Sweet nothings: TriBeCa

A PLATTER of antipasto, a couple of pizzas, a generous glug or two of Chianti.  

To finish, some home baked New York cheesecake with, ahhh, one plate, two spoons: the most toothsome gesture of amour. Or, conversely, the unhappy outcome of a crockery tantrum.

The crisp, 12-in base was the only vastly inflated thing about it. As competent as any we've had in central Liverpool and, simply put, remarkable value

With the next big manufactured consumer event coming up on February 14, we started wondering where can you treat your squeeze on the cheap - without sacrificing any of the class.

Why pick pizza? Well, for one thing, relationships can turn messy and you don't want your appearance to. Not yet, anyway.  

Underestimate these things at your peril. Even a Barbarian can munch a calzone with a modicum of elegance while plying their newly significant other with seductive talk and beverages.  

A slice in the hand bears none of the potential pitfalls of, say, spag bol dangling out of your left nostril. (Has that charming dinner partner ever surprised you by collapsing into a bowl of pasta? Eh? It's a must.)

Or how about barbecue ribs on which you gnaw like a dog, to be left with only bare bones, sticky, meandering hands and, quite possibly, an empty seat opposite, half way through?

 
No, pizza is the one, if you want to keep The One. Particularly early on, and particularly if you plan to have money left over for dancing and chemical-free cocktails till dawn. 

Within a 500-yard radius of the Liverpool Confidential HQ on Colquitt Street, there is an abundance of restaurants with a pizza oven. In most, our three basic courses, outlined at the start, will relieve you upwards of £55 for two. Ah, you say, but these are classy joints. The food is top notch in its category. The service is friendly, swift and knowing. 

Yep, TriBeCa ticked all those boxes too, and the entire bill weighed in at £39. 

It's a popular haunt on the corner of Roscoe Lane and Berry Street, with a chic, modern interior that manages a buzzy, big city vibe early on. It's a bit NYC TriBeCa, actually, and DJs take it to a different level after 10. Then a vast and imaginative cocktail menu (all around the £6 mark) is the order of service and people like Bez and Pete Doherty have been known to mix the sounds amid the Manhattans and Mojitos. 

The first course (£6.95) was substantial and well presented: Parma ham, Milano and Napoli salami, Gorgonzola and tellagio cheeses were served with olives, sun-blushed tomatoes and.... What, what, what? Asda garlic crackers? Oh yes, a tumble of them.  

While a wonderful thing with ripe Brie and caramelised onions after the pub, they seemed at odds here, with cooked, cured meats. But hey, the Asda garlic cracker is a thing of rare beauty in the savoury biscuit world, as was its late, close relative, the Asda spring onion cracker, and one has been around the block of cheese enough times to know. 

The pizzas are why people eat here. A centrepiece open kitchen delivers a huge array of them, more than 30.

Italian flour dough on which perches anything, and in the case of the TriBeCa Classico (£7.95) everything. Pepperoni, seafood, chillies, vegetables whatever, they lash the lot on. This is the very most you will pay for a pizza in here: all the others are £5.95, including the pretty faultless frutti di mare with plenty of fat juicy prawns, mussels and squid. 

Timings were spot on with both; the mozzarella and other ingredients were generous and the crisp, 12-in base was the only vastly inflated thing about it. As competent as any we've had in central Liverpool and, simply put, remarkable value.

The red, a Botter Chianti (D.O.C) for £14.95, was on the rustic side of rough, but the food softened the edges. A bottled beer from a big range will set you back £3, so it's possible to eat well here with a drink for under a tenner, and linger, linger. 

You may be out with a cheapskate, but before you head off try that cheesecake (£4.95).

Thick, rich and sticks to the roof of your mouth – not unlike snogging a Premiership football player then?