Barnyard - London

Barnyard is the latest venture from Ollie Dabbous, the head chef at his eponymously named restaurant which I am yet to visit but have heard nothing but praise for. When wandering the back streets looking for Barnyard it was quite refreshing that in a row of darkened doorways it was fairly easy to spot as the entire place has been decorated as a (you'll never guess) farmhouse. A white picket fence surrounds the front of the restaurant containing within tables fashioned out of planks of wood, aged metal tiles, corrugated metal walls and suitably industrial looking lighting.

At 2.15pm on a Monday we had the entire restaurant to ourselves which was a fairly odd experience in itself, I'd hope for the restaurants sake that we'd just missed the lunch rush and at least we had very attentive service on the bright side. To be fair to Barnyard, quite a few people seemed attracted by the decor outside and wandered up to take a look at the menu only to quickly walk away.

The menu is split by food type, on this occasion the headers were Pig, Cow, Lamb, Chicken, Egg, Vegetables and Puddings with 3-4 options under each section to choose from.

We started with drinks - I had a banana and rum milkshake which came served in a slim line milk bottle with a straw and was spot on, creamy but not too thick and with a clear note of rum which was extremely pleasant.

The Barnyard Iced tea was the second drinks choice and a bit of an odd one initially, the component parts of English tea, pink grapefruit, lemon, agave, Scotch whiskey and Mica beer combined resulted in an a light hint of weird scum floating on the top, almost as if the mix had gone off in some way. The flavour was similar to a good sour beer, bitter but the coldness with the hint of lemon made it refreshing at the same time. An unusual experience that got better the more I drank and I would need to try again to be clear whether it was actually enjoyable or just the uniqueness that got to me.

First starter was lard on toast, which I immediately regretted it as as clump of semi-melted lard dripped on to my trousers, presumably never to be removed. The snack itself was great, I'd pictured a thick slice of sourdough appearing but it was more of a Swedish crisp bread, lathered in the lard and with a hint of pepper which made for a fun fatty trousers destroying opener.

The asparagus dish was served cold and featured a slow cooked duck egg with lemon vinegarette and torn sourdough bread, decorated with yellow flower leaves and sunflower seeds. The vinegeratte was very tart and clumped up under the veg, it wasn't clear whether this was deliberate or had been applied too liberally but there was certainly sufficiently on the dish to make sure the flavour was transferred to all the separate parts.

Short rib - two bite sized chunks of grain-fed short rib in black treacle outer, with a slice of pickle and mustard sauce. The beef was spot on but it was a pretty miserly dish for £14 - definitely not the main-sized portion I was expecting for that price.

Chicken wings - a dish of extremely crispy chicken wings, I saw extremely and I mean as in tap the coating with with a knife and it'd crack never quite seen wings coated like these. They were generously sized wings, juicy and tender and not the soft flabby meat you often see - everything flavoured with smoked paprika, garlic and lemon that packed a punch.

Corn on Cob - another slight miss, the corn was cooked just as I like so it retains plenty of crunch and it was plenty buttery but there was just no real flavour until I took a bite of the charred section. It also came served with a dirty great bolt screwed into one end to use to hold it with. It never felt entirely hygienic if I'm perfectly honest.

Finally, a special shout out to the toilets which were up there with the most terrifying I've ever been in, I felt like I was in a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre as I wandered down a corridor lined with wood, doors with no markings and the toilet hidden away at the end of a long creepy corridor with banging in the kitchens at the side. I'll definitely be going back one day to hide away in one of the nooks playing chainsaw sound effects to make people lose their minds (not really).

I'm still a bit confused as to whether the decor is meant to be taken seriously or is just a bit of dumb fun trying to stand out from the crowd. The total bill came to £55 inc tip and drinks and whilst we had a good time and enjoyed the majority of the food, there was nothing mind-blowing that would have me rushing back, an enjoyable if a little forgettable 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.