Ariete Italian Bar & Restaurant

Very nice restaurant, and would be rated at 4 stars however, the food quality has dropped considerably over the past 5 years.
The dough balls come as rocks in a pool of oil and the mains are of very amateur ‘do it at home’ quality.
The service and restaurant are great, and I hope they can bring in new kitchen staff to deliver some amazing italian dishes of which this place deserves.

Lovely restaraunt, lovely surroundings, food very hit and miss, staff lacking in customer service. Wouldn’t go back.

Ariete Bar and Restaurant nestles at the heart of Newton-le-Willow’s picturesque High Street, three miles from Warrington and St. Helens or a 30-​minute drive from both Manchester and Liverpool. What is today the entrance to the restaurant was originally the gateway into Haydock Park Racecourse. When the archway became too narrow for the increasingly wide coaches, it was donated to the former ‘Council of Newton-​le-​Willows’ as an entrance to the local market. The building is very impressive with a long and interesting history. Everything about Ariete is brilliant, food, atmosphere and service. A very different experience — check it out!

Anybody else ever been on a Merseyside slash Manchester train, passed Newton-​Le-​Willows and thought, that sounds like such a nice place? I did. I’d been thinking it for years, thus I cut my journey short and hopped off knowing I could get home in a jiffy. It’s a good place to have a wander, certainly, and thanks to this wander I located Ariete, yet another Italian eatery. I’ve often joked on Unilocal about how I’ve found myself returning again and again to Mediterranean fare so many times that I bore even myself, but Ariete was so interesting it managed to buck that trend.
Fairly young, this is a place that has a strong ethos. The food is not the focus. Uh-​oh, alarm bells go off when you hear phrases like that. So, the food is not the focus — we can basically eat swill so long as the ambience and entertainment is up to scratch? Not the case here. The aim is to get all the senses going, not Heston Blumenthal style with iPods and dry ice but to combine non-​invasive live music with delicious food, friendly welcoming staff and elegant décor. Oh and if you’re wondering about all the sheepy emblems around, Ariete is Italian for ram. Aries, non? All the European languages link up in some way.
You’ll get all your usuals — seafood, beef, salads, risottos, pasta, pizza, antipasti for picky days and even some more unusual options such as seafood pancakes (highly recommended, by the way, I don’t normally lust after creamy sauces but I can’t resist that white wine and cheese option). The sides are superb too, garlic bread to get a room with and dough balls so springy you’ll want to keep poking them. Plus the desserts are stunning and the service matches up nicely. Looks like I’ll have to cut my train journeys short more often!

Wonderful, authentic Italian restaurant set in an amazing historic building. Fabulous food with superb pizzas, pasta, seafood, meat and more. Great wine and fantastic desserts top off a divine dining experience. And it’s not just the food that’s impressive as the welcoming, attentive staff make for a very family oriented restaurant. It can be pricey, but it’s certainly worth it. I love dining there either romantically with my wife or as a family.