Fumo is a San Carlo restauraunt at 1 St Peters Square, near the turning onto Oxford Road and opposite Central Library. I decided to call here to grab some food, having been impressed with their gluten-free selection of risottod and pastas online, however their gluten-free menu was a pretty lazy laminated list compared to their very good online system - It didn't even describe the dishes eg) what is inside the risotto, type of pasta and it even didn't include some menu dishes including the pumpkin risotto. They have step-free access through the main 1 St Peter's Square building but it is still rather difficult as they seem to block it off with barriers for some bizarre reason. The food is tapas style and I really struggle to comprehend the need for italian style tapas, especially considering the prices are only slightly cheaper than what you'd pay for a full sized dish, meaning if you do purchase a couple (which you have to do), it can work out pretty expensive. The food was pretty slow and when my gluten-free carbonara was served it was cold, it did taste rather nice apart from that however after sending it back for it to be reheated it appeared that they remade it to the point it was sloppy with too much sauce and just not as good: it was obviously rushed and the worst part: it wasn't much hotter? Still being hungry, I decided to order the lobster risotto which is where everything turned. I sent my food back as the risotto just wasnt good, the rice was dry while the tomato flavour was just disgusting, it tasted like vommit. The lobster was even poor quality. After complaining, the manager forced me to explain three times what was wrong with it (he didnt seem to care or pay attention), after I asked them to knock it off my bill he originally refused because 'I already had used a 50% off food.' I mean come on, how can you charge someone for food that poor, looking down on someone for using a promotion they offer to all customers with a reservation anyway? To make matters worse, they charged me for a spaghetti dish which would have cost £4 more than the price anyway which he also refused to change at first. It seemed from that point onwards I was looked down upon, no staff member even looked at me, thanked me or said goodbye and left me to struggle to get out of the store including the doors and barriers - they just didn't care. The atmosphere was toxic and with a manager causing this what hope does Fumo have? No one even apologised to me for my issues, nor did they even explain the unique restaurant concept. A disgrace to the San Carlo name and brand, failing to treat their patrons with any decency. It is a real shame my first review of 2020 has to be a negative one. 1* read more

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I left a review two days ago complaining about the quality of food and service and today I noticed that on the bill a 10% gratuity was automatically added. We were a party of two so I find this to be ridiculous as well! So again, you can do better elsewhere! read more

Fumo - Calamari - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

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Looking for somewhere new - and a little bit different - for dinner recently, it occured to me that the new San Carlo Fumo was only around the corner. After a look on the (very nicely designed) website, we thought it looked like a great, slimmed down, menu compared to the places we usually frequent. We were warmly welcomed by front of house and given the choice of basically all the tables in the room; aside from a few families and couples, it was empty - after all, it was a Sunday! When the menu was presented to us, I was surprised and, if I'm honest, a little bit disappointed to find that it was a large and sprawling menu. Bye bye the previously admired, assumed to be carefully selected menu, and hello to a vast selection of Italian meals. Oh, and hello to the strange 'display' of a lemon and tomato on the table. Advised that it was almost like Italian tapas, we ended up with a table overflowing with food. Ravioli with spinach & cream cheese and a sweet tomato sauce, fried mozzarella, a special of gnocchi with parmesan 'fondue', ham & cheese calzone, pork belly, and courgette fries. I won't bore with the intimate details of each plate, but I will say that the gnocchi and calzone were the least exciting dishes, the gnocchi needing a healthy addition of pepper to get any real flavour and the calzone (although being tasty enough) needing more time in the oven for some crisp. The ravioli was a stand out favourite, and the courgette fries were a delicious 'alternative' side, especially as there was no need for any more carbs on our table at this point. As if we hadn't eaten enough, we decided to indulge in the cicchetti of desserts, which is basically a massive board with a miniature selection of their puds. It was impressive enough, but felt fairly old school, with a huge covering of chocolate powder/icing sugar. We managed to polish off the majority, but I can actually imagine this being best sat at the bar after a bottle of wine, as opposed to after a huge meal. I'd give it another go as Manchester always needs more Italian options, but I can't help but feel the look of the website is no where reflected in the actual restaurant. At least at the moment. read more

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Love this new Italian at number 1, St Peters Square. This lovely Italian is over 2 floors and boasts a trendy interior. The food is tapas style and is top notch! Very impressed. I recommend getting 3 tapas as they were decent sized portions. I had Sicilian prawns which were amazing,tempura style. I also had Chicken skewers and bruschetta. At around £9 per tapas,it's not exactly cheap but the food is high end. Very impressed! This place has some fab cocktails too. Staff were cute too :) I will defiantly be returning! 5 stars!! :) read more

Fumo - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

Very poor for both service & food this time. If I'd written this review after my first visit to Fumo it would have been a 5* without a doubt. However this time I felt like we were in an episode of Faulty Towers. Last time I went the service at the bar was exceptional. This time were were ignored, served awful drinks, told by one member of staff who was behind the bar that he'd get someone else to serve us as he 'wasn't supposed to be working' and had a barman try to pressure sell us the £25 Frank Sinatra version of the old fashioned. I was really shocked at the whole experience. We were given little nibble as we sat down but while last time these were fresh & tasty on this occasion they were just ok, obviously hadn't been done fresh and had been sitting around waiting for a good while. The bread was hard and the nibbles were quite disappointing overall. When we went to the table we were offered one backing on the till despite them having other tables available. This would have meant one of us constantly having a member of staff leaning over us to grab menus. Not ideal. They gave us another table but I was in a really cold draft and quite uncomfortable. To be fair when I mentioned the issues at the bar they gave us free olives & garlic bread but this didn't really make up for it. I'd rather just have had a good experience at the bar! Last time the food was perfect. My favourite dish had been the Arancini on the specials menu so I couldn't wait to order it again. This was a huge disappointment. Dry and fairly tasteless this time as oppose to fresh, hot & delicious last time. Although I understand that for this style of dining dishes are brought out as they are ready the service was a shambles. Things came out in three rounds, completely separately as if it was starters, mains and another course. We had Arancini and deep fried mozzarella on their own to 'start'. The mozzarella was good but comes with a very sharp tartar sauce style dip which doesn't really work with the cheese. The steak with chilli (poorly cooked, really hard, dry crust along the edges & completely raw in the middle) and the chicken wrapped in proscutio (good, well cooked & very tasty) came on their own after a while but we had also ordered gnocchi and chips. This meant we had the meats together then were left with two potato dishes to eat together when they came. Surely the kitchen could have seen we wanted steak & chips rather then gnocchi and chips? Maybe I'm expecting too much here. Without us asking a dessert platter was brought over. I appreciate the gesture but what if we'd wanted a different dessert? Anyway some of the items on here were good, some were not. The lemon meringue was dry, very hard and tasteless. The pistachio cake was delicious. The chocolate torte again was delicious and I'd highly recommend it. The ice cream/gelato was perfect, very creamy & rich with a great vanilla flavour. The tiramisu tasted great but the presentation of it was really poor. We thought it was rice pudding before we tasted it. The other issue seems to be that the staff struggle to understand the customers. Last time I was here we asked a question about a dish as we were deciding and then it arrived. The waitress had obviously not understood and put it through as an order. This time I asked for a glass of wine and the waiter tried to give us a bottle. I was raving about this place to everyone but now I'll be warning them off it. What a shame. My photos are from the first visit not the second. read more

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Services were ok, nice venue with good atmosphere. Staff asked me how's food and I havent got chance to say anything yet, he just left. Made me feel like he didnt actually care about the food's quality. Anyway, highly recommend Wild Mushroom Bruschetta. Pizza was quite dry and plain this time, last time it was so good so Im very disappointed about this. Same for lobster risotto, the lobster are way overcooked and I can tell its not fresh for sure! Such a waste of seafood if u cook it like this and serve it for your customer. Apart from this, the risotto was very well seasoned and flavourful. I also tried Gnocchi with truffle from special menu, the texture was not like the typical soft and puffy gnocchi I ate at italian restaurant. It was quite powdery, but the truffle flavour was quite strong and I like that. Roasted sweet potato were very good, they add anise to enhance the flavour which was a surprise. Might go back to try some drinks which looked pretty good from some posts online. read more

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Gr8 food and staff were helpful and friendly spoilt by over the top drink prices £25 pound for 2 gin& tonics is steep even for town. We will be going again in the future but will steer clear of the g & t read more

Fumo - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

The menu consists of 'cichetti', aka small plates, aka Italian tapas. The menu recommended 5-6 dishes for 2 people but this ended up being way too much food. The Calabrese pizza I got was oblong but pretty much the size of a regular pizza. It was spicier than I was expecting but OK. I also got queen scallops the shell, 2 of them to be exact. I was definitely expecting a little more, and certainly expected more flavour. The aubergine with mozzarella on top was better. The roast potatoes with onion were OK too My friend enjoyed her gorgonzola pasta, which she said was like a nice Mac 'n' cheese. Again it was a very generous portion. She wasn't a fan of her lobster which was "chewy" but enjoyed the risotto underneath. The service was very attentive. The decor was old fashioned glamour. Apart from the beef tomato and lemon on every table, a bit odd. They serve gluten free spaghetti and penne pasta, this allowed my friend to enjoy that Mac 'n' cheese for the first time in a while so she was pretty happy with that. Overall, not bad but I wouldn't rush to come back. read more

Fumo - Pizza calabrese - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

Headed back to Fumo for an evening meal with friends. Fumo does not disappoint, the service is exceptional with polite and friendly staff. Little perks such as aperitifs with your wine make this place feel like it's not just another italian in Manchester. We ordered the lamb chops, pork belly, pappardelle and a few other sides - all were really tasty. Dessert was the killer! Cheesecake and the Nutella/Ferrero icecream was to die for - shared between three it was just the right amount. Not the cheapest meal but we had a good few glasses of wine and its worth it! read more

Fumo - just desserts! - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

This was ok. However it's Tapas, for Tapas it's expensive and the menu is still laid out with starters towards the beginning and mains toward the end. Service was decent but not exceptional and they charge 10 per cent anyway in the bill. I would recommend the Anthologist about 25 yards away read more

Atmosphere was amazing, service was great. Perfect portion sizes, and so well priced considering it's the San Carlo chain. I much prefer here to San Carlo. I think the food is less rich and oily and more chic inside (not paper table cloths) I had the lobster risotto, beef ragu with parpadelle and a cheese mozzarella and Serrano ham flatbread with garlic and chilli (highly recommend all these dishes) read more

Fumo - Lobster risotto - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

Went here for my friends birthday. As it was a weekday it was very quiet, however this was great as we were waited on hand and foot. We ordered a meat platter for two which had lamb cutlets, itallian sausage and beef it was accompanied by sweet potato crips, caugette chips and a lovely sald. The food was very tasty but could have been served at a higher temperature. We orderd a bottle of rosay prosecco which was absolutely georgous.! Would deffo reccomend this to people esp. Couples as ot was a dimmed romantoc setting. read more

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First time in this place and initial impression was good....this changed when we bought our first drink at the bar. I'm used to town prices but £25.00 for two G&T's is taking the Mickey. Once we got over the shock we took our table. One thing to remember when checking out the menu is that the dishes are tapas style so do seem quite reasonable but they are smaller than a usual plate of food. The food was nice without being spectacular and three dishes each filled a spot. I will probably return but am in no real rush, after all there are plenty of other places and with any luck ....cheaper G&Ts! read more

Good time, nice place for drinking, spend 4 hours at the bar. Next time will go for dinner :) read more

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Celebrated my friend's birthday in Fumo. Very nice service, food and handsome waiters~ read more

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I had high expectations for this restaurant and decided to try 4 plates: Mozzarella balls, arancini balls, carbonara pasta and the beef fillet. The Mozzarella balls were the highlight of the night in comparison to the rest, the arancini balls were fried to death and were too dry. The Carbonara pasta was semi-uneatable with pieces of bone in the bacon and the beef fillet was just a hot mess. Service was somewhat decent. I will not be returning to Fumo in my future Manchester trips. read more

What a fantastic restaurant, with great staff and a delicious menu! As soon as I walked through the doors I knew I was going to enjoy myself! We were greeted by a friendly & chatty waiter who escorted us to our seats and talked us through the concept of cicchetti - sharing size portions of all the Italian favourites. As someone who is very indecisive and often suffers from food envy this was my perfect restaurant; I ordered everything that took my fancy (well.. almost everything!!) The starters, although amazingly presented, didn't really feel like they were designed to be shared - particularly between four people. The mains, however, were great - the pizza and pasta in particular were really easy to spilt up and dive in to each dish! I think for future visits with big groups I'd order my own starter then share lots of mains.. for a couple I reckon it would be much easier to share and have a bit of everything! The desserts were also fab - the tiramisu was a generous slab and the strudel tasted home made and authentic. The lemon meringue lacked the punch of lemon I'd have liked but I can forgive that on this occasion! People need to bookmark this and check it out :) read more

Really like the feel of Fumo. Attentive staff. Very well presented. Food is on lovely portions and the carbonara was to due for. Also best frozen daiquiris in the City. Very moderate in price. Lovely decor and a great management team. Helps they are all handsome lol. Defo going back read more

Sophisticated experience at the hands of those San Carlo folk on a warm Saturday evening just recently. A continuation of the cicchetti concept from San Carlo Cicchetti in House of Fraser. Think the menu is similar from previous visits to the HOF venue. Plenty of choice though. The menu isn't reproduced on their website, so a little difficult to recall all the dishes that myself and my dining companion enjoyed. The lasagne and pizza margherita were particularly good and the lamb too, with a pouring sauce. The green beans though didn't hit the spot; they were really lacking in taste. Dessert was a lovely compilation of the sweet menu, and more than enough for the two of us with a tall glass of latte each to finish. All the dishes were beautifully presented, and service was superb with typical Italian flair. Given it was a Saturday (early evening) you would expect it to be busy, and it was ! They have a bar area too, and are well known for their cocktails. This restaurant is the perfect place for a special birthday or celebratory meal. Give it a try ! read more

Fumo - Sharing selection of desserts - more than enough for two ! - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Manchester, XGM

Great experience! It seems to depend on how you choose. Meals for us, however, were very tasty.

loved this restaurant. very nice when you go in ... staff very friendly. The food is Italian tapas style the waiter recommended to order three dishes each and I did ... The food was lovely. I had sicilian prawns brushetta and lobster risotto. The cocktails were great too. read more

Have had some seriously amazing food at Fumo. Part of the San Carlo group and you can tell their reputation for excellence hasn't slipped at this venue one bit. The wines are amazing, and there are so many starters to choose from you'll really struggle (the cod croquettes are my favourite but the mozzarella balls are pretty awesome too). I recently had the scallops with the pea and ham side and it was phenomenal! And of course, you can't go to Fumo and not get the sharing dessert - if I said ice cream and Nutella and ferrero rocher would you be interested? My only annoyance at Fumo is that everything just arrives when ready, one member of our party had starters a long while after their main which just seems a bit disjointed. No idea why they do this as it wasn't even that busy at the time! Food more than makes up for it though - just be prepared for this to happen! read more

Interesting concept. Awesomely delicious food. But what a slow service!! Go there if you have time and enjoy every bite in no rush.

Tonight, at exactly 6:30,my food came. But it wasn't even prepared properly! I even ordered potatoes to come with my cod, but they came fifteen minutes before! Disgraceful. All the food was lukewarm. The cod was salty and sour and well, disgusting. The manager looked a bit evil too, if I do say so myself. All the waiters didn't even do anything if you had a bad meal(us).OUR waiter was nice-ish, but didn't speak English. Why hire Italians if a majority of your customers don't speak Italian? The manager was trying to be nice and saying could we have anything else. We just ended up leaving and went to a very much nicer place that was more lovely call Don Giovanis. ASTA LA VISTA SAN CARLO FUMO!! read more

This review is for the bar as I only visited Fumo for drinks. Firstly this place is really impressive. There's lots of glass, plush seating and clean opulent lines. The bar is impressive as an amazing array of bottles are displayed in tall glass cabinets. We perused the cocktail menu and although we didn't expect it to be cheap we were a little shocked at what we got for the money we paid. I ordered a Campari based cocktail for £9.50 and eagerly waited for the barman to shake and make it but to my disappointment he simply opened a bottle and poured out my drink. I think he thought that his trick of turning the glass as he poured was going to be impressive enough but quite frankly it wasn't. My friend ordered a disaronno and coke, she wasn't asked what size measure she wanted and was automatically given a double at the whopping price of £13. It was at this point that we knew Dick Turpin's Italian cousin was in town. To be honest I'm getting a bit sick of these places that think just because they look good, know better than the customer and think they can rip us off. I'd say Fumo is a good place to try if you're celebrating a special occasion but otherwise there are better more affordable options in the city centre. read more

Everything I ordered met and exceeded my expectations. I truly loved the cheese truffle pasta, the burrata cheese appetizer and the lobster risotto. The service is ok, relative to the excellent service in San Carlo on Deansgate. read more