YOU may remember a few years back Confidential coining the acronym YAFI - Yet Another Fucking Italian, denoting the relentless stream of half-arsed cookie cutter Italian restaurants invading our high streets. Of course you remember, we bring it up at every opportunity, like Dad's one good joke.
Every day we'll post three new restaurants, you pick your favourite and the winner moves on to the next round
And whilst we can no longer leave our homes for the fear that someone will plonk a Zizzi in our garden while we're out, the fact remains that some of the best Italian food Confidential has ever eaten was found, not in the back alleys of Milan or on the grand piazzas of Rome (where you'll get thoroughly rodgered for a mealy Dr Oetker pizza and a thimble of wine which smells like a rusty apple), but right here in the North West. Seriously. We wouldn't want to sway your vote, of course, but we recently visited a southern Italian pasta restaurant in Altrincham that outshone nearly every restaurant we've ever been to in Puglia... and we've been to three.
Still, enough of our favourites, because this is about yours. Over the coming weeks we'll be having a series of Twitter vote-offs pitting the city's most popular Italian restaurants against one another. We recently did it with boozers here.
Every day we'll post three new restaurants, you pick your favourite and the winner moves on to the next round until we arrive at YOUR favourite of the lot. Then we pootle on round to the winner and give 'em a nice award to plonk on the bar and a kiss on the cheek. Easy as that.
So get involved on our Twitter and get behind your favourite Italian... and be quick as each poll will only last a day.
It's the big one, the final. VOTE for your favourite Italian: @GinoRestaurants vs @Piccolino_Mcr. GO!
— Mcr Confidential (@mcrconfidential) April 13, 2016
THE RESULTS
Round 1:
Votes: 168 - Jamie's Italian 30%, Puccini 44%, Giorgio's 26%
Round 2:
Votes: 195 - Gino D'Acampo My Restaurant 69%, Dom's Tavola 17%, Leo's 14%
Round 3:
Votes: 210 - San Carlo 56%, Al Bacio 31%, Porada 13%
Round 4:
Votes: 126 - Carluccio 42%, Don Marco 40%, Gio's 18%
Round 5:
Votes; 145 - Salvi's 66%, La Delicatezze Di Bruno 14%, Avalanche 20%
Roung 6:
Votes: 422 - Piccolino 65%, Pasta Factory 15%, Azzurro 20%
Round 7:
Votes: 357 - Rosso 59%, Don Giovanni 34%, Bellini's 9%
Round 8:
Votes: 554 - Sugo 21%, Per Tutti 34%, Vapiano 27%, Gusto 18%
Quarter Final 1:
Votes: 1,087 - Puccini 12%, Gino D'Acampo My Restaurant 88%
Quarter Final 2:
Votes: 245 - San Carlo 59%, Carluccios 41%
Quarter Final 3:
Votes: 549 - Piccolino 64%, Salvi's 36%
Quarter Final 4:
Votes: 357 - Rosso 59% vs Per Tutti 41%
Semi Final 1:
Votes: 1,431 - Gino D'Acampo My Restaurant 82%, San Carlo 18%
Semi Final 2:
Votes: 2,382 - Piccolino 51%, Rosso 49%
Final:
13 April: Gino D'Acampo My Restaurant vs Piccolino