Pasta You NEED To Try in Leeds
Oct 25, 2023
From 50+ years old traditional Italian recipes, to modern fusion restaurants, Leeds' Italian restaurants offers a wide array of pasta dishes to suit every taste and occasion.
Below we've highlighted a few of the Leeds' best pasta spots, each offering its unique twist on this beloved Italian classic. Whether you're seeking comforting classics or innovative creations, Leeds has something special for every pasta lover.
We lead guided and self-guided food tours around Leeds City Centre, they're ideal to do with friends or family
Click here for more information.
Let's kick off this World Pasta Day with a BANG, we're giving you some of our top suggestions for some of the best places to grab a plate of fresh pasta in Leeds...
La Piola
Specials available for vegans and vegetarians. Their menu asks you to inform the server of any allergies or dietary requirements.
A hidden gem, nestled on the edge of the beautiful Park Squave, La Piola has established itself as provider of authentic Italian food. Fabio, the owner of La Piola, is originally from a town in Northern Italy, called Cuneo, and uses only authentic Italian ingredients alongside locally sourced goods from Yorkshire suppliers.
La Piola has a fantastic menu on the whole, each dish focusing on a different region from the wonderful country that is Italy. Here you can enjoy Italian wines, cheese boards, arancini’s, but since we’re here to talk about the pasta, we need to shout out the varied pasta dishes on offer! Strozzapreti, orecchiette, gnocci, parpadelle, tagliatelle and more! La Piola offer their fresh artisan egg pasta with a range of ragu's, meat's, fish and veg, including weekly specials that also cater for vegans and vegetarians. This lovely spot has been capturing the hearts of all those who have visited it in the last year, so make sure to check it out soon!
View their menu here.
Sarto
Gluten-free pasta & vegan pasta dishes are available here.
Leeds’ very own pasta-dedicated restaurant, how could we NOT include Sarto!? Specialising in fresh, handmade pasta, Sarto was created with the aim of bringing something new to our city centre. With a casual atmosphere and a quirky industrial feel inside, Sarto is the ideal place to enjoy a lunch out with work colleagues or an evening with friends. Situated just next to Leeds Playhouse, it's a great place for a pre-theatre dinner (or TEA, as we say in Yorkshire!). When visiting, we had received some recommendations, their focaccia to start (a top tip is to save some of this delicious foccacia to ‘fare la scarpetta’- as the Italians say, which is using some bread to mop up your sauce on your plate that you just cannot leave behind!), then the wild mushroom, marsala cream fettucini.
We're lovers of all of the above, including being a big fan of anything including marsala- so it was an obvious order, and the pasta dish especially was a combination of flavours that made us left wanting to return time and time again!
View their menu here.
Stuzzi
Dietary requirements: Their sample menu does not provide options but asks you to inform the server of any allergies or dietary requirements.
An ever-changing small plates menu, Stuzzi Leeds offers its guests a weekly changing menu, meaning you can return time and time again to try their different combinations of pasta offerings. What we particularly like is how Stuzzi stays away from your traditional dishes and creates their own using quality produce both locally and from all over Italy. Some of their most recent offerings have included home-made trottole pasta with a white ragu of confit duck leg, cotechino sausage, caper and chilli, or a vegetarian option of campanelle pasta tossed with green lentils, roasted red pepper and chilli. It's hard for us to recommend a specific dish from Stuzzi, as one week its there and the next its not, so that's the perfect excuse to tell you to go and see whats on offer!
View their sample menu here.
Livin’ Italy
Gluten-Free pasta & vegan pasta dishes are available here.
Now if you’re looking for an authentic Roman carbonara fix in Leeds, Livin’ Italy is your place! Made the traditional way with eggs, pecorino cheese and most importantly, Guanciale – pig cheek, which is often quite hard to come across on a menu in England! Offering a selection of tomato, basil and cheese-based sauces, Livin’ Italy is ticking all of the boxes for a great place to celebrate World Pasta Day.
View their menu here.
Da Vito Ristorante
Gluten-Free option (not pasta)
Located on St Paul’s street, Da Vito Ristorante has been described as Leeds very own little Italy. Open for both lunch and dinner service, Da Vito has a varied menu, with a pasta to choose for any occasion. They have a great mix of meat, seafood and vegetarian dishes including classic favourites.
View their menu here.
Ciao Bella
Dietary requirements: They ask you to get in touch so they can advise how they are able to cater for any allergies.
Loved by many, Ciao Bella is situated on Dock Street, which is a gorgeous cobbled street, easily accessible from the centre of town. With friendly staff and a rather tempting pasta section on their menu, Ciao Bella are sat within a beautiful red-bricked building, which reflects on their interior design. They have an assortment of pasta dishes including a seafood linguine with black pasta, which is stained by squid ink (no wearing white though if you order this one!).
North Leeds
Salvo’s
Dietary requirements: Their menu does not provide options but asks you to inform the server of any allergies or dietary requirements.
Not quite in the city centre, but Salvo’s has been a North Leeds hub for, well, as long as we can remember! Featured in the Good Food Guide each year since 1984, there's a reason this restaurant holds a respectable 4.5 stars on TripAdvisor. Unlike the others on the list, Salvo’s offers a mix of your traditional Italian restaurant dishes as well as some new and exciting variations, think lasagne, bolognese, seafood pasta, not including an old Italian staple, pasta e fagioli, which is pasta with white beans and leeks. A personal favourite of ours is their salsiccia, this *may* have initially drawn us in due to the shape of the pasta in this dish, is it normal to have a favourite pasta shape? The mix of spicy nduja, mascarpone and pecorino is paired with sharp yet flavoursome fennel sausage meat- it is a fantastic combo which we’ve tried to recreate at home (even with the help of the Salvo’s cookbook) but it’ll never be the same.
View their menu here.
Zucco
Dietary requirements: Their menu does not provide options but asks you to inform the server of any allergies or dietary requirements.
On a recent trip to Rome, something we loved was how the restaurants had so many seasonal specials- Puntarelle Alla Romana was our particular favourite- a type of chicory dressed in an anchovy and garlic dressing- honestly incredible. You’re probably wondering why we’re talking about Rome when in Leeds, well, Zucco in Meanwood follows a similar approach; their menu can change daily, and its all down to the season and what ingredients they are able to source fresh. That’s why Zucco’s menu is so special, and how could we not include somewhere that has Nonna’s polpette and spaghetti on? (spaghetti and meatballs made by grandma). Again, Zucco is another establishment based just North of the city centre, yet people love it and will travel to it.
View their menu here.
Culto
Gluten-Free pasta & vegetarian option
‘For the love of good food!’ – you must try this place! Based in Meanwood, North Leeds, Culto offers its authentic Italian menu to both those who choose to dine in, and also to those who fancy an authentic Italian meal in the comfort of their own home. With ingredients delivered directly from Italy, prepared by their very own Italian chef’s, their menu is focused around good quality ingredients, including the famous San Marzano tomatoes (San Marzano is a town in Italy, as well as a type of tomato, which is long and thin in shape- they were originally grown in the volcanic soil at the base of Mount Vesuvius), all offered at a very affordable price. Their pasta dishes, from regions like Calabria, Bolgona, and Lazio, draw their customers back time and time again, the team behind Culto also owns Poco, our Leeds own Sicilian fix for all things pizza, arancini and desserts (read what desserts we love from Poco here).
View their menu here.
Where have we missed?
As always, we're super keen to find out more hidden gems around our wonderful city, if your favourite spot for a plate of quality Italian pasta isn't on here, please get in touch on our Instagram here!
Want to join us on a food tour?
We'd love to have you! We run both guided and self-guided food tours around Leeds City Centre, visiting some of the best spots for street food, hidden gems and more! If you'd like to book on to one of our tours, or find out more information, click here.
