Slice of Sicily is a restaurant and deli

After a recommendation from Preston Blog reader @ruby_gem I decided to book a table at the Italian restaurant, Slice of Sicily in Penwortham.

It’s a little cafe style restaurant tucked away on Priory Lane. The restaurant is housed in a conservatory style building at the back, behind the deli, that has a continental feel to it. We were shown to a small table with a good view of the kitchen.

As it was Valentine’s Day we were given a complimentary glass of prosecco each – which was nice and tasty. The place was filing up fast and we were glad we’d booked. I went for a starter of chicken in pesto sauce while my girlfriend went for mozerella sticks with a dip. The food was whisked straight out of the kitchen onto our plate, one of the advantages of sitting right next to the kitchen!

The menu isn’t massive but this is a good thing, it stops you spending an hour pondering what to have. The starters were delicious and the portion sizes adequate. However, there was no gap between the starter and the mains. We’d just put our cutlery down from our starter and our plates where whisked away and then the mains were infront of us.

I’d plumped for a tricolore pizza (cheese, mozorella, parma ham) while my girlfriend went for the tortollini funghi (mushrooms to me and you). The pizza was reasonably dry, not much melted cheese and this was made worse by the lack of drinks. We’d ordered another drinks when our mains arrived but I was two thirds of the way through my pizza when our drinks turned up. This was no fault of the staff (all two of them) who were forced to rush around for the whole night due to the place being understaffed.

My girlfriend enjoyed her very creamy tortollini and the portion size was just right, meaning she wasn’t absolutely stuffed.

We decided not to have a dessert or a coffee and a brief chat with the waiter as we were paying the bill (just under £40 for starter, mains and one side order, and two rounds of drinks) revealed they’d had a very busy week – so the credit crunch doesn’t seem to be affecting Penwortham.

Overall, a nice little restaurant, with great food, but they need to get the staffing levels sorted out to be able to offer better service.

Rating: Food: 4/5, Drink: 3/5, Service: 2/5, Atmosphere/decor: 3/5, Value for money: 4/5

Overall: 16/25

Need to book? Definitely for early(ish) on a weekend and can imagine it’s busy at lunchtimes.

Phone: 01772 750040

Address: 7 Priory Lane, Penwortham, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 0AR (map)

Takeaway service is available.