Norma, Hull: 'It took a year for this Italian restaurant to open - it was worth the wait'
It has been a long time coming but Norma in Hull is finally open. Dave Lee went along to sample the Italian cuisine and wondered why it took so long to open its doors to the public.
I have a little list in the notes app on my phone of places I’d like dine at and review. It’s not hugely long and, generally speaking, I work my way through every restaurant on it within six months or so.
It’s a simple way of ensuring I get to new places as soon after they first open as possible, as you, beloved readers, understandably want to know what new eateries are like with all achievable immediacy.
I’ve had the name Norma sat on my list for over a year, though, and yet I just visited, within a fortnight of it opening.
For the arrival of this new ‘Sicilian pasta kitchen’ was first heralded in December 2024 - in their own Instagram feed – and they announced they ‘finally’ had the keys to the premises on February 4 2025.
So, if my maths is right, almost exactly a year of paying rent passed before the doors eventually opened.
It makes you wonder what series of misadventures befell the people behind Norma and if twelve months of preparation can possibly match the anticipation.
Fortunately, co-owner and frontman of the latest operation to arrive in Hull’s elegant foodie thoroughfare Paragon Arcade is gradually becoming one of the most impressive restauranteurs in the area.
Angelo Romano - those gastro-swots keeping note will recall - is determined to turn Hull into the new Catania by building his own Sicilian restaurant empire as vast as Etna itself. But hopefully less prone to volatility and eruptions.
Angelo first opened the original Mancia on Newland Ave – which has now moved up the street and enlarged in the hands of a family member – and then he opened Santis on Princes Ave; for my money the Italian restaurant against which all others in the area should be measured.
Norma is intended as a companion piece to Santis. With a curtailed menu but the emphasis still firmly on robust, authentic Sicilian cuisine.
Pasta and small plates are the order of the day, with occasional larger dishes and a short but sweet sweets menu.
The previous inhabitants of the unit Norma is in was another Italian concern – Stretch Pizza.
They had a huge, impressive pizza oven installed in the kitchen but it looks like they must have taken it with them when they left.
No mean feat as, if memory serves, they had to take the roof off to install it in the first place.
We started our evening at Norma with beers and olives and bread - just like you would during those long, balmy Catanian nights – and followed up with crustini and stracciatella.
The variety of crustini on offer were topped with pesto, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and toasted almonds and were almost exactly the same as some we’d had in Taormina during our holiday last year.
Stracciatella – meaning ‘little shreds’ – can take many forms.
This was the first time I’d had it with figs, which were halved and charred, sat on melted parmesan and sprinkled with lemon honey, candied pistachios and more flaked almonds.
One of my favourite things to eat when I was a kid was peaches and cheese on toast. (Don’t judge me, it works. You should try it.)
This dish had the equivalent delicious cheesy-fruitness and the sweet, crunchy pistachios were a complete joy.
On the night we dined, there were also four mains on offer. All were expensive, but huge. My Agnello – slow-cooked lamb braised in red wine with pecorino potato mash, minted courgette and pistachio puree - proved killer.
The lamb yielded with the lightest brush of a fork and the accompaniments were perfectly matched and subtle.
Even more impressive was pollo and scarpetta. A half-roast chicken with friarielli (think spring greens), lemon zest, nduja, oregano and house sauce.
The huge chunk of chicken had been marinated and roasted to a succulent golden brown.
If the dish sounds light on accompaniments, the scarpetta part of the dish is several toasted slices of ciabatta used to dredge up the ample juices.
Both mains would make superb Italian-style Sunday lunches.
Dessert brought a traditional and exemplary tiramisu and a zabinone, which was a thicker, less-boozy take on zabaglione.
This one doesn’t match the perfection of Yorkshire’s greatest zabaglione – made tableside in a copper pot by Georgio at Lanterna in Scarborough – but Angelo is yet young and I’m hoping he is still planning to learn this theatrical method.
Pricewise, Norma is hard to judge. The small plates at ten to fourteen quid seem reasonable, as do the eight-pound desserts.
Pasta at seventeen to twenty seems a little steep and the mains (twenty-four for branzino to thirty-five for ribeye steak) also felt just a touch pricey.
All of the portion sizes are generous, though, so it may simply be a case of ordering sympathetically to your budget. Pricey or not, all of the food is undeniably top-notch quality.
Somewhat frustratingly, booking is currently only in person or via Norma’s Instagram profile. Not sure if this is an oversight or they just want the cool kids to turn up.
It’s certainly a bit of a mindbender for older would-be customers.
Despite the communication restrictions, daytimes at Norma have proven instantly popular, with generous takeaway portions of various pasta dishes causing queues out the door.
Upstairs - in the long, thin dining room – evening diners will find the food a quick and convenient way to eat before trips to gigs at the nearby City Hall and Arena. Finding willing clientele shouldn’t prove problematic.
It would appear Angelo is onto another winner. I asked him why it had taken him and his business partners so long to open Norma.
Surely a year is a crazy length of time to be forking out rent and not raking in takings?
He says that he just wanted everything to be perfect. Norma isn’t perfect, but it’s more than good enough. Perfect gives him something to aim for next.
Welcome 4/5
Food 4/5
Atmosphere 4/5
Prices 4/5
Norma, 5-6 Paragon Arcade, Hull, HU1 3PQ