instead playing with the flavours. Actually, wait there a second, Pizza Express, I’ve just got to talk to Dough for a moment.
Dough. I love you. You’ve spoilt me. You’ve spoilt all other pizza venues for me. Dang, you ROGUE. Call me.
Sorry about that, Pizza Express. I have to say, one bite of the caramel and pecan cheesecake and the dry pizzas were almost forgiven, as this was one dessert that was worth getting a room with. In fact I very selfishly felt quite chuffed when Alexa said she was far too full to share it properly with me. However, the most redeeming factor is the price. I’ve been a loyal customers of yours a fair few years now, Pizza Express, but as time’s gone on I’ve been more attracted by the printable vouchers than the food itself. Except, Croma is just as cheap as you’d be WITH the offers, so…
What I’m essentially saying is that I think I should see other restaurants. I’m sorry if this upsets you. Croma’s so cheap, and the décor is so pretty with its twinkly lights (a big thing of mine) that I think I’d like to give it a few more chances and up its star rating. After all it has a coveted PLUOY sticker! But I do promise I’ll visit you again soon. Maybe if you throw a few more two pizzas for £10 coupons in my direction…
(Update: Alexa wanted me to inform the Unilocaling community that our waiter was a ‘fittie’. Well, it’s an incentive.)

One of my favourite places to dine in Manchester.
This Italian offers a modern style to dining with top quality food.
I recommend the Bury Black Pudding & Chorizo Salad to get your taste buds flowing and also the Tuna & Black Olive Pâté.
If you are dining with a friend or on a date i would also recommend buying pizza and sharing it as my girlfriend like to put it
’it’s satisfyingly fulfilling’ or something along those lines. The portion sizes are spot on with a starter and a main just enough to fill you up without the need to undo a top butter after the meal.
A wide variety of wines is on offer at affordable prices which go down well with whatever you choose. All in all a meal for 2 will normally cost around £35

I came to eat at Croma on a Saturday afternoon when me and the girlfriend has bumped into some relatives in town.
The place was absolutely packed, but we managed to get a table downstairs and the restaurant was light and bright. A nice place to spend an hour or two catching up with some relatives.
Croma is all about the pizzas really, and they’re really quite reasonable as well, with a proper pizza for less than £7 sometimes in this nice restaurant. I went for the chorizo piccante, which had hot sausage and some green peppers and the like. I love my spicy meat, so this was perfect for me and went down excellently with a couple of cold, bottled lagers.
Croma also serve some quite off-​beat pizzas which are always worth checking out. My girlfriend’s cousin had the Aglefino which is some haddock and other stuff on a pizza. Sounded totally weird, looked and tasted great according to reports.
Croma isn’t the cheapest by any means, but easily equivalent price-​wise top somewhere like Bella Italia or Pizza Express and maybe a tiny bit more interesting and individual.

I love Croma!
This place is fantastic, it’s right in the city centre just near Albert Square, the food is lovely, the service is great and the prices are cheap! What more could you want?
Croma has got to be one of my favourite restaurants just because everything about it is so easy, there’s no pretention or attitude, it’s always busy but you never have to wait too long for a table even without a booking, the staff are so efficient and quick and the pizzas are amazing.