For the past couple of weeks, my Instagram feed has been filled with absolutely delicious looking sandwiches.
Once again, Earl’s Deli was the culprit as they collaborated with much missed Manchester favourite Micky’s for a special menu on Saturday 31st May.
I’d been dreaming of the insane looking ‘Diego’ slow cooked beef brisket sub all week but I hadn’t quite anticipated the level of demand and when I was greeted with a ‘minimum 40 minute wait’ for a sandwich, my very hungry stomach decided to take us to another restaurant that I’ve been dying to try instead (which luckily is only a 5 minute walk from Earl’s).
Italian restuarant Tesoro was opened by cousins Joe Whittaker and Peter Lancaster to absolutely rave reviews, just over a year ago, and the venue ended 2024 by winning ‘Best Pizzeria’ at the UK Italian Awards.
The restaurant is on New Hall Lane in the Heaton area of Bolton and is just two doors down from Joe and Peter’s other venture ‘Provisions’, which sells incredible focaccia sandwiches, delightful desserts and cured meats and cheeses, imported from Italy.
When you first enter Tesoro, the first thing you notice is the 3ft black and white mosaicked pizza oven in the corner, which has apparently been flown in from Naples and is just one of three of its kind in the UK.
The rest of the décor follows suit with a simple black and white theme, with subtle gold accents to give it a stylish but unpretentious feel. The restaurant feels airy with a couple of hanging plants and floor to ceiling windows, allowing loads of natural light in.
Drinks first and Mrs Molloy and I both went for an Aperol Spritz (when in Rome and all that). When the drinks arrived, they were practically the size of our heads and they felt really good value.
I swerved a starter to leave more room for dessert but did end up having some of Mrs Molloy’s burrata, which was served with freshly baked flatbread and a rocket salad. The burrata was delightfully light and creamy and the chilli flatbread, which was still warm, was the perfect accompaniment.
Although I didn’t try the salad, Mrs Molloy said that the rocket and tomatoes both seemed incredibly fresh and she could tell that high quality olive oil and balsamic had been used. In fact, all of Tesoro’s meat, flour, tomatoes and cheese are imported from Italy, with milk, butter and eggs from Bolton’s very own Smithills Farm and olive oil from fellow Bolton business The Gift of Oil.
Shortly after the starter, our pizzas came out. I went for the ‘Campania’ from the ‘Tesoro Originals’ section of the menu (tomato, agerola mozzarella, Salami Napoli, nduja, chillies, hot honey drizzle).
All of the dough at Tesoro is hand-stretched daily and made for a razor thin base but with the traditional Neapolitan raised, airy crust. It also gave the pizzas a rustic look, with some charring on the crust like one of my other favourite pizza places – Twelve.
My pizza looked quite busy, with the huge circles of salami, scattered dollops of nduja and a generous serving of red and green chillis, but one of the toppings felt unnecessary and instead, they all worked together in perfect harmony. The sweet but subtly spicy hot honey drizzle really elevated all of the other flavours and really made them pop.
Despite it being a hefty 12” in size, I made short work of it, with each slice somehow more delicious than the one that preceded it.
Saving room for dessert turned out to be a masterstroke and the impossibly light tiramisu, which is a ‘Tesoro family recipe’, is possibly the best I’ve ever had – not just in this country but even compared to the ones I’ve had in Italy. It was really that good and on a completely different planet to the abomination served up by Louis. My only critique of it was that I wanted it to be about five times bigger than it was as I could have easily eaten it that many times over.
Tesoro is Italian for treasure and I couldn’t think of a more fitting name. If ever a meal was going to help me get over the FOMO of not getting my hands on one of those Earl’s x Micky’s creations, this was it and at just over £50 for two 12” pizzas, two cocktails, a starter and a dessert, it felt like an absolute steal.
I’m already thinking about next time.
Have you tried Tesoro? What did you think? Let me know in the comments.
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