Ricci's Ristorante Italiano

We are a young professional couple with high standards when it comes to dining out. During the three years that we have been living in South Sutton, we have become regular visitors to Ricci's - perhaps twice a month.

The restaurant is a stone’s throw from the station but is the last restaurant in the line of shops. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine that diners find themselves walking into one of the first Italians they come across rather than venturing a hundred yards to the end of the parade.

But Ricci's is certainly worth the few extra steps. The food is fantastic, the prices are very reasonable and the family who have owned the restaurant for years deliver the kind of service you would expect from a family-run Italian which genuinely values its customers.

The older lady who owns it always points out that her pizza bases are fresh and cooked from scratch in their big clay oven. Whatever you do, don’t confuse a Ricci's pizza base with a frozen one - I'm not convinced that you'd be forgiven. Her elderly and rather jolly husband will always joke in his strong accent (we think he's Italian) that he finds the credit card machine confusing. We find them really endearing.

Their Pizzas are amazing and the guy who has been manning the clay oven for years is either a perfectionist or he's got more pizza-preparing experience than you could shake a breadstick at.

For us, ambiance is key and Ricci's has a really pleasant, cosy atmosphere which I suspect is helped by the music(think Magic or Heart FM).

Ricci's is the restaurant you will want to make your regular.

We feel that if we are going to eat out during the credit crunch, we want to spend our money supporting small restaurants like Ricci's.

These locals and the people behind them were adding real colour to the community long before the chains arrived with their frozen pizza bases.