CityLife

Per Tutti

Per Tutti, on Liverpool Road

When a celebrity has tried too hard with their over-the-top outfit fashionistas often snipe: “Less is more”. This fledgling Italian restaurant could also benefit from this advice.

Their menu offers no less than seven categories of pizza: Pizza Rose, Pizza Bianche, Pizza Leggere, Pizza, Pizzas, Calzoni and Gourmet Pizzas.

Costing up to £18.95 Gourmet pizzas boast ‘luxury’ toppings and are served on a wooden board with a Martini glass ‘full of flames’ in the middle. Whatever that means.

Alternatively, diners can choose pizzas with no tomato base, with buffalo mozzarella rather than the average mozzarella, with a healthy whole-wheat base, folded in half, as a starter, as a pudding, or one of the dozens of pizzas under the heading of ‘Pizza’.

But curiously, the place doesn’t openly bill itself as a pizzeria. Indeed, ‘Per Tutti’ translates as ‘For all’ so maybe better advice for this eaterie would be: Don’t try to be all things to all men.

So how to pick a pizza? In the year of the Diamond Jubilee, choosing the Regina Elizabeth would be the patriotic pizza.

Alas, it was not a choice I made as this £15.95 pizza boasts a cream cheese sauce, marinated salmon and slices of orange and lemon. Orange and salmon on a pizza? Steering clear, we started with the ‘Per Tutti’ ravioli (£6.50) and the aubergine parmigiana (£7.95). The ravioli, filled with an entire egg yolk was an interesting concept but sadly had not worked. The pasta was too thick and completely uncooked in the middle – frustrating as the sage butter was delicious.

The aubergine dish was a let down too – measly thin slices of aubergine were lost in too much tomato sauce and rubbery melted cheese. While there were cheaper pizzas on offer, my friend pushed the boat out with a ‘gourmet’ quattro stagioni costing £14.95.

Sadly the promised glass of ‘flames’ was absent – so I cannot report back on what that actually is. The pizza lacked ‘luxury’, any depth of flavour and had a soggy base – the waiter politely inquired if it was all right when half was left.

The open kitchen shows a state of the art pizza oven, so what a shame that the proof is not in the pizza. A smaller selection of classic pizzas cooked well would seem to be a better formula.

A glimmer of hope came with my seafood spaghetti (£14.95) – easily the best dish of the evening. It was attractively presented with beautifully cooked mussels and octopus and a generous portion of properly cooked pasta.

We side-stepped the Nutella pizza (£4.95) opting instead for the Italian classic of Tiramisu – literally meaning ‘pick me up’ – this was just what I needed but sadly it failed to lift spirits. The chef needs a heavier hand with both the coffee and alcohol – this was just bland.

There is a small selection of wines by the glass and a decent range of reds and whites by the bottle, including a pleasant house wine for £13.95.

With anodyne monochrome décor this independent restaurant does a good impression of a generic chain. Just dim­­ming the bright lighting would improve things. Ironically, someone kept leaning on the light switch which temporarily plunged us into ‘mood lighting’ before being turned back up to full wattage.

We were served by a cheerful Greek waiter who produced complimentary Limoncello shots when we pointed out an omission on the bill.

Opened in November, Per Tutti is owner Chris Khan’s first restaurant and for a snowy Saturday night the eatery was reassuringly busy but, as everyone knows, this is a fickle industry.

This place could survive thanks to unsuspecting punters straying from the Hilton hotel but I would point them across the street to Avuna for scrumptious Spanish tapas instead.

Competing with plenty of decent Italian restaurants in town and with Jamie’s Italian opening on Monday, Per Tutti needs to up its game and remember sometimes less is more.

Per Tutti, Liverpool Road,
M3 4NW (0161 834 9741).