Lucky Mama's returns to roots with second site - we joined the queue for its £4 pizza bowls

Luck wasn't entirely on the side of a new pizza business which launched just as the pandemic hit.

Initial plans by Gaby Santos and Mamadou Dhiam to travel across the UK with their business Lucky Mama's, selling their fresh pizza and pasta at festivals, were scuppered when Covid struck.

With cancellations coming in thick and fast for their mobile kitchen, the couple decided to start the business from their back garden in Eccles. It turned out better than they ever imagined.

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With business booming and word spreading, fast forward to 2022 and they opened their first bricks and mortar site in Chorlton, their bright pink branding brightening up Barlow Moor Road.

Now they've brought that splash of colour to a second site, this time going back to their roots in Eccles, or more specifically Monton.

It was there I joined fellow food lovers eager to get a taste of the takeaway delights.

There are a couple of two-seater high tables inside the Monton Road eatery and a few tables outside, but it's largely a takeaway set-up and can be ordered via Deliveroo.

I didn't order in advance, so had to wait a while for the pizzas, pasta bowls with pasta, and dough balls we opted for, but that can be expected when everything's being made up fresh to order - the pasta is freshly made on site each day.

And it makes all the difference when it comes to the taste of it too. Even after a 10-minute drive it was piping hot and fresh when it was time for tucking in.

The menu isn't massive, but it offers a range of flavours, whether you want a milder tomato and basil Pomodoro, a spicier Arrabiata with fresh chillies, or its signature ‘Rasta Pasta’, made with a creamy, jerk-spiced sauce. You can 'pimp your pasta too', adding either chicken, chorizo, or pancetta for £2, or prawns for £3.

And there are six pizzas to choose from, with us opting for the double pepperoni Americana and the Diavola with spicy Nduja sausage, pepperoni and chillies. Starting from £9 for a margherita, they're reasonably priced, given the fact the pizzas are square and take up every inch of those bright pink boxes.

The pasta dishes start from around the same price too and it's what they're served in that this place is famous for - pizza bowls.

I say pizza, as that's what they're called, but it's effectively garlic bread, and you can choose whether to have it with or without cheese.

It's £4 for a bowl, but you'd likely spend that on a garlic bread side anyway, so while it's not a cheap eat, you're getting a pretty large meal for your money.

The bowls were full to the brim with the pasta and ours included the Pomodoro, cooked with penne pasta, and the Old School Ragu, slow cooked beef bolognese.

We sampled some of the dough balls too - you can get garlic or pesto and they do sweet ones as well, with toppings of cinnamon sugar, Kinder & Nutella, and Pistachio & Kinder.

We thought the garlic ones, with garlic butter and parmesan cheese, were moreish, but they had nothing on those sweet ones. The Kinder and Nutella had obviously fully melted around the balls by the time we started on them, but I think that probably made them even tastier with the dough soaking up those flavours.

It might well have been a shaky start for Lucky Mama's, but judging by the reaction to Monton's new little pink palace, the future's clearly bright.

Opening hours are currently limited to Wednesday to Saturday, 4pm to 10pm. Check the Instagram page for updates.