It has been talked to death why Manchester cannot apparently support a Michelin-starred restaurant. The second (or first!) city and a cultural hotspot, it's home to a thriving dining scene and plenty of wealthy townsfolk with a ‘tasting menus'-worth of disposable income. Now, however, it seems we have three potential Michelin awardees and, like buses on Oxford Road, two of them came along at once. Simon Rogan of L’Enclume fame it at the helm in The French within Manchester’s iconic Midland Hotel which reopened after an extensive refurbishment in March 2013. Then Living Ventures opened Manchester Housein Spinningfields on the 17th September 2013. The only other likely contender would be Aumbry, out of the city centre in Prestwich. The husband-and-wife chef team, who worked at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, seem to have picked up most other awards, and have been plying their trade since 2009.
Anyway this blog is about Manchester House and my experience there. Getting a table was the first issue as there is a very healthy waiting list and only a bit of little black book skulduggery secured us a table on the Friday we required. Manchester House is located on two floors of Tower 12 Bridge St Spinningfields. The ground floor-level greeters direct you to either restaurant or lounge. Level Two is Aiden Byrne’s restaurant and Level 12 is the Lounge with panoramic views of the city. They describe it as being like a movie star’s pad and that’s not far from the truth. Choose your viewpoint from each side of the square that is the Tower, with table service from waistcoated bartenders, who also escort you down to eat.
The instant you set foot in the restaurant, you know it’s very serious about the food. From the lift you pass through a truly open plan kitchen staffed by a brigade of 16 chefs, on to your table in the dining room which occupies the other half of this spacious room. Walking past Aiden and his team at work and then viewing them clearly from your table involves you in the dynamics of the restaurant. Part intimate meal, part theatre, part cookery school. Take it a step further if you have £250 a head to burn by sitting on stools on the front end of the kitchen with Mr Byrne explaining each dish of his 13-course tasting menu. To be fair, with so many of the tables in the restaurant so close to being chef’s tables, you may as well save the extra dollar!
Exquisite Braised snails, butterhead lettuce, celeriac and smoked bacon and a frogs legs Kiev to start preceded by a brioche and a quenelle of sweet salty caramelised onion butter, plus a little roasted onion consommé topped with a pungent parmesan foam. My main was a very smoky Blueberry and gin cured venison with Sarladaise potatoe (described by my partner as a real man’s dish) was perfectly tender. My wife had Loin of hare, sweetened chicory and braised salsify and neither of us got food envy! We had a bit of banter with the waiter about the Manchester tart we shared for dessert, which was very unmanchester tart-like and not particularly tasty. The A La Carte has seven starters, nine mains and seven desserts. Expect to pay around £55 a head for a three-course dinner. The wine list had 240 bins bound In a beautiful soft leather binder and has options to suit most wallets -- and as you would expect some iconic bottles for the wealthy high rollers. The 13-course tasting menu is £95 a head with an option for a wine flight for an extra £75.
Jay Rayner in the Observer found the restaurant and service to be ‘overworked and overkill.’ I wouldn’t agree with either. I think they have the design spot on and it’s in line with what Manchester expects from the ubiquitous and ever-popular Living Ventures brand. My only fault was with the service. Had Manchester House not had pretentions for the highest accolades, we would have been more that satisfied. However some of the younger staff were not trained to the standard you would expect in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Questions about ingredient provenance and the wine list were met with blank stares. At one point we asked a passing waitress to fill our glasses as the wine was out of reach on a serving platform; she looked startled and scuttled off to find someone capable of bringing the bottle over. The venue has been open long enough to iron out training issues so they better watch out for middle aged men dining alone with pens!
Would we return? Most definitely, to try all the other dishes on the menu. Manchester House is designed to give you a memorable experience, and that’s whether you have a fascination to see top-end chefs at work, a refined palate for food and wine, or as we found, to just enjoy the vibe and feast.
Guest Blog by William MuirMore restaurants in Manchester
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