The Parlour - Chorlton, Manchester

For those that don’t live there, Chorlton seems to really rub people (especially those that are particularly vocal on the internet) up the wrong way for whatever petty reason. Long before I first visited I’d long formed the impression it was some sort of trendy vegan hippy commune albeit a very expensive one to live in when in but it’s actually pretty a really pleasant leafy suburb to while away an afternoon.

I’ve still yet to explore properly but in the brief time I’ve spent down there I’ve been surrounded by pretty normal humans and been really impressed with the range of food and drink options (ie the important stuff) on offer. I’ve been in The Beagle for a banging pint from their impressive range, I’ve been drunk as a lord on cheap cocktails in The Font, I’ve scoffed some stunning street food from The Hungry Gecko van in the garden of the Beech Inn (whilst it was still there), and now I’ve had a fantastic pub lunch in the wonderful Parlour.

I remembered the name of The Parlour from winning the best Sunday lunch in the country in the Observer food awards a few years ago. Friends based in Chorlton had also recommended that the food was definitely worth trying so when I had visitors for the weekend I suggested we escape the city and give the place a try for lunch.

The lunch menu on this particular visit was made up of three types of sandwich, a couple of salads, platters (vegetarian, meat or seafood), a handmade burger and then the special of the day which was beer battered fish and chips.

"Seafood Parlour Platter"

There were a lot of elements to this one – a traditional little glass of prawn cocktail served on a bed of fresh salad leaves, the crab cakes were served slightly warm and were crunchy and with plenty of meat, the trout pate was ideal for spreading over the side of bread that was served alongside the board. A small handful of pickled cockles were sprinkled to one side of the board and I got stuck into these along with the oak smoked salmon. I really enjoyed this as a main; the individual flavours complemented each other without any overpowering of the others. I’m sadly still not over my absolute hatred of food being served on boards like this mind.

"Fish and Chips"

This was text book fish and chips for me – crispy beer batter, not one but two giant pieces of tender fish all dished up on a bed of freshly made tartar sauce (which was deliciously heavy on the capers), a generous portion of chips and a side of mushy peas with a hint of mint.

"Handmade Beef Burger"

It’s commonplace now when a burger is dished up to expect a perfect looking production line patty and bun and whilst this hand formed patty was way off the mark looks wise, the all-important flavours and quality of the meat more than made up for it. It came served with a pile of excellent red-hot chunky chips, a couple of giant beer battered onion rings which had a properly satisfying crunch to them and some token salad leaves (which added little other than some colour to the plate) Extra marks granted for allowing it to be ordered rare and arriving perfectly pink in the centre. As we all know by now adding a slice of pickled gherkin to a burger is a match made in heaven and chopping them with capers here through the mayo sauce worked an absolute treat.

"Coronation Salad"

The salad had some serious work to do to compete with the other food that was rapidly filling the table. It consisted of really well cooked chicken delivered on a bed of salad leaves and then sprinkled with toasted cashews and croutons to add some crunch to proceedings. The fruity coronation sauce had been lightly applied to the greenery to give it a flavour throughout and with plenty of spare served on the side to dig the chicken into.

There was a reasonable wait for food (just over 20 mins) but we were caught up in the lunch rush and for the freshness on display it was obviously being cooked to order, it felt like there was real care and attention involved in this food. The positive about the wait is there is a decent bar which had a range of ales, beers, ciders and plenty of spirits. We were all impressed with our individual courses and I had a massive dose of food envy in that I only got to taste the other three dishes and not enjoy them in full myself so will definitely be heading back next time I'm in Chorlton to enjoy some more of the menu. I really must try that infamous Sunday lunch too.

Almost Famous NQ - Manchester

Suffering from one of the worst hangovers of my entire life, what better time for me to head to my local burger bar and see what they've been up to? To say the previous 7 days for Almost Famous had been a week to forget was something of an understatement and I was intrigued to see whether all this bad publicity may have had much effect on business.

Over the past week they'd suffered from the following horrendous press:

First, the Great Northern branch was shut for 24 hours after a visit by the Councils Environmental Health Team (as reported by the MEN here)

Then they were hammered by various bloggers and the national press for a dubious display in the toilets of the new Leeds branch, here and here amongst others.

Personally, I think there has been more than enough commentary on both of these issues and (for now at least), this blog is solely focused on restaurant and food reviews so forgive me for not wading in this time and instead trying to focus on any positives I could find. 

Having been to the Great Northern branch of Almost Famous on several occasions (including a visit which I blogged about previously here) I decided to stumble into to the latest addition to their family at the far end of Edge Street, which is above another restaurant in their ever-growing empire - Lust, Liquor, Burn. Strangely, the entry is slightly tucked away in that there is no clear signage above the door and the only give-away as to where the entrance was hidden was a doorman and member of staff armed with a clipboard directing people upstairs. I suppose they're still in that situation where being even vaguely hidden is all part of the excitement but when you've got a giant restaurant at the other end of the city personally I think that boat has slightly sailed. 

So had the press they'd had to deal with made much of a difference? It was actually quite difficult to judge as I was in and out fairly quickly (quite literally fast food) but it was very quiet early evening on the Friday night. It was the usual order at the bar with your table number job and for 2 burgers, a side of fries, a cocktail and a soft drink the bill came to £27 which was certainly reasonable. 

Burger wise I went for the Famous Burger - their 'standard' toned down burger consisting of a beef patty, american style burger cheese, a bit of salad (lettuce, sliced tomato and red onion) then the big mac style burger sauce bringing everything together nicely.

Triple nom - this one is a double burger, with cheese slices, then a big helping of pulled pork soaked in barbecue sauce and then more of the big mac style 'famous sauce' jammed into the brioche bun.

It probably helps that I'm familiar with the menu now so know what to order, but the burgers seemed a lot more under control and not bursting at the seams like they used to be - a real positive for me of this was that the great flavour of the meat was not completely overwhelmed by the toppings.  The options seemed to be almost identical burger-wise to that in the Great Northern branch (albeit burgers cooked rare are an option here) with a few new sides and a special burger of the week which in this case was a Greek option which definitely including Tzatziki - the mind boggles. I appreciate that they know their market and a lot of the attraction to AF is these over the top too big to eat jaw locking burgers but they just leave me totally cold. 

The unexpected highlight of this whole meal was the "Love Hate" fries which appeared to be normal French fries mixed with a few sweet potato fries and then absolutely lathered in a mixture of meltd butter and Marmite. I adore Marmite and this took me immediately back to 1000's of slices of toast I've eaten over the years with exactly the same topping - it's total genius for Marmite lovers out there.

I have a giant soft spot for MeatLiquor who are now just a short train journey away in Leeds (as of the 9th September) and since they are heavily rumoured to be rapidly approaching Manchester I'd assumed in all honesty this would probably be my last visit to AF. But despite all of the self-induced bullshit that seems to be surrounding them at the moment at the heart of things they're still churning out fantastic tasting burgers and those Marmite fries alone will ensure I'll be back for some more before long.  

 

Byron Burger - Manchester

I hadn't been to a branch of Byron for several years but was off down to a First Chop brewery social and found myself on that side of town in a dire situation (Fire and Salt BBQ had just announced they were cancelling serving food down there last minute);  therefore in a desperate panic for some fatty carbs before drinking any beer. So, would Byron save the day?  

It was a lovely summers day and they were making the best possible use of the huge space they have with the outdoor tables on John Dalton Street well filled. The huge doors on the side of the restaurant were wide open which resulted in a lovely breeze within the restaurant, it was a really genuinely pleasant spot to sit off at.

330ml cans of beer for just under a fiver always feel like a bit of a piss take, I know it's only a little shy of the 375ml in a bottle but cans just feel so cheap. I got stuck into the Byron Pale, which is brewed by the Camden Town Brewery and was perfectly serviceable but nothing particularly special - it really reminded me of a slightly watered down very of the Camden Town Pale.

Burger wise this time I tried the Classic Byron which features the Byron meat patty with cured bacon, a slice of mature cheddar and the usual garnish (lettuce, tomato, red onion) and sauces. A well balanced burger that wasn't so overloaded that it didn't hold together under eating pressure but that still felt like substantial. On this evidence for a chain they're doing things right and sticking to their principles of doing 'proper burgers' well.

One thing that I was surprised about was that they wouldn't cook my burger rare; medium or well done being the only options. I just had a look at the website and there's a message stating "We believe hamburgers taste best when cooked medium, but have also been happy to cook them however our customers want upon request. However, following the intervention of one local authority, we’re now going to have to say ‘no’ to the small number of you who want your hamburger rare." A real shame, a rare burger for me is a thing of beauty whilst I appreciate there are risks involved (however minimal) I just prefer the taste of a blue burger - perhaps this is something i'll just have to get used to when not in control of my own meat.

The Special at the time of visiting was the Miami Slice and was made up of the standard Byron burger, covered with a handful of crispy potato fries, what tasted like the standard Byron American cheese and hot sauce that was apparently created by a thin layer of melted Nduja tucked away that gave the whole burger an oily but not unpleasant finish. The bun was a sourdough bun but was very floury, more like a bun from a traditional british bakery than a typical burger restaurant. The contents of the burger was very good, I really enjoyed the kick of heat and the fine crisps on top gave an aditional crunch that would've been missing without the standard Byron bun. It was served with a small portion of pork scratchings, i'm used to the cheap ones in the pub and these were a more delicate version of those - pleased to report no hairs in sight either. Overall, a take on a burger that was new to me and that I enjoyed very much.

Courgette fries were a mistake - long slices of courgette that I presume must be dried before deep frying but that still just tasted really watery. The batter was crispy but pretty bland and when they were dunked in sauce to add flavour bits of the batter started coming away just causing a right mess. Some vegetables are just not made to be deep fried and watery courgette is certainly near the top of that list for me.

The classic Byron was a very solid 8/10 burger and the "burger of the month" was a tonne of fun. Quick shout out to the serving staff who were all extremely up-beat considering it was a busy Saturday lunch time, the service was fast and efficient. I feel like i've slightly overlooked Byron and will be keeping an eye more closely on their specials in the future. I do think that at just under £40 for two burgers, two beers and a side of courgette fries it was a shade more expensive than Almost Famous so they'd still be my preference but the standard of the food and imagination in the special can't be disputed. 

Annie's Burger Shack - Nottingham

It got to the stage in the new year whereby I was getting sick of hearing about Annie's. I'd seen friends burger photos on twitter and instagram, read about it on forums, had people mention them to me out of the blue on a couple of occasions during conversation - any discussion about Nottingham seemed to lead back to Annie's. Having a date planned to visit friends in the city I decided to make a reservation and see what the fuss was all about.

I initially e-mailed Annie’s to make a reservation only to receive an automatic e-mail response stating they’d get back to me in 10 (TEN!) days to confirm whether a space was available or not (it wasn’t). I then tried to call on several occasions at different times of the day but still never managed to agree a date for a table on a weekend that would be convenient for me. I appreciate that if you’re this busy then bookings probably aren’t your priority but this was driving me mad – who waits 10 days to hear whether they have a table free at a burger restaurant in the midlands and doesn’t just immediately look for an alternative? Surely if your restaurant is this popular it’s the most basic thing to just pay someone to respond to e-mails and write names in a diary or just adopt one of the many booking systems available that just does the work for you, or take bookings by phone only (and actually have someone to answer) or just say ‘no bookings’. 

So anyway, mid way through a pub crawl in the city (Nottingham is highly recommended in this regard), we wandered down expecting to see a queue of thousands of people filling the streets fighting to get in only for the main dining room to be half empty - they said they had a few bookings due to show up but the wait for a table was only 30 minutes. My attention had already been drawn to the bar which had a fantastic range of beers on – they had pretty much the full Buxton range in bottles, Blue Monkey, Tiny Rebel and Blue Monkey on cask, plus various American imports – a pretty decent mix. The deal was sealed by the bar prices which were extremely cheap for a restaurant, spirits with mixers £4-5, the Buxton bottles started at £2.50 and a pint of Adnams Broadside for £3 which is outrageous value for a pub let alone a restaurant. As with any bar or pub with a good selection of drinks at good prices Annie's even had a token old man lining up beers and chuntering away to himself (as well unsuccessfully attempting to engage everyone around him). 

Anyway, we were seated and ordered food, only to be told that the kitchen was facing a delay of around an hour for food. The place wasn't even full at this point and waiting an hour for a burger seemed a little ridiculous and resulted in them selling a few more rounds of drinks in the meantime.

The choice was 30 burgers which seemed extreme and as you'd expect they cover all bases from your standard cheese burger all the way through pizza burgers, burgers with pancakes, roast dinner burgers, reuben, surf and turf and on and on and on. If you have a favourite type of burger topping it'll almost certainly be on this list somewhere - I've included a copy of the menu at the bottom here for you to nose through.

At this point I abandoned all common sense and decided to order a pizza burger. The first sign things were about to go wrong was that they wouldn't even let me order the burger rare, how am I supposed to take a burger restaurant that won't do rare seriously? As the burgers were dished out the cogs started to slowly turn in my tiny brain and it dawned on me that the core of all of the options was exactly the same and they were obviously just churning burgers off the grill, dunking them in whatever toppings were relevant and dishing them up so no wonder they wouldn't cook to order. My pizza came lathered with mozarella and pepperoni as expected which was but fine but so much cheap parmesan was involved on the topping that I couldn’t really taste anything else, it completely numbed my taste buds it was so over the top. I ended up having to try a chunk of burger from my friends meal to fully experience the dry meat (see photo below for lack of evidence of even a hint of pink) which didn't impress me with the flavour at all. 

Photos above from the top left clockwise are of Reuben (Standard), the Broadway (Scottish sausage and grilled chicken breast), a dry burger, the Caribbean (Jerk spiced chicken burger), the Delta (probably my favourite visually, due to the fact it looked like a prehistoric lizard vomiting burger sauce all over the tray) and the Peppino Pizza (details above)

I suspect a hyped burger place is popping up in every city across the UK at the moment and with lack of many alternatives in Nottingham I can understand why it's done so well, it just wasn't for me and wouldn't get near a top 10 of burgers i've had in the UK. I could excuse my mistake of ordering the pizza burger but the dry meat was an absolute no-no and killed the whole meal for me. Underwhelming.
 

Brewdog Manchester and Honest Burger 'Brew Burger'

As a major fan of both Brewdog beers and Honest burgers, I was pretty excited to read that they'd been working together on developing a burger for the launch of the Bourbon Baby beer that would be available in Manchester for ONE NIGHT ONLY and so drew a big burger on the calendar at home to make sure I wouldn't forget when the date rolled around.

Whilst trying to translate the list of ingredients, it became clear I was looking at a bbq bacon cheese burger which would incorporate the following:

Bacon that had been candied using 5am Saint (an existing Brewdog red ale)
Comte Cheese
Onions in beef dripping and Punk IPA (Brewdog's flagship IPA)
BBQ sauce made with one of their Paradox beers
Pickled Cucumber
All on top of the classic Honest 150g aged beef patty and sandwiched within their usual toasted bun

The sauces were supposedly so boozy that the burger actually had an ABV, unfortunately I forgot to take my kit to test this so i'll have to take the claim at face value.

I arrived a bit early meaning I was ready and waiting like a horrendous over-zealous fan (i'm ashamed) at 6pm to get an order in as soon as they went on sale.

I was overjoyed (really) to see the burger arrived accompanied by Honest's triple cooked hand cut chips with rosemary salt, none of this frozen fries nonsense. I'd been fiending for these for months and they absolutely didn't disappoint.

I dived head-first into the burger and it all held together admirably but while very enjoyable to my taste buds the sheer range of ingredients and flavours was very difficult to separate when mushed together inside my chops. The good news was that the signature Honest meat wasn't completely overwhelmed and shone through, helped by the meat being cooked perfectly pink in the middle.

I could've gone at it with a knife and fork in an attempt to give you a break down of how well thought out the list of ingredients was and how they all worked together perfectly to result in the burger to end all burgers (bringing on burgergeddon) but that's kind of missing the point.

The Bourbon Baby beer which came with the burger was a great accompaniment. Typically Brewdog beers aren't known for a subtle flavour and this was definitely a nice surprise with a mild and sweet taste of it's own. My taste buds were hammered by the burger so I won't even attempt to describe notes for you i'm afraid. I was interested to read in the the recent issue of Hop-Propaganda (kills me it's not just called HOPAGANDA), the in-house Brewdog magazine that it's been developed as an "experiment in how a lower ABV session ale will develop in cask" and understanding fully what they were aiming for they definitely nailed it.

In the spirit of experimentation and trying something a bit different it was a great little burger and I have a lot of respect for the ideas that went into it all. A collaboration that was certainly a lot of fun and something that i'm definitely pleased to have experienced.
 

NQ Superstore - Manchester (visit two)

It's been a few months since my last visit to Superstore and finding myself wandering round the NQ for inspiration it seemed a good opportunity to pop back in and see how they were getting on.

(L-R - Sharing Platter, Bone marrow on toast and prawns with Chorizo on toast)

The good news is that everything has changed for the better - all of the things that I felt they were doing well have improved and all of the minor niggles i'd complained about last time had gone - the TV was off, the cash machine upstairs has gone and the selection of beers has massively improved. The service was of the same high standard as the last visit and the food has all been refined in positive ways. It's also moved on from being fairly quiet to being absolutely heaving - we took the last available table at 7pm on a Saturday night so they're clearly doing extremely well customer wise.

(L-R Tempura veg, Tempura fish and chips and a portion of fries)

The five for £20 small plates menu had the same choices as last time but the portion sizes have been refined with everything now being served together on a sharing platter which completely removed the issues a lack of space on the smaller tables meaning no need for plate juggling. One slight point i'd note is that the starters don't actually lend themselves that well to sharing as they're mostly a large portion of a specific dish so i'd imagine the next evolution will be to get some proper sharing dishes on the menu. Having said that we made a great effort at hacking up and sharing out the black pudding and dishing out noodles and of course I made sure I grabbed the bone marrow as quickly as possible. The garlic accompanying the bone marrow had been somewhat tamed allowing the main flavour of the fatty bone marrow to shine through.

The mains I tried this time were the lamb burger and a large chunk of the tempura fish and chips. They also had a special on for the night of prawns and chorizo on toast which was very generous portion-size wise for £7.

There is such an impressive range of starters and mains that I always over order early on and still haven't tried the desserts unfortunately - I fully intend to put this right next time!

It's progressed from being a good to a great restaurant in just a few months and I can't wait to see how they continue to grow. Value for money is very high with four of us leaving well full for approx £100 including a couple of rounds of beers and cocktails.

Home Sweet Home - Manchester

Home Sweet Home fills a hole in the NQ for cheapish (£6-8) decent sized portions of US diner style treats. They cover all the usual junk food mainstays with a solid brunch menu incorporating ‘bennies' (eggs benedict), coffees, waffles, French toast and cooked breakfasts. The core menu goes on to tick off other staples such as burgers, hot dogs, wings, chicken in a basket, some of the cheaper steak cuts, milkshakes (soft and hard!), loads of soft drinks and a couple of decent beers on draft. The main attraction is the cake cabinet stuffed with some of the most over the top cakes you'll ever see.

We're not talking ace of cakes design nonsense but real cakes that you'd actually want to tuck into themed in the most imaginative ways. Any kind of calorie control is rightly thrown completely out of the window.

On this occasion I tried the following:

Double cheeseburger with fries - despite being from the same family as Almost Famous, HSH take their own slant on burgers. Think well flavored McDonalds patties, decent in their own way but i'm so used to these inch thick rare burgers that everyone serves these days that this type of thing doesn't do much for me anymore. It was served with a mountain of fries which were well salted.

Goats cheese, red onion and spinach brioche - this was the special of the day and came served on a huge bed of salad. Since I was having a giant ice cream shake I thought I'd make a token effort at ordering a healthy version and this was a nice alternative to a burger - the brioche had plenty of filling and the flavours sat together well.

Latte - their filter is usually pretty decent but the latte didn't hugely impress, the base coffee had that soil taste you often get if beans are past their best. Honestly, if I wanted a strong fresh coffee in the NQ i'd head over to TeaCup or North Tea Power every time.

Shake - incredibly rich and thick ice cream and blueberry shake with fresh cream and fruit loops as the topping. Completely over the top and definitely very enjoyable as a result.

I had been on a run of bad service which had taken the shine off slightly and put me off dropping in for a while but things are definitely improving - the two waitresses who dealt with me on this trip were fantastic, very chatty and helpful. There were noticeably more staff hanging around than there had been previously so hopefully they've noticed the problem and dealt with it.

Home Sweet Home did exactly what I was in the mood for - well done comfort food staples served quickly and for a reasonable price. Food wise if I compare it to similar options within the city it doesn't hit the heights of Moose coffee for me with regards to but the cakes are the real highlight and not to be missed. 

If you're heading in late in the day (ie after work) then have a nose through the window as they do often seem to sell out by late afternoon which is a real shame as dropping in late evening for a piece of cake and a cold beer or coffee would give them a great late-night café vibe that the NQ could really do with. Now summer is here and the tables outside can be put to good use it's one of the most fun spots in the NQ for a quick lunch.

Almost Famous Great Northern - Manchester

I absolutely love a good burger and having lived in London until last year I got fully caught up in the burger trend that was relentless over the past 3-4 years.

I cut my teeth on a Dead Hippie during the MeatEasy days above Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross and went on to enjoy a burger odyssey taking in more joints than I can even remember, among the highlights were Burger and Lobster, Patty and Bun, Lucky Chip, Meatliquor, Mother Flipper, Honest, Meatmission, Bleeker Street Burger, Admiral Codrington, Byron, Meatmarket, Hawksmoor....it makes my arteries quake just seeing those listed out.

The good news up there is that Manchester has two fantastic burger restaurants in Solita and Almost Famous that sit comfortably alongside the company mentioned above. The even better news is that they are both doing their own thing - Solita has more of a mature feel to the food and surroundings and AF is just all about a cracking dirty burger with over the top sauces, grease and fat (in the best way). I've been to both several times now and thought it was time to get some words down about Almost Famous.

Good flavoured meat is essential and AF absolutely nail this - I have read that the meat itself comes from WH Frosts who supply a lot of the better restaurants in Manchester. I enjoy the fact that the meat has it's own distinct flavour, whether this is down to the cooking or mix to the meat it's exceptional in this regard.

Range wise they cover the classics well, the menu leads with their versions of a classic burger, a cheeseburger and onto the bacon cheeseburger before really letting loose with their personality and taking us into into cheeseburgers with chilli beef, triple tower burgers and burgers with a layer of rare steak as filling amongst others. Some of these go a little too far and verge on distracting from what is an excellent burger but I appreciate in these 'man vs food' times that people expect more and more excess from their burgers.

On this occasion we ate the following:

Butter and Bleu - Double cheeseburger with a layer of flat iron steak, there was supposed to be chorizo but this was minimal and then a ton of blue cheese sauce. I had a quick go on the sauce and it was cracking, nice and thick like proper cheese had been melted down not just watered down sauce.
Awesome Frickin Chicken - the fried chicken burger, didn't try this one but my friend was extremely complimentary.
Pulled Pork Roll - having had the burgers a few times I thought i'd try the pulled pork sandwich which was sufficiently stuffed with pulled pork with lashings of various sauces to keep it nice and juicy.
Crack Wings with suicide sauce - these were disappointing, not much meat on them and a weird mix of hot sauce but slightly cold wings. A couple of them were left behind which says a lot considering they are served in 6's.
Bacon Bacon Fries - my favourite side on the menu, great fries with bacon mayonnaise and bacon crumbles on top. Works an absolute treat.

Almost Famous re-opened late last year in this large new premises in the Great Northern complex after their last place burnt down. I know this is a massive step up in scale from the old place and my only real complaint I suspect is tied to this. On both visits to the GN restaurant the food was served slightly cold, as if it'd been sat under the pass a couple of minutes too long. As it all tends to get demolished pretty quickly this wasn't a huge issue but having the burgers served up piping hot would've been the icing on the cake and I suspect this is just down to a learning curve of a much larger kitchen and extremely successful and busy restaurant.

The only other thing to mention is the mix of art is bizarre, the constant references to 'winning' and a 30 second internet meme over three years ago is a truly bizarre design choice and results in the decor feeling very dated despite being brand new. I know this is a nod to the original AF but surely a new building would've given them the chance to breakaway from such a shit and tired theme.

Aside from that it was a spot on lunch, the service was polite and efficient we were seated very quickly and sufficiently away from other tables to have a bit of space to ourselves. Despite the minor point above and the wings the food was all good and great value for money - burger, sides and drinks were approx £15 each. Definitely recommended.

 

Beat Street Manchester "Season 1 Episode 1"

Since moving to Manchester I've found the 'street food' scene slightly lacking - the range and quality of the food out there is genuinely impressive but as they appear at venues far and wide, there's a real lack of cohesion, well up until now as Beat Street seems a real game changer.

I'd been to a couple of the Guerilla Eats nights last year and whilst decent, neither the food or atmosphere ever left me particularly wowed. The good news is that the Beat Street team have put together an extremely impressive event. Using Camp Street Market as the venue was a great choice and mixing established well loved Manchester restaurants (Solita, Lucha Libre) with the most impressive local(ish) street food vendors (Honest Crust, Arepa Arepa Arepa) created a buzz and atmosphere reminiscent of Street Feast in London.

I went with a group of friends and didn't eat all of the options below but I captured some photos of the menus along with food to give a broad overview of the various options. Every stall had a range of food to try and were all extremely reasonably priced - I challenge anyone not to be absolutely stuffed for £20. 

The only thing lacking for me was the bar - cocktails were pricey at £7 and the beer selection was particularly dull, mainly made up of the Kona and Red Hook beers which are being pushed in several places around Manchester at the moment and are particularly bland, definitely not justifying the inflated prices. The bar did seem particularly quiet whilst I was in there and i've seen a few people complaining about the choice so hopefully this will be improved in future weeks. It seems a real missed opportunity to support local restaurants so impressively but then totally overlook all of our great local breweries. I did ask them about this on twitter only to be told "we have something VERY special coming", very non-committal.

Hopefully word of mouth after such a positive first week will add to the continual hype on twitter and ensure that Beat Street is busy enough for these initial 12 weeks so they plan further events into the future, I will definitely be back as often as I can make during this run. The Beat Street team deserve a huge amount of praise and as much support as possible to encourage them to continue with these events long after 'Season 1' ends. Best of luck guys.

Arepa Arepa Arepa! My first time with one and I went for the SobreBarriga. I couldn't get enough of the Arepa itself and the steak filling was so tender and succulent.

 Diamond Dogs - The Boss Dog was absolutely heaving with toppings, it felt like it weighed about a kilo.

Honest Crust - The Atomica pizza was stunning, the n'duja worked absolutely perfectly. I'll be tracking down the van for another pizza as soon as possible.

 Lucha Libre - tacos were just as impressive as they are in the restaurant itself.

Nutters - I'd heard of the 'world famous' black pudding wontons before but they were definitely more fritter than what i'd seen pictured before. Slightly disappointed by these.

 Big Manc Jr was just as brilliant as it's bigger brother

The BBQ chicken street box portion size was so generous it barely fit into the box