Croma

Located in Manchester's city centre on Clarence Street, just off Princess Street and close to St Anne's Square, Croma is an "independent gourmet pizzeria", with a few branches around Greater Manchester, with this being their only city centre location. Having been impressed by their Prestwich branch, where I most recently awarded it a three-star rating (previously a four!), I decided to try this out after stumbling across Croma on UberEATS.

Originally the app didn't allow me to specify gluten free - this is something which needs addressing however after a quick call with the store, the manager seemed friendly to assist and make sure my order was gluten-free and I could still get my food.

The restaurant its self is an impressive old building, it is up a couple of steps to get in - which could be a problem for some.

I ordered a Gluten Free Americana pizza, the pizza its-self was quite good quality, the passata was a little runny at times but overall the pizza was a decent pizza, especially for gluten-free, much beating most other takeaways I could have had including Domino.

The overall prize was good too for delivery, my pizza came delivered the short half a mile journey to the Hilton Manchester Deansgate for £11, the delivery free was set by UberEATS and cost around £2.50 in that total. The pricing for eating in, however, is pretty much average, with it being a small restaurant they lack the offers which bigger chains do, meaning it could work out slightly more expensive than rivals, including (but not limited to) Bella, Pizza Express and Zizzi.

The menu selection is pretty good too, if you like pizzas but maybe not so much for everything else.

is this somewhere I'd order from or visit again? Yes, and it does definitely warrant a solid three-star rating, issues with pricing when dining inside, selection other than pizza including starters and sides, and the access issues mean I sadly don't feel I can go any higher than a score which would match Croma's other branch I've visited in Pretswich, of three-stars.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the food here. I have become a regular customer now. Wish I had found it sooner as I now live in Birmingham so I'll be missing it when I go back to uni. But I love it really authentic and quirky.

Stupidly I suggested we go look round the Xmas markets on a Sunday. Within half an hour I wanted to kill someone or something.

Ditching the idea of getting a bite of overpriced sausage I remembered about this place that I've had bookmarked for some time.

As soon as I stepped in I was washed with calm. Tranquil lighting and a nice airy setting was what I received. A waiter soon noticed us and guided us to a beautifully adorned table. Looking below go my right I witnessed the bar creating some awesome looking cocktails, in response to this I swiftly ordered a long island iced tea from the waiter.

Drinks had to be chased up, however the quality was high... Perusing the menu it was mainly generic Italina dises, pasta, salads, soups and of course pizza. I opted for the worcester sauce mushrooms for starters followed by a seafood pizza. Himself had the dough balls and a plain margarita pizza.

The food did take a while to arrive but they were busy. There were people dining above and below us. When I received my mushrooms under a thicket of rocket I did feel disappointed. I had visualised some large full mushrooms stuffed with tasty cheese etc, instead I got cut up bits of mushroom that was slighly greasy..not worth the £6 at all.. The dough ballls were pleasant to try but they were scattered about the plate and looked like half of them had escaped.

Starters whisked aside we zoned in on our pizzas. This was well made, with a good thin crispy base and laden with giant prawns.

Overall this is an okay place, the service was inconsistent, but the cocktails and pizza were good value for money. Next time I will skip the starters though.

I like Croma, and I have visited several times to take advantage of their "Early Bird" special, which consists of a starter, beer or wine, and a pizza, all for £11.95. Currently, this deal is on Sunday to Friday 15:00-19:00 (extended until 22:00 on Mondays). It had been a while since I last visited until recently, but is seemed as popular as ever, especially on a Friday night. Despite it being busy, the service was top class.

For starters, I ordered the dough balls, which are smothered with butter and very tasty. One gets a generous portion, which equates to a good starter. I am a fan of food with a bit of spice, and when it comes to pizza, often I cannot refuse Chorize Piccante or a similar pizza dish. I was a little disappointed when the pizza arrived, as I prefer a flat crispy base, which is how I remember Croma pizzas to be, but on this occasion, the base was more deep pan. On top of the base was a significant of pasata sauce, which was flavourful, but lacked spice. Therefore, it had a stronger tomato taste. The rest of the toppings were good: chorizo, green peppers, jalepeno, fresh chillies and mozzarella.

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!

STILL amazing! Excellent meal, great Service, great atmosphere, amazing Aglafino pizza, nice house wine, always a great experience at a reasonable price. The dough balls app is so incredibly simple and good (ask for extra fresh parsley on top) and the mushroom app, delicious! Still 5 stars! Happy Birthday SAM!

Real Italian food with amazing cocktails. My favorite was sweet and sours Amaretto. Wow great combination. You need try . Pizza was with full fresh herbs oregano and bassil. My recommendation is spicy beef pizza with jalapeños. This place is very big and always busy. Make the reservation first.

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 think the pizza tastes great!.and the pastas are different from that i used to eat.but still delicious.the taste of cheese is really good.and they also provide extra cheese for me to add.it is good.and the chicken piri piri is a little bit spicy,but i like it.

Pizza pizza pizza, I just can't get enough of it and if you want a good pizza then Croma is a safe bet.

I have been to Croma quite a few times now and it really is very consistent. It does high quality pizza, it is in a great location (close to the town hall), it's family friendly and in my experience the service has always been really good. OK so there are places in Manchester where you can get bigger crazier pizzas but Croma will not let you down.

I have been informed by friends that if you don't want pizza then the choice is quite limited but I think I am going to need to have a serious chat with these "friends"...why would anyone not want pizza.