Tradita: I visited an intimate Italian tapas restaurant on Abbeydale Road and here's my verdict on the food

The stretch of Sheffield running from London Road to Abbeydale Road, just beyond the city centre, offers diners a selection of restaurants many cities would be envious of.

Cuisines from all across the world including Turkish, Greek, Japanese, Vietnamese, Italian, Kurdish, Mexican and Indian are represented along the vibrant, 1.3 mile strip. 

And so, if you want to stand out in that side of town, it’s essential that your food offering provides customers with something unique and memorable. 

For Tradita at 227 Abbeydale Road, their specialty, their unique selling point, is their Italian-style tapas, or cicchetti. 

The restaurant is a family affair, run by Dario Sollazzo, with the help of his partner, Claire Brett, and their son, Flavio Sollazzo. 

It has 28 seats, making for an intimate dining experience, and I went along with a dining companion on a spring Friday night to try their take on Italian tapas, along with the other food on offer.  

Tradita, which opened around six months ago, was quiet when we arrived, after a large group cancelled at the last minute, which is always a frustrating and disappointing experience for those working in hospitality. 

Lounge versions of pop classics played gently in the background as we perused the menu, which is split into one side for pastas and one side for the cicchetti. 

It would have been rude not to sample a few of the cicchetti, which we ordered at the beginning of the meal to act as a starter.  

We opted for the parmigiana, which is a dish of layers of aubergine, Parmesan cheese, Napoli sauce and basil. It tasted rich and luxurious, with a well-balanced and perfectly seasoned array of flavours. 

Next was the spiedini caprese, consisting of two skewers of mozzarella, basil and cherry tomatoes. 

I found it to be a simple but excellent dish, with fresh basil and a subtle drizzle of olive oil, which allowed the hero flavours of mozzarella and tomato to stand out. 

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My meat-loving dining companion sampled the costolette di maiale, pork ribs in a special house sauce, enjoying its depth of flavour from slow cooking, lovely umami from tomatoes then fresh top notes from herbs. Overall, he found it to be a very satisfying dish. 

Moving on to the main dishes, he plumped for the linguini gamberetti e zucchine, which is linguini cooked with baby prawns, garlic, chilli and courgettes. 

He enjoyed the unmistakably Italian light touch, with beautifully al dente linguine with flavoursome little prawns and equally firm strips of courgette.

I went for the penne vegetali, cooked with courgettes, mushrooms, aubergines, garlic, olives, cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts and rosemary. 

I enjoyed the hint of mint and the vegetables, which were fresh and well cooked, but the dish was pretty dry and I feel like it would have benefited from the use of a sauce. 

On the side, we had a mixed salad, which tasted fresh, and had a pleasing crunch to it, along with some tasty, homemade garlic bread. 

To finish off the meal, we split a tiramisu, which was homemade, delicious and a definite highlight of the meal. 

We enjoyed a bottle of eredita antica chianti classico, and found it to be full-bodied, with a fruity aftertaste which lingered on the palate, making for a great accompaniment to the food. The service was great, and you really got a sense that Tradita is a family business which strives to make eating out an experience. 

Its food is good value, and well worth a try.