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LIVIN’ Italy Dough House Leeds Reviewed

Two months ago LIVIN Italy’s Dough House started spreading a little gioia di vivere to Leeds’ party district, just north of the river. Founder and Managing Director Mattia Boldetti saw the opportunity to open his new venue on Cloth Hall Street as a slice of buona fortuna. Opposite Broderick’s Corn Exchange, the once bustling centre of the city’s grain trade, with it’s domed glass roof designed to allow corn merchants to inspect each granule meticulously, LIVIN Italy’s second Leeds home is a fitting shrine to all things dough. Proud of it’s cereal’s heritage and field to fork ethos, they source their flour from Molino Quaglia, who’s family have been milling near Padua, inland from Venice, since 1914.

LIVIN Italy Dough House Leeds Interior

Inside the air is thick with burning charcoal; the embowed oven a flaming vessel for the pizzaiolos handiwork. And, with true Italian bravata, nothing is hidden from show. The tiled bar sits in the middle of the unit, serving on all three sides, but in front, a huge projection live streams the dough being stretched and kneaded and dusted in mesmeric cycles. It’s a lively space, that took a year to come together, gutting out what was Zizzi’s with the help from a London team of interior designers.

Emblazoned on the wall at Dough House Leeds…“It’s more than just flour, it’s a way of life”, there’s no escaping the passion behind the concept, younger and more family orientated it seems than the Granary Wharf site. That culture of multiple generations sharing food at long Italian tables, is replicated here, and the restaurant is loud with birthday parties and groups fuelling up before a night out. The menu too caters for a crowd. You can build your own antipasti platters, served with traditional Sardinian Pane Curasau (thin bread), and homemade pear chutney, choose Ligurian Foccacia or Wholegrain Southern Cubes with radicchio balsamic cream, or enjoy chargrilled Bruschette rubbed with garlic and topped with an array of fresh Italian delicacies.

LIVIN Italy Dough House Bruschetta

Your options are printed on La Gazzetta, a newspaper menu as overwhelming as the news itself. We, like the nation, struggled to make a meaningful vote, first nibbling on a bowl of Nocellara olives, buttery and mirrored green. Then, from the street food side, Crostino Di Polenta, a little yellow bed for a tumbling duvet of wild mushrooms, garlicky and well seasoned. The most gorgeous Gnocco Fritto sits plump on printed greaseproof, a ball of deep-fried dough, like the Coccoli found in trattoria’s around Tuscany, served with ribbons of cured hams and creamy cheeses. This was crowned with pancetta coppata, fatty and salty under an oozing Stracciatella, crispy rosemary, and the nonpareil: honey.

LIVIN Italy Dough House Leeds Pizza Maker

A real feast for your eyes, are their 20 inch pizzas, which come Tradiizionale, a base combination of three organic unrefined flours, or Integrale – 100% Italian wheat-grain, billed as crunchy, healthy and delicious. Dough House Leeds chef’s recommendations include the Gratinata, with house-cured salmon, braised courgettes, breadcrumbs and watercress, and the Stracotta, where slow cooked rib of beef is doused in red wine, and married with smoked Scamorza cheese and thyme. We mourned the next tables beef sliders in homemade chia mini milk panini buns, dripping with melted fontina and BBQ sauce.

LIVIN Italy Dough House Leeds Gelato

On the drinks front, cocktails are the tipple of choice, skilfully mixed with the beloved Italian ‘Amaro’ Liquor, or bitter gin based Aperol’s and Negroni’s. Wines are reasonably priced and sourced from small Italian vineyards, and the craft beers are unique to LIVIN Italy Dough House Leeds, both bottled and on draught. The staff are as authentic as the food, charming and knowledgable. We are thrilled with a personal recommendation for the Yoghurt Amarena Cherry, just one of the gelato flavours, made in the artigianale tradition with just 6% fat and no added preservatives. Served in little paper cups and tested on mini wooden spatulas, it’s like being transported to the Gelaterias of fond holidays.

Save yourself a flight and tuck-in at Leeds’ Gourmet Pizzeria and Dough House.