Archive for the ‘Restaurants’ Category

Jam Street, Whalley Range, Manchester

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The best full english breakfast that I have had for a long time is in Jam Street, on the Saturday morning of a friend’s birthday.

The sign outside promises good food, real ale and eclectic events, it follows through on these promises. There is a very relaxed bohemian atmosphere to the place, with its mismatched furniture on an uneven checker board floor. Don’t expect the fastest service but also don’t expect to be hassled if you are taking your time.

There are two reasons that the breakfast was excellent.

Firstly they make a very good substantial breakfast with quality sausages, bacon, bury black pudding and the controversial addition of bubble & squeak as the potato products. I know it is a bit too pretentious but I liked the flower pots of toast.

In the evenings Jam Street is a bar that serves a limited menu of tasty food, the crucial thing is that they have beer on tap both real ale from Dunham Massey brewery or San Miguel and a good range of bottled beers. This is the second reason that the breakfast was excellent there is something a bit wrong about breakfast even a slightly late one with a pint that makes it better.

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Croma Manchester

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

There is something annoying about missing the last bus, but it is more annoying when the only reason that you miss it is because it is too full for you to get on. This gets more annoying when the 10 minute bus ride is replaced by a 50 minute walk. The only upside to the bus debacle is that when we arrived at the restaurant I was fit to eat a horse. Thankfully we did not need to have a reservation, just an appetite.
Croma is a vibrant pizza restaurant in Manchester city centre that has a sophisticated feel. The restaurant offers excellent pizzas at great value, which has lead to a large following.
The cold and the journey needed battling to restore our strength. The best way seemed to be Martinis, I opted for the Classic whilst the wife headed for the Croma Martini a fruitier choice.
To start we shared some of the ridiculously garlicky Garlic Mushrooms and the Mediterranean Charcuterie, both were delicious. This was followed by a Garstang blue and Goats Cheese pizza for me and a Chicken Caesar Salad for the wife. The pizza was superb the strong tasting Garstang Blue is a delightful cheese and contrasted really well with the chalky goats cheese.
The wife loves the Tiramisu at Croma more than any other dessert that we have had anywhere. I think that if she could have only one pudding ever again it would be this. I had the ultra rich caramel cheesecake, it was well balanced by the ice cream.

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The Italian Fish Club, Bold Street Liverpool

Friday, September 11th, 2009

The Italian Fish Club is a small restaurant in Liverpool city centre that combines Italian seafood with British fish and chips in a really excellent way, reflecting owner Rosario Crolla’s family move from Italy to Liverpool via Glasgow. There is a pleasant, fun feel to the restaurant that is created by the friendly staff and bright colourful interior. There were lots of little touches that stood out, my favourite was the paper chip packets on the plates that the fish and chips came on.
The menu is fish laden with has good looking Italian style fish dishes, and an excellent range of fish and chips. There are even 3 non fish options including one for veggies. There is a philosophy of simple fresh food cooked well which really shines through in the quality of the dishes.
I had Pollock and chips which was a good (and sustainable) change from Cod, the fish was really well cooked with fairly light batter. I don’t really love the towering of chips as it often leaves me feeling short changed but this was not a problem with a real skyscraper of excellent thick chips.
The wife had fritto mixte an exciting mix of lightly battered fish (calamari, baby octopus, salmon, pollock and prawns) with a tower of chips. It is not often that I have a meal that is as tasty as mine was but still wish that I had made another menu choice. This was definitely one of them, the fritto mixte was really good with perfectly cooked fish pieces.
The Linguine with Vongole came in a giant fish shaped pasta bowl which was fun, reflecting the character of the restaurant.

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Suttons Coal Fired Fish and Chips, Wainfleet

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

The prospect of a having a fish supper in a proper fish and chip shop is pleasant enough, but one that has a coal fired fryer caused some excitement. I know that fish and chips are a long way from fine dining but that does not stop it from being great when properly executed. Suttons is a brilliant example of this with their fresh Grimsby Fish and Lincolnshire potatoes. Also the mental image that is conjured by the coal fired fryer of a Fred Dibnah character with a coal scoop stoking up the chips provided a lot of excitement.
The trip to Suttons came after a daytrip to the Batemans brewery which is five minutes walk away from the brewery with its excellent visitor centre and tour.
The fish and chips are excellent, I had Plaice, Chips and Peas. The thick plaice fillet was perfectly cooked and the batter was crispy not soggy, with generous portions of chips and mushy peas. We ate in the dining room which is surrounded by pictures of various former fryer stokers through the years, going back far enough that they look like chip shop fire stokers should. The service was very friendly and considering the size of our group (large) was fast and efficient.

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Green’s Didsbury

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Green’s is a vegetarian restaurant owned by Simon Rimmer and Simon Connolly that has consistently got good reviews and awards. We were still a bit concerned being a group of mainly meat eaters (three of the awards are for best provision for vegetarians in Greater Manchester which is a low bar to get over).
The food was delicious, there had been some real thought put in to the menu. The only person who had any problems with the food was our veggie, who was not used to having to choose from more than two options and was panicked by the choices.
The restaurant is very friendly, with helpful staff and a good atmosphere. The excitement of the waitress at the thought of the chocolate brownie pudding was quite something to see. She was good although a little alarming at times. Saying she was awful at remembering things when we asked what the local real ales were did not fill any one with hope when she took the order by remembering it not writing it down.
Anyway there were excellent ales, because of a high level of maturity we picked the ones with Willy and Dragon in the name. It was good to see local beers on the menu, it might have been nice to have the some more from micro breweries.
There were some food surprises the first was the black pudding, surely not something that vegetarians could have. The black pudding was remarkably like the real thing, it looked the same and had a similar texture but lighter. If it had been part of a breakfast then you would not have known it was vegetarian black pudding.
I had the gnocchi in a red wine sauce which was delicious the tiny cubes of carrot added sweetness. The plate was bright, with a rainbow of exciting colours. The asparagus spears arranged on the top had the crisp taste of spring.
The puddings were superb, the chocolate brownie which came with chocolate sauce was beautifully rich and chocolately, probably worthy of a little dance the waitress thought so.
Overall the meal was thoroughly enjoyable, any fears about vegetarian food not delivering a whole tasty meal were put away. So much so that I will be taking my little brother, who has a similar attitude to vegetables as Freddie from Big Veg Challenge.

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Pau Brasil, Manchester

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

This was my first trip to Pau Brasil and its take on the Brazilian steak house or Churrascaria. The basic principle of this is taken from the traditional Brazilian cow boys roasting meat on skewers over charcoal pits. The people at Pau Brazil have combined this with the “Rodizio” or continuous service principle to make this a brilliant buffet dining experience. I know this sounds like part of their brochure, but I did not know what these things last week and I am learning more about food in manageable chunks.
The roasted meat is brought around on large sword like skewers by waiters as long as you have some of the non meat products from the buffet and the little green tab showing, although we got offered more meat even when showing the red tab. We only managed 10 of the different meats that are brought around but that is enough by any normal standards, but we missed out on 5 different kinds of meat that are available. I am not sure that traditional Brazilian cowboys have such choice of meats.
I am a big fan of meaty food and still was surprised by the no stop delivery of meat to the table. It is a great friendly way to eat as the waiters are always at hand or at least it seems like they are. The meat that was brought included chicken hearts, beef rump, beef sirloin, chicken thighs, pork, sausage, and chicken breast wrapped in bacon. All of these were well cooked in barbeque kind of way.
Away from the meat the buffet had a strange collection of cold and hot dishes. The cheesy fish (sorry I didn’t get the name), various couscous dishes and salads were very good. The restaurant was lively and there was a good atmosphere. I am certainly looking forward to going back.

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