YORK Italian restaurants have come out on top at a top awards.

Cicchetti Lounge in Low Petergate won the best newcomer restaurant award at the Best English Italian awards gala final, at the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds.

Burro restaurant in Riccall won the best wine selection at the same awards with Cresci in Piccadilly named best pizzeria with all three voted for by members of the public via the awards website.

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Housed in an historic stone corn mill, Burro (Italian for butter) was set up in 2019 by three friends from Sardinia - Luca Oggiana, GianMatteo Saba and Francesco Chirigoni.

Berardo Caggiano opened Cresci at 20 Piccadilly, in the former Pavers shoe store, in April 2020, and uses authentic ingredients imported from Italy and traditional methods including a pizza oven brought over from Naples. "Everything is according to tradition and we keep it as simple as possible," says Berardo.

Cicchetti Lounge first opened its doors in the former Grön cafe and bar premises, which before that were run by Filmore and Union in November 2023 and a spokesman said the award "comes as a recognition of the hard work and vision of the team behind Cicchetti Lounge, La Vecchia Scuola and L'osteria Italiana - it's sister restaurants."

Ciccehetti, La Vecchia Scuola and L'osteria Italiana are all owned by Decio Franca and Ciccehetti is nextdoor to La Vecchia Scuola at 62 Low Petergate.

As previously reported by The Press, Decio is also one half of the duo behind La Piazza Antica in Goodramgate which he runs along with Arjan Boci.