Independent Italian restaurants and takeaways in Leeds
10 independent businesses we've checked. None is part of a chain or franchise, and none paid to be listed.
This list follows what each place's own page says it is or offers, not a category we chose. If we're not sure a place fits, we leave it out.
- Updated 8 November 2026
- Next check due March 2027
All 10, alphabetically
The order is not a ranking: nobody can pay to be on this list, or to be higher up it. How we check
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A Casa Di Alessia
Restaurant · Otley
A Casa di Alessia is an Italian café and restaurant at Unit 5, Orchard Gate, Otley. Its own description sets out what it makes: Roman pizza by the square slice, calzoni, salads and Italian cakes, to eat in or take away, with the dough given 24 hours of natural rising and built on Italian ingredients and fresh local vegetables. Fresh pasta is made traditionally on Fridays and Saturdays, and Italian store-cupboard products are sold alongside the food. It is listed as serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, with outdoor seating in the courtyard, and it carries a 4.9-star Tripadvisor rating from around 143 reviews.
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Buon Apps River Lounge & Italian Restaurant
Restaurant · Otley
Buon Apps River Lounge & Italian Restaurant is an Italian restaurant at Hartley House, 50 Mill Way, in Otley, on the banks of the River Wharfe. Its website lists pinsas, lasagnes, starters, mains, sides and desserts, with Italian roasts of beef, lamb, pork, chicken or fish on Sundays. Pinsas and lasagnes are also sold as cook-at-home meals, and celebration cakes are made by in-house patissiers. The website says it is run by Alessandro and family, and it was rated 5, very good, at its last food hygiene inspection in August 2024.
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Cena Bistro
Restaurant · Guiseley
An independent Italian restaurant at 2A Oxford Road in Guiseley. It trades as Cena Bistro (Leeds) Ltd, incorporated in January 2019, with Elaine Cutler as sole director and controlling shareholder; Companies House records its activity as a licensed restaurant. It describes itself as offering fresh, authentic Italian food in a cosy setting. The kitchen sends out pizzas, pastas and risottos alongside seafood specials and meat dishes, and a Kiev calzone appears on local listings as a house signature. It opens in the evening only — Tuesday to Saturday from 5pm and Sunday from 4pm, closed Mondays. A Yorkshire Evening Post review noted that the premises had been home to several different restaurants before Cena took it on.
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Ecco
Restaurant · Headingley
Ecco Pizzeria is an independent Italian restaurant at 93 Otley Road in Headingley, Leeds, serving Neapolitan-style pizza, pasta and freshly made gelato, with gluten-free and vegan choices. It offers eat-in, collection and delivery, and also operates a second site in Rusholme, Manchester.
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Fifty-Eight Giardino
Restaurant · Pudsey
Fifty-Eight Giardino is an Italian restaurant and bar at 10 Town Street, Farsley. It trades as Fifty Eight Giardino Ltd, incorporated on 18 April 2025 and registered at the same Town Street address, with Ezgi Yalcinkaya as its current director. The kitchen works to hand-rolled pasta and wood-fired pizza, and the restaurant says its head chef trained in traditional trattorias and osterias in Tuscany and Rome. It runs a bottomless Italian brunch from Thursday to Saturday. It opens from noon Tuesday to Sunday and closes on Mondays.
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IC Italian Restaurant
Restaurant · Morley
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Il Vicoletto
Restaurant · Otley
Il Vicoletto is an Italian café and restaurant at 9 Mercury Row, Otley. The Visit Otley listing describes it as serving Roman cuisine with a chef from Rome, working to menus that change with the season and covering both traditional and contemporary dishes, with food served through the day as well as in the evening. It cooks from scratch rather than buying in, opens for lunch at weekends and for dinner on a handful of evenings a week, and carries a 4.7-star Google rating from around 95 reviews.
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Napoli Nel Cuore
Restaurant · Horsforth
Napoli Nel Cuore is a family-run Italian restaurant and pizzeria at 30 Town Street in Horsforth, Leeds. Run by a Neapolitan family, it specialises in Neapolitan cuisine, serving pizza, pasta and desserts with vegetarian and vegan options, and offers dine-in as well as delivery through Just Eat and Deliveroo.
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Semolino
Restaurant · Chapel Allerton
Semolino is a small, independent Italian takeaway and café at 3 Newton Parade, on the Chapel Allerton–Potternewton border close to Chapel Allerton Hospital. It is run by chef Fabio, who trained in Italy and cooked in Australia, France, Switzerland, Spain and England before settling in Leeds, and his menu spans northern and southern Italian traditions. Expect panini, pizza by the slice, pasta dishes such as carbonara, antipasti and Italian pastries including cannoli, alongside espresso. Mainly a takeaway with a few bar stools, it holds a 5-star food hygiene rating and strong reviews on Tripadvisor and the delivery platforms, where customers mention the warm welcome and good value.
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Trattoria Il Forno
Restaurant · Horsforth
Trattoria Il Forno is an Italian restaurant, pizzeria and gelateria at 85 Town Street in Horsforth, Leeds. It is known for wood-fired pizzas, and its menu also features Italian starters, pasta and desserts such as tiramisu. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
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