Bar Biccari, Horbury Gives A Taste Of La Dolce Vita

Finding Bar Biccari proved a little difficult after I had ventured off the M1 to Horbury.

I thought I would try the old trick of asking a stranger directions to a restaurant which is a few miles away from where I was. If they know about the place it must be either a good sign - or maybe not.

The chap I asked knew of Bar Biccari and its good reputation as an authentic Italian restaurant.

The building looks quite ostentatious which makes sense as it used to be a bank. There's a Prosecco bar upstairs with an outside terrace. The fickle summer weather meant we had to stay inside the relaxed atmosphere of sympathetically decorated bar with its cooling blue and hints of brown to compliment the colour scheme.

To get to our table we wandered down the staircase where the colour scheme dramatically changed to the colours of the Italian flag: red, white and green.

Service is like a well oiled machine - the staff all seem to know their duties and carry out their duties with a smile and genuinely seem pleased to work there.

Surprisingly for a midweek night Bar Biccari is full - there was not a spare table to be had.

The menu is not that vast but includes all the Italian favourites, though I did witness a few diners opting for the chargrilled fillet steak.

As a sharing starter our Garlic and Mozzarella pizza was crisp and not dripping with fat which is sometimes the case. The Arancini comes as a deep fried stuffed rice ball with spinach and mozzarella served with some seriously rich cheese fondue.

All the pizzas are cooked in the restaurant's Tuscan wood fired oven so you get that true pizza taste you always get in Italy. I decided upon the Calzone Meat Feast Special, stuffed with meat balls, chicken, pepperoni, ham and fennel sausage. It is indeed a feast that for me ranked up alongside the best I have eaten in Italy.


My partner chose the Tagliatelle Pomodoro served with sun dried tomato and pine nut pesto and lemon grilled chicken. Close your eyes and you could have been back in Italy apparently.

Chocolate features heavily in the list of deserts. My partner went with the cool and tangy Lemon Tart whilst I was pleased to see my Italian ice cream selection served in a proper sundae glass. The vanilla ice cream in particular was just as good as you would taste at a Gelateria.


A good experience all round - thankfully Horbury is a lot easier to get to than Italy at the moment.

Bar Biccari, The Bank, 2 Highfield Road, Horbury, Wakefield WF4 5LU
http://barbiccari.co.uk/