Sunday 23 February 2014

Mughli - Manchester (Valentines Chef's notebook menu)

Indian food is probably the cuisine I'm least familiar with but in the spirit of trying something different I decided to book in at Mughli for their Valentine's night 'chefs notebook' evening. I haven't been to the Curry Mile for years and had forgotten just what a sensory overload wandering down Wilmslow Road can be. Restaurant lights and signs as far as the eye can see, the queue of taxis, the mix of people and the wonderful smell of spices and grilled meats in the air


Mughli smelt even better inside than outside and judging by the aromas coming from the kitchen as we were seated I knew I was in for a treat. Imagine working in a restaurant like this for a few years and starting to associate such a mouth-watering smell with the start of a night shift - I wonder if it ever gets old. 

The restaurant itself was very cosy and welcoming but we were disappointingly sat a few tables over from 6 beered up blokes who were downing beers and had started on football chants. At this point we did have a brief chat as to whether we should even stay, it seemed pretty inappropriate to let a group like this in on Valentine's night when they were clearly going to be so busy. In defence of the staff they did keep going over to quieten them down and then when the bill was requested they shuffled them out of the door as quickly as possible.

The Valentine's menu was entitled the 'Chef's Notebook' and served in courses of snacks to start, a starter each, a main each with sides and then dessert to share for £22.50.

We started with cocktails, the drinks menu was short but with some imaginative options, there was more than enough to keep us interested on our first visit. The watermelon fizz (gin, fresh watermelon and ginger) being a particular hit, the watermelon worked incredibly well with the gin creating a really refreshing drink. 

The first course was the spicy far far to share. Multi-coloured, deep fried puffed up crispy snacks, almost like mini-papadums. I assumed the dip was going to provide the spice and soon realised what an idiot I'd been as I popped a handful into my mouth at once - the spice was baked into the crisps and they had a red hot kick to them. 

I went for the chicken lollipop for my starter - 4 small fried chicken legs coated with spices. The meat was superbly tender with a lovely warming batter, easily the best friend chicken i've had in Manchester, I could comfortably have sat and enjoyed a huge portion of these.

The sweetcorn tikka was 3 chicken nugget size battered fritters packed with potato, sweetcorn, spinach and green chilli. These didn't wow me in the same way as the chicken did but were tasty enough. The menu suggested they were supposed to come with a pineapple chutney but both the starters were served with the same lime and coriander chutney which was delicious anyway - very fresh and mild on way down but with a lovely green chilli flavour left behind.


For mains, we shared the Nilgiri Chicken which was served in a delicious mild green pepper, mint and coriander sauce. Chana Daal Gosht was spectacular - big chunks of lamb on the bone and heaving with split yellow lentils. There was also a dash of wilted spinach and just the right amount of onion - enough to flavour but not overpower.

The Sides were a mixed bag - naans were delicate and crispy, with a sprinkling of coriander and red onion. There was just enough bread to soak up the sauce but not those huge dense naans you often see that overload with carbs. The rice wasn't completely broken up with a few dense clumps at the bottom but aside from that nothing to complain about. There was also a side of spiced kidney beans and a couple of pakora floating in what was billed as Tumeric sauce - neither of these were particularly impressive flavour wise and we didn't finish them, they seemed like a bit of an afterthought after such strong mains.

The Jalabi dessert was great, it didn't look but the sweetened sticky pastry rings were like fine crispy donuts, the dish of milk was still warm and ultra sweet - great to dip and bite.


The service slightly took a shine off things, empty drinks were taken away without a request to order more meaning immediately trying to flag another waiter down. We also had to wait over 30 mins for the dessert to come which was pushing it a little when it was a set menu so we didn't even need to choose, a couple of the tables around us were getting similarly frustrated - the restaurant was buzzing with waiting staff so I can only imagine not everyone was clear on the set menu principle. Considering people were queuing for tables as we left they were essentially turning custom away due to poor organisation.

Food wise - easily into my Manchester top ten and definitely very highly recommended. I've already made plans to head back in a couple of weeks to check out the full menu and we'll see whether the service has improved then.
Mughli on Urbanspoon

Saturday 15 February 2014

Mr Cooper's House - Manchester

Of the Simon Rogan restaurants i've visited (L'Enclume, The French and Rogan & Company) Mr Cooper's House is my favourite. Feels good to have that off my chest early. I thoroughly enjoyed The French and despite an odd first visit to L'Enclume can understand why it rates so highly with critics, it was an immensely enjoyable meal.

More often than not when eating out i'm in the mood for a well stacked cocktail list and imaginative a la carte menu and Mr Cooper's House fits this bill perfectly.
A lot of the restaurants I visited in January seemed to be in something of a slump, a lot of offers were doing the rounds on e-mail and twitter to tempt customers in. There's few things as depressing as eating in a near empty restaurant so it was a great surprise to find the main room at Mr Cooper's almost bulging at the seams with no empty tables in sight. Entering the restaurant from a cold northern evening into an atmosphere such as this was a delight, and was pleased we were seated in the 'garden' area that i'd heard so much about. There was a birthday party in the 'library' (bar) at the far but despite the party being fairly hectic the room is large enough that this wasn't a distraction at all throughout dinner.

Based on the menu descriptions I could have happily tried all of the ten starters and was struggling to make a decision so in the end shared four, wanting to indulge but save room for mains. This can't have been an unusual occurrence as the waiter spotted we could be struggling passing plates over a table overflowing with food and drinks and was kind enough to bring side plates before being asked.

Onto the food. The smoked eel torte with pork belly was delicate taste wise but with sufficiently distinct savoury flavours between the 3 layers to make the combination really interesting, the lovage providing a sharp balance.


Parmesan patties were mini slider style burgers, I wish i'd asked exactly what the 'meat' was - they had the consistency of veggie burgers but instead of the usual bland cardboard taste the mushroom ketchup gave them a tangy flavour that I couldn't quite put my finger on but was really enjoyable. As always with burgers this small they went down in just a couple of mouthfuls making me wish i'd ordered more.

The grilled figs and ham was another perfectly balanced dish and a generous enough portion that i'd have been happy with it as a main. I'm a huge fig fan and these were perfectly ripe, the spicy popcorn introduced an interested added texture and flavour.

The final starter was crunchy pickled chillies with a slab of manchego cheese melted over a generous spread of quince on millet bread. Another well thought out starter with all of the ingredients working perfectly together and leaving me wishing i'd ordered all of the other options to try.

Both mains were extremely impressive - I was immediately drawn to the Cumbrian rib steak, truffle pudding and purple potato latkes on the menu. The large cut of steak that was served up was more than i'd expected - certainly a very generous cut of meat. Combined with the thick salted gravy and the crispy latkes this was again a flawless piece of cooking. The truffle pudding was a dense bready treat, very generously flavoured with truffle which is a powerful taste so I could see it being off-putting to some but I was absolutely in my element by this stage.


Lamb with lentils wasn't something i'd typically go for but the lamb rump was perfectly pink with great depth of flavour. The thin crispy outer of the lamb with the tender body of the cut, firm curried lentils and soft courgette absolutely wowed me.

A side of deep fried pickles despite sounding a simple dish almost stole the show. Red hot and fresh from the fryer with crispy batter but unusually the pickles retained their original crunch and tangy flavour and not going soggy as a result of the frying. I'd tried these before at MeatLiqour but this version was on another level.

Desserts were similarly impressive. The caramel tart did exactly what you'd expect by this stage, dark sugary tart with mild mascarpone ice cream complemented each other well.


I also went with the syllabub which I quickly googled to check what I was getting into and was described as "A drink or dish made of milk (freq. as drawn from the cow) or cream, curdled by the admixture of wine, cider, or other acid, and often sweetened and flavoured" if you're also interested. The dessert came served in a deep bowl with a crispy yogurt and pistachio topping to be shattered with a spoon before digging into the syllabub and delicious flapjacks hiding within.

As icing on the cake even the coffee was fantastic, a nice deep strong hit of espresso to send me off into the night.

In total the bill came to approx £120 for 4 starters, 2 mains, the crispy pickles, a few rounds of cocktails, coffees and tip. For the money paid this was exceptional value and was far away the most impressive restaurant i've visited so far in Manchester.

I immediately booked to go back with friends which is about as high a recommendation I could give. Manchester is lucky to have Mr Cooper's House and it is sure to become an absolute favourite of mine with repeat visits.

I should note I visited in late January and they have since refreshed the menus so a couple of the dishes (the manchego and quince starter and lamb main) have been replaced with equally exciting looking alternatives.

Mr Cooper's House and Garden on Urbanspoon

Bonus shot of the stunning centerpiece in the Midland Hotel lobby:


Sunday 9 February 2014

SoLita - Manchester

I'm a big fan of both breakfast and Solita so when I spotted a few blogs posting enthusiastically about their new breakfast offerings I headed down as soon as possible. I know that when Solita typically launch a new menu they often do blogger tastings which unsurprisingly lead to extreme positivity and zero criticism but given i've never had a bad experience food wise at Solita I was really looking forward to checking their offering out.



One thing I need to get off my chest that always annoy me about Solita is the bar - I always seem to end up facing it and as they get busy and start struggling for space and it typically ends up crammed with dirty glasses, it really lowers the whole tone. I was slightly surprised to see that the front of the bar was tidy but the back of the bar was just lined with cartons of cheap orange juice that they were serving up as breakfast drinks, it seemed extremely cheap to have the cartons out in the open like this - it wouldn't have taken much  thought to tuck them away out of sight.

I started with a black Americano and the coffee was clearly passed it's best, leaving a mild soil taste with no kick to the espresso. Good coffee is key for breakfast and this set a bad tone for the rest of the meal.

I decided to try a few food options and started with the Steak Eggs Benedict. Slicing through the eggs and steak was impressive, the steak was perfectly pink and the yolks exploded everywhere. Unfortunately the hollandaise tasted of barely anything, the capers were a nice touch and did provide a much needed hit of vinegar but there just weren't enough to compensate for such bland sauce.

Pancakes were also hit and miss. The bacon was a real treat and extremely crisp, syrup had been pre-poured and had mixed with the salty bacon nicely. The pancakes themselves were dry (as they often are) and this is usually mitigated by lathering them in syrup and melted butter - the problem was there just wasn't enough syrup meaning half a dry pancake was left stranded.


For £8 I was expecting the bagel to be heaving with salt beef and pickles. For a restaurant that is usually very generous with portions it was verging on a piss take to charge so much for this - the bagel itself was fine but the salt beef dry from sitting too long. The mustard was on the menu as ball park, i'm not entirely clear whether this is a brand or whether it was meant to be a sales point but it was just totally plain. As far as you could get taste wise from the stuffed salt beef bagels you get on Brick Lane lathered in Colemans mustard for a couple of quid.


So overall a very negative experience - coffee was bad, the eggs very bland, the bagel very overpriced and pancakes decent but needed more care. Having been to SoLita several times before, including New Years Eve, and always leaving both full and very satisfied i'm unsure as to how they got it so wrong. Hopefully it's just a case of them finding their feet with breakfast and things will improve to the level of the main menu over time.

Solita is generally recommended but be warned for potential disappointment with brunch.

SoLita on Urbanspoon

Thursday 6 February 2014

SuperStore NQ - Manchester

Superstore was previously just a standard slightly overpriced grocery store, the stand out highlight being that it had the only cash machine in the NQ that didn't charge for withdrawals and for that alone they should be commended. Sometime between October / November they moved the grocers downstairs and over time the main floor became a restaurant - slightly confusingly now sharing a twitter account and both sections both being called Superstore (despite one being a restaurant).


After noticing the restaurant was open I popped in to grab a menu and noticed that they were serving bone marrow on toast. As an ex-Londoner with a huge soft spot for St John I am immediately drawn to anywhere that even vaguely hints at that style of food.

I had an immediate impression that it was a lovely space for a restaurant - low light via lots of fashionable exposed lightbulbs, white tiles around the kitchen area and a huge picnic style table in the middle that was covered with the days newspapers. With that huge glass window at the front it'd be a great place to sit in the window and people watch with a coffee and paper but unfortunately, on the evening I visited the Northern Quarter was extremely quiet and unsurprisingly they only had a few full tables so the atmosphere was pretty flat. There was a constant stream of people walking through the restaurant to use the cash machine as well as a large TV on the wall opposite the kitchen showing BBC news which was an annoyance - an odd and distracting touch for a restaurant.





















The drinks menu included a few imaginative (and very strong!) cocktails, draught beers were disappointing bland but they offered a few interesting bottle choices in the form of Tickety Brew and Weird Beard.

The food menu was made up of lots of exciting sounding starters which were priced between £4-7 or at five for £20. There were also a few meaty mains but the starters sounded far more interesting so after discussing portion sizes with the knowledgeable waitress she advised 5 starters and a main should be more than enough food so I took her advice.


I ate the following:

A 'super food' salad made up of a decent sized portion of kale, mint, ginger, carrot, beetroot, quinoa, pomegranate, chickpeas and almonds. It all worked together very well and certainly made me feel I was attempting to be healthy as I tucked into the mixed starters.

Braised pork cheeks had an enjoyable crispy (panko coated) outer but very chewy once you got into the meat. The battered options were a mixed bag, The ginger beer battered prawns were a big miss - very doughy flavourless batter that felt like they'd been sat too long before being served. The soggy cold batter wasn't very appealing. It was odd they were so poor as the root veg tempura crisps and crispy fried squid (a mix of squid rings and octopus) were both spot on - tasting freshy fried and with excellent light and crispy batter.
The black pudding was delicious and came with the most perfectly fried egg which was so fit to burst it was a miracle it made it to the table intact.
The main event, the bone marrow, certainly didn't disappoint - a generous portion which mixed extremely well with the garlic and thyme. The portion of toast wasn't over generous but there was just enough to soak all the fatty juices up.

A lot of imagination has clearly gone into the sauces / small sides that came on each plate - both the squid and black pudding egg came with what was described as tumeric aioli which was far from tame flavour wise and was one of the best condiments i've tasted in some time.



The food took a while to come despite us being the only people in but it felt freshly prepared as opposed to just being heated up out the back (prawns aside).

So overall a good experience food wise and the drinks and service were certainly very good - overall definitely a great addition to the NQ and i'm keen to go back during the day time to try the sandwiches when it'll hopefully be a bit livelier.

Superstore on Urbanspoon

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Moose Coffee - Manchester

I love being up bright and early on a weekend and as a result i've developed a real taste for brunches over the past few years as i've eaten out more. Clearly one of my main priorities on moving to Manchester was finding somewhere that serves a great brunch.

Having tried a few places early on (Trof, Gorilla, Fyg) and being relatively unimpressed I passed Moose one evening after work and after peering through the window it quickly found its way to the top of my list. As soon as I wandered into the branch on York Street in Manchester (turns out it's a mini-chain with three further locations in Liverpool) I knew I'd stumbled onto a gem.


Moose Coffee  is a US-styled brunch restaurant, the kind of diner vibe you'd expect to find as you pull up in a small town during a long drive across the USA - they serve up enormous portions of all the breakfast treats you could ever need including pancakes, french toast (option to have it stuffed with jam and peanut butter), eggs benedict, omelettes, potato hash, salt beef sandwiches, waffles, granola.....

The thing I love most about Moose is that there is absolutely no pretense or attempt to be anything that it is not, the staff are always polite and chatty with minimal wait for tables and food served quickly with no fuss. For a while it had got to the stage where I was having to actively talk myself out of heading down there for breakfast on a Saturday morning due to concerns about wherever I tried being worse than Moose (and being disappointed several other places - tales for another time).

On this particular visit I had the Moose Club sandwich on granary and my dining partner had creamy scrambled eggs with a kick of pesto. My Moose club was packed with chicken, bacon and just the right amount of creamy mayonnaise to keep everything perfectly balanced. The food isn't anything special to look at (I appreciate the photos don't look spectacular) - but when you're in the mood for strong coffee and an enormous breakfast it hits the spot like very few other places do.

I've yet to dig into the burgers, salads or waffles but that just gives me all the more excuse to head back (as if I need one).

Excellent Value for money, food options between £6-8 and coffees all around the £2-3 mark.

Highly recommended.

http://moosecoffee.co.uk/

Moose Coffee on Urbanspoon