Jamie’s Italian

We came here tonight for my best friend’s hen do. There were 18 of us in totally so we all had to pay a 10 deposit upfront, and we and booked a table that was suitable for the hens granny who needed a wheelchair. We had to wait an extra 30mins for our table, (I assume because the party before us were running late and hadn’t left on time) so they graciously compensated is with 4 free bottles of presecco. No complaints from us!
The set menu which we ate from because we were such a large group, was utterly fantastic! I cannot praise the food enough. We all shared the cured meat starter, then had a choice of main and desert. Myself and the hen had the steak frites and if was plenty to line our stomachs for a night of drinking! So much so, we hardly ate our deserts.
The staff were lovely and put up with us well, as we’d all had quite a lot to drink and we were a bit of a handful!

All you could wish for — fine food, splendid venue, great service too. A credit to Jamie

Good but not great. The daily special seafood linguine was sticky and cold; the fish dish was under seasoned and the crab on the crab and avocado bruschetta was past expiration date… I love to cook and am a big fan of Jamie Oliver’s recipes and style, but I’m not convinced he would be satisfied with the execution of his dishes here. However, the building and atmosphere are great; the staff attentive and the selection of dishes very nice.

I’ve visited Jamie’s several times in the past — I even booked a works Christmas party here two years ago — so I was familiar with their event menu.
I was part of a large party celebrating a friend’s wedding. We were sat in a lovely area on the balcony, which I didn’t realise has tables all the way around.
We started with prosecco, antipasti, and a few hot items (the crispy ravioli thing was amazing!). As I’m allergic to wine I appreciated that my alternative of a G&T was served with everyone else’s drinks. There was a lot of food to start with, and there was even more with the mains. Along with the main course that we’d all pre-​ordered there were a selection of green vegetables and a mountain of polenta chips!
By this time I was getting pretty stuffed, and only had room for half of my tiramisu dessert. Though I kind of wished I’d gone with the ice-​cream as one of the flavours was salted caramel.
The staff were really attentive for such a large group (50 people), but there was too much food. I’d have rather paid a fiver less than have more food than I could eat. It was a bit of a long walk to the loo’s, but with a historic building such as it is there’s not much that can be done there!

We recently dined here on our trip to the UK from Texas. I’ve been a fan of Jamie’s since his career began and was excited to finally have the chance to try one of his restaurants. The service was good but not great. The food was tasty, but not necessarily anything unique or special… except for dessert. The pavlova I had for dessert was outstanding. The location, however, is the real star… absolutely stunning!

I came here for a relative’s birthday. She has a gold membership card, which means a free bottle of Jamie Oliver’s prosecco and a free dessert for the birthday girl, as well as the usual free tasters. I had superfood salad (minus the cottage cheese) with smoked salmon. The food was delicious, the prosecco was refreshing and terribly moreish — we bought another bottle. The staff know their stuff and the surroundings are atmospheric. Plus the birthday girl enjoyed it… I’ll come here again both for food and to the bar

I had one of my best experiences at Jamie’s Italian in Manchester!
First of all: Book a table! We had booked a table for 19.30 and arrived at 19.00 (on purpose). We got our table at 19.20, but a lot of people who hadn’t ordered a table had waited almost 1 hour when we got our table.
Anyways… The building is absolutely stunning! Inside as well as outside. The italian theme is really amazing and the place feels so «warm». Everyone welcomed us and guided us to a table where we could wait until our table was ready. While waiting we had a few cocktails — some of then are a bit expensive compared to their size, so remember to look at the size of the cocktails before ordering (it is visible on the menu card).
We were placed at our table and our waiter, Alex, was amazing. Fun, sweet and so good at explaining the concept and the menu to us. We ordered the big plank, which was good, but a bit too expensive I think. We also ordered two pastas, which was good as well!
Before getting the pasta, we were asked if we could move to the next table, which we of course could! As a gesture we got a free cocktail each — very good service!
The desserts were great as well! The icecream is so good!
Definetly not the last time I’m going there! And I have to try some of his other restaurants!

Got the fish of the day which was to include a trout fillet, mussels and shrimp — all were undercooked and there was only one shrimp on the plate. Mentioned it to the waitress at the end who didn’t really seem to care. Pretty disappointed!

I had a business dinner here with a few co-​workers, and we had a lot of fun. The food was probably 3 stars, but the ambiance and service got them up to a 4. A little pricey, but worth the experience — the staff are very, very attentive and outgoing, and the décor is something to see, since it is located in an old bank and they have really preserved the old world look and feel. We had a private room — it was the old bank manager’s office and it still has his pictures hanging on the wall. The restrooms are downstairs by the old vault, and they are the booths that people used to go into when they needed to access their safe deposit boxes in private — giving another meaning to making a deposit — HA!

This was my second visit to Jamie’s Italian. The restaurant itself is stunning inside, ridiculously high ceilings from what used to be an old bank. The décor is also very nice and the layout of the separate bar area makes it somewhere you could just pop for a few drinks if you wanted to.
Our waitress, Colette, was fantastic. She ran through all of the specials in such fine detail that pretty much everyone ordered either the steak or the lobster ravioli from the specials menu. Excellent service.
The food, for me wasn’t great (sorry) and what I do find with a lot of Italian restaurants is that the food is ‘just okay’, standard. This is a real shame that such a great restaurant is being let down by the one thing it’s meant to do properly.
I ordered the ultimate sharing plank for a starter (£10.50 each) which was shared with a friend. It consisted of salami, mortadella, chicken liver pâté, fennel pork scratchings, mozzarella and other nibblely eats — which again were all ‘ok’. The cauliflower fritti was good and of course it was all beautifully presented, but for £21 for the dish when you looked at what was actually on the plank it was very expensive.
My main course was not great either. I ordered Lobster Ravioli and I was expecting great things — but it was kind of bland with not much taste. A real shame as I’ve had amazing lobster ravioli at other places.
Overall, the night was fab, 5 stars for service and 5 stars for surroundings, especially if you get chance to visit the Vault private dining room downstairs!!! — but the food wasn’t anything to shout about.

I really like this place — been quite a few times as I visit on my own and I find it very comfortable & accommodating to lone diners. The food is always fresh and tasty and the service informative & friendly whilst professional.
Today it is the new season menu so choosing what to have is more difficult but I’m tempted by the fish of the day…

The food was quite disappointing and pricey for what it is. The restaurant and the décor is lovely and the service was quite friendly, that is why it isn’t 1 star. But the main thing is the food and I’ve had better at Zizzi. Make sure you sign up for Jamie’s gold membership online and you can get to £10 off if you ever end up here somehow.

This place is awful, industrial food that seems defrosted rather than fresh. Meatballs tasted like dog food. Pasta was like chewing a rubber band. He should be ashamed to tack his name on this restaurant with this low standard of quality control.

Having worked for the brand for 2 years, I had to look at Jamie’s face on packaging, brochures and POS every. single. day. The thought of putting myself in his space during after-​work, otherwise Jamieless hours, turned my stomach a little… until I went.
The branch on King Street is in a truly amazing building. Once a bank, the ceilings are sky high, the mezzanine levels look out over the beautiful space and the toilets (in the old bank vault) have to be peed in to be believed. The staff are brilliant and very ‘on-​brand’; friendly, approachable, knowledgable.
Down to the good stuff — the food. It’s rustic, tasty and fresh. Everything you would want and expect from TV’s own Oliver. I opted for a meat plank, which sounds far less delicate than it actually was. It comprises of thinly cut cured meats, a couple of cheeses, bread, chutneys and pickles — my kind of starter.
Next up was the prawn linguine. A chilli, fennel and tomato sauce coats the lovely house-​made pasta. The prawns are tasty. It’s my favourite dish here by far.
When I eventually lifted my face from the bowl, I glanced around at what my fellow diners had ordered. The lasagne was apparently very good. The sea bass with orange salad was really nice, if a little small. The steaks were tasty and tender and the polenta chips were great, as always.
I would definitely recommend getting a Gold Card — visit the website for details. It’s free and entitles you to goodies and points each time you visit. We were celebrating a birthday, which meant we got a bottle of Jamie’s Prosecco on the house. Winner!
I’ve heard people say mixed things about this place but it’s never let me down. If/​when it does I’ll update you, but for now I’ll dream of the linguine washed down with a glug of bubbles.
Until next time, Mr Oliver.

Right then,
Three might be a bit harsh but I can’t give halves and like Über taxis I always round down!
I have seen Jamie Oliver on telly and at no point does it look like he makes dry burgers.
There are some pretty average places in Manchester that can make an awesome burger for much less than £13 so I would have expected Jamie’s to at least match them. It doesn’t.
In hindsight I should have just had two cheesecakes and some olives.
The building looks really nice though… wish I could have eaten that!

This was my second visit to Jamie’s Italian, the first visit didn’t seem to leave any lasting impressions so thought would give it another whirl. I have a gold card (order free online) which allowed us to book a table over the phone and got us a small taster — brushetta with minted pea mozzarella — while we perused the menu. Pretty cool.
We went for the olives to start, which really were delicious, the olive tapanade that came with them was spot on. I had the burger for my main. I’ve got to say it’s certainly not the best I’ve ever had and doesn’t even come close to local restaurants such as solitas and almost famous. The main issue was it felt very dry and I felt very frowned upon when requesting ketchup to help it out. The side salad of rocket and balsamic dressing was also pretty bland, with an unexpected citrus dressing which wasn’t up my street. The chips saved the day — garlic and rosemary — were delicious. Lemon meringue cheesecake also softened the blow of a disappointing main, although I’m a sucker for anything sweet!
The venue really is awesome and creates a great atmosphere but I don’t think the food meets expectations of a well known chef.

I’ve been wanting to try Jamies Oliver in London for a while but never managed as I could not be bothered with queuing…
So to my surprise, while walking in Manchester, I bumped into this branch of the famous restaurant.
Got lucky, lunch time, a free table :-)
To start with the building: in a renovated old bank, high ceilings, loads of original details, the original tillers, just beautiful. It’s an amazing restoration project and probably one of the nicest place in Manchester.
This building and interior architecture gives it a great atmosphere, a warm welcoming feeling.
Now for the food: it’s simply excellent. I got amazing ricotta ravioli with crab. And it was exquisite. A few other plates, starters, etc… and to finish off a delicious brownie (not really Italian, but delicious still) and our stomachs were happy. Not everything on the menu is Italian, but the paste is fresh, most of the items are Italian, and a few things are mixed inspiration ;-) (anyway Jamie Olivier is not Italian, so expect great food, but maybe not cooked like in a Italian village ;-))
As for service, very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.

It’s getting to be an annoying habit of giving positive reviews for places I’ve visited, but in all good faith this visit went swimmingly.
In context we visited for a quick and brief lunch, hungover as ever I braved with a quick beer at the bar before being delighted that our table was in the upstairs «gallery-​ish» lookout post instead of the rather cramped looking family-​cattle looking downstairs dining area.
Our waiter was very enthusiastic about the current specials, enough to seduce our pasta craving appetites to partaking in the current «feather» steak special. Excited by this cut that was new to me and Mrs Lucky, we both dived in with gusto. Beautifully cooked steak, delightfully cooked to medium rare without asking, in my experience, a great steak is cooked how they do it, not by giving you the option to cremate it.
A delightfully refreshing frozen natural yoghurt and a delicious looking brownie delivered to our table capped the meal off perfectly before we descended back to the bar for a hard earned cocktail.
On a side note, the staff were very attentive and enthusiastic about there menu, and the «oldy worldy» Thomas Crapper toilets added to this amazingly atmospheric dinning experience. T
As the bill arrived, we were pleasantly surprised, not bad at all for a restaurant owned by a celebrity chef.
Planning our next visit already, maybe to experience what appears to be their fantastic private vault dinning room.

Before I start the review I must admit that I am a massive fan of Jamie Oliver and his shows. This is one of the reasons why I did not want to visit this place for yet another weekend meal and wanted it to be special. It was my mum’s first visit to Manchester, so I thought this is a good excuse to visit this much hyped place (My mum happens to be a fantastic chef).
It was extremely difficult to get a booking but well I finally got one for a Wednesday evening around 6 pm (definitely cant have a big meal at 4 pm). It is situated at Kings street right opposite the Vivienne Westwood store and other posh restaurants and the building looks very impressive. We walked in and a pretty waitress asked us to take a seat and then a very good looking Italian man escorted us to our table. The interiors are just fabulous and very magnificent (old wold sort of charm) which definitely impressed us. I heard from my friends that the toilets were worth seeing and they were not wrong because those were by far the best restrooms I have ever seen.
Coming to the food (The MOST important bit)
We ordered for Calamari’s (how cliched), chef’s special crab pasta in a cream sauce, Baked Salmon and a starter with spinach and cheese (cant remember the exact name). The portions were very small (when I say small, it is actually small because I don’t have a massive appetite) but the food was delicious and so was the presentation (brownie points from my mum).
Price (Money matters)
I was expecting a massive bill and to be honest I was a bit scared as well but to my surprise it was not humungous for the hype this place has. Our order was for 4 people which included main course, starters and 2 bottles of wine and the bill was around 80 pounds (Not too bad eh?).
Verdict: Great ambiance, good food and not so bad for the wallet. Definitely worth a try at least for the sheer fact that Jamie has been teaching us some fabulous recipes for a while now! :)

Started with the Pumpkin and Smoked Mozzarella Nachos and the Baked Chesnut Mushrooms. There were fine, but not fantastic. The flavors just weren’t distinct. And, the «fiery arrabbiata» sauce for the nachos just wasn’t «fiery».
Things really pick up with our pasta dishes. The wild rabbit tagliolini was excellent and the Black Angel Spaghetti was amazing. This second dish I would order again in a heartbeat. We also really enjoyed our Start Bay crab risotto. The flash cooked greens and rocket and radicchio salad provided nice complements.
We coupled the lemon meringue pie and a limoncello for dessert.
The old bank building is lovely and service was excellent. Overall, really enjoyed this place.