Darwen's newest restaurant is no longer town's best kept 'secret'

Secreto, an Italian/Greek restaurant, was opened by Greek natives, Dionysis Niotskos and his wife Irene on January 18, and they chose the venue and location for a specific purpose.

"We wanted to be away from the main street, in a quiet location so people would have to travel to come to us," said Mr Niotskos, "like a secret gem hidden away in Darwen, with a nice, cosy, low key atmosphere."

Situated on Sough Road, in what used to be 132 The Eatery, keeping the venue a secret hasn't been as easy as its name sake would suggest, as Mr Niotskos says the restaurant has been packed since they opened.

He said: "We can have about 30 people in the restaurant at a time, and since we opened it's been like everyone in Darwen has wanted to come and try, we have been really busy, and we are taking bookings for two weeks in advance.

"Our priority and focus is on our food, that's the most important thing to us - we choose fresh ingredients and use authentic Greek recipes - and we think our food will speak for itself.

"We have hardly used social media or Facebook (mainly because we don't have time), but even without that we have been busy, as people have been posting their own reviews on Facebook and then the word spreads from there."

Secreto has an extensive menu, with a mixture of Greek and Italian flavours, from meatballs saganaki and spanakopita to start, to pasta dishes, pizzas and risottos for main.

They also have a fully licensed bar with a selection of gins and wines.

Mr Niotskos continued: "We have Greek specials on the menu every day and they have been very popular too, people are always coming in and asking about certain dishes which is nice.

"Secreto means secret, and we used the word for the restaurant because it's not in the town centre, it's somewhere away from the main roads, but it's not really a secret anymore."

Secreto is open daily from 4pm until 9pm and from 1pm on weekends.