The New Spring Menu at Iberica

I was very lucky to get invited to an exclusive dinner at Ibérica Manchester showcasing their new spring menu.  And even better Nacho Manzano, Executive Chef for the all the Ibérica restaurants would be cooking!

The man himself – Nacho Manzano (in the middle)

Clearly I didn’t read the invitation properly, I thought it would be a couple of hours of standing at a buffet nibbling on lovely tapas.

Nope, nope, nope. It was four hours long and a proper posh sit down dinner of five courses.  Maybe the clue was in the description ‘exclusive dinner’?! Well, I certainly wasn’t complaining.

Dish after delicious dish came out accompanied with exquisite wine.  Each offering colourful and curious and obviously, tasty.  In total I counted that we’d been served 14 dishes and we also got involved when the pescatarian on our table got fish dishes instead of meat.

Cod brandada

Warm lentil salad

A nice waiter gamely posing for a photo

GR 174 Red Wine

Ibérica is a beautiful, classy and colourful venue – the staff were energetic, helpful and fun – and there was a buzz to the whole evening.

My favourite dish unexpectedy was a pear and spinach salad with feta, pine nuts and pesto.  INCREDIBLE.  My other top dish was the chargrilled octopus brought out for the pescatarian (he didn’t get much of a look in as we all piled in to try it).  It tasted like a juicy steak.

Pear and spinach salad

If you get the chance do go and eat at Ibérica – it’s a glamourous fun night out and the food is awesome.  And make sure you check out the ladies toilets – they are apparently the most Instagrammable in Manchester I’m still kicking myself for not taking my phone to the loo…

 

Sunday Afternoon Quickie: Wreckfish, Liverpool

Wreckfish in Liverpool opened a few weeks ago.  I was already a fan of Gary Usher’s other three restaurants Hispi, Burnt Truffle and Sticky Walnut, so I made sure to book in quick at Wreckfish.

What these restaurants do well is high end, interesting food at really affordable prices in simple, attractive contemporary venues.

Wreckfish is in a lovely old building in the centre of Liverpool, inside there’s lots of exposed brick and it has a cool industrial feel.  It’s really classy.

I went for crispy lamb’s tongue with pear puree and roasted peanuts for starter, and I attempted to balance out my meat consumption by having a vegetarian main of roasted turnip cakes and I finished with a dark chocolate and blackberry mousse for pudding.

The crispy lamb’s tongue was spot on, deliciously cooked and I loved the peanuts and puree that went with it.

I was less keen on the turnip cakes.  It was a bit of a non dish, nothing wrong with it, but it was just a bit bland and more like a side dish.  To the restaurant’s credit, they were very eager to hear our thoughts on the food and relayed back to the chef that I was disappointed with my main.

Jamie’s main, which was a roast beef dinner, was absolutely glorious though (see feature photo).  I got very involved in helping him eat his dinner having lost interest in mine.  I can honestly say it’s one of the best roasts I’ve ever eaten.

And I ended on a high as I was very pleased with my dark chocolate and blackberry mousse – just a very fresh and tasty pud!

All in all, I think it’s a brilliant restaurant, the staff were lovely, and the food (bar the turnip cake) was exceptional and great value for money.

Crispy lambs tongue

Turnip cake

Dark chocolate and blackberry mousse

Northern Quarter Restaurant and Bar Express Menu

It was Saturday, and we were heading into town to watch a 6pm film at Home, and fancied a light dinner out beforehand.

After a bit of a sniff about on Tripadvisor, we decided on the Northern Quarter Restaurant and Bar. Partly because we’ve both been before and loved it, but also because they have a brilliant Express Menu – 2 courses for £14.95 or 3 courses for £18.95.

4.15pm is an early dinner, but it meant that it was quite a calm, quiet time in the restaurant, which is always rather nice on a busy Saturday in town.

We only went for two courses.  Much as I would have liked a pudding, I was fixated on having a tub of ice-cream at the cinema, so held off.

Jamie had a pale ale rarebit with Goosnargh duck egg and I chose Brixham crab cakes.  Both were delicious and the presentation was lovely too.

Pale ale rarebit with Goosnargh duck egg

Brixham crab cakes

And for mains, I decided to go carb-less with a flat iron steak and a salad and Jamie chose Goan chicken, Asian slaw and chips.  I’m not a massive red meat eater, but the steak was a triumph – very melty and tasty.  Obviously I had to test Jamie’s chicken too, which was succulent and full of flavour.

Flat iron steak

Goan chicken

All in all it was great value for money and a lovely way to spend a wet and windy Saturday afternoon.  The venue is really chilled, unpretentious and classy and I love the large glass windows which look onto the old Smithfield fish markets. I don’t go back to many restaurants, because I always like to be finding new spots to write about, but this place is worth breaking that rule for.

Umezushi Tasting Menu

I’d heard so many amazing things about Umezushi, I just thought it would be nice to pop in and have a light lunch on a Saturday.  However, Jamie got giddy and decided we should get the tasting menu.  I wasn’t going to argue.

This was the tasting menu:

Miso Soup

Sashimi

Nigiri

Grilled dish

Simmered dish

Dessert

Served with Japanese wine or sake.

We passed a lovely couple of hours munching our way through this lot.  I had the Japanese white wine, which was light and appley and very nice. And all the sashimi and nigiri was sublime, really fresh and beautifully presented.  The grilled fish was mackerel and again was just exquisite. And our final savoury dish was the ‘steamed fish’ which was another soup, this time with sea snail in! Very delicious.  Pudding was sake infused pineapple with a dollop of ice-cream.

The whole thing was a really relaxing, intriguing experience.  And I really liked the vibe in Umezushi – a tiny wooden interior that seats about 20 people, under a railway arch near Victoria – it felt quirky and cool.  And I loved that the toilet has a Japanese cityscape wallpapered all over the walls.  Oh yes, and the staff were very attentive and sweet too.

Miso soup

Sashimi

Nigiri

Grilled mackerel

Sea snail soup

Sake infused pineapple and ice-cream

 

Tuesday Night Pig Out at The Con Club, Altrincham

Last night I headed out to the Con Club to meet my friend Kate for dinner.  It was Tuesday night, so a proper meal out felt rather extravagent, but having just got back from my holiday, it seemed like the perfect way to try and distract myself from my post holiday blues.

The Con Club is opposite Altrincham Market and is a gorgeous venue – it’s an old building (1887) that was renovated last year, and the Con Club opened as a restaurant in November. It’s a really trendy, beautiful place now – spacious, high ceilinged, modern and fun.

The beautiful interior of the Con Club

We arrived at 7.30pm and the place was buzzing! Who knew that Altrincham is the place to be on a Tuesday night? I ordered a Yakatori Beef dish with Asian veg and Kate went for a sirloin steak with fries.  We were both very pleased with our choices.

Yakatori Beef dish with Asian veg

Having just got back from Italy I ordered a Italian wine: Levorato Primativo.  It was fruity and delicious.  And I felt like I earned myself some brownie points for not staying safe and ordering my usual glass of Malbec.  Check out my recent Help, I’m in Wine Rut blog post to read more about my attempts to push myself out of my wine comfort zone.

We both finished off with decadent puddings, I chose a carrot cake with coconut sorbet and Kate opted for a chocolate lava cake with popcorn ice-cream.  My carrot cake was excellent, but I have to confess to having pudding envy for Kate’s dessert, which she described as the most chocolately cakey extravaganza she’d ever eaten.

chocolate lava cake with popcorn ice-cream

We both had a superb evening at the Con Club, it’s lively, stunning to look at, the food is fabulous, and the staff couldn’t have done enough for us, making us feel very spoilt and well looked after.

Mama Z Filipino Disco

Sounds exotic doesn’t it? Well as it happens, it was a pretty extraordinairy and colourful night, so it lived up to it’s name.

Last night (Friday 15th September), Jamie and I ventured into town to attend this Filipino style food pop up.

Having been invited by a friend, I’ll be honest, I didn’t really know what I’d signed up to, apart from some good Filipino food (which was enough of an incentive for me).

What I hadn’t expected was the awesomeness that is 101 North Western Street, it’s a superb craft beer bar, bottle shop and event space which is in a huge, warehousey type building under a railway arch. It’s near Manchester Piccadilly station.  This place has attitude. And even better there was a DJ playing excellent music and the whole venue had been decked out with Filipino style decorations.  It all felt very tropical (despite it actually being quite nippy).

I decided to start the night by sampling a Belgian beer from the bar.  I opted for a 8.5 % Delirium, which was utterly delicious, but made me very excitable very quickly. There was quite a party atmosphere so being a bit merry helped! We were sharing a table with a young couple who happened to be friends of Mama Z (the chef), and while we were waiting for our food to be served we got chatting to the lovely Stefan and Tuesday.

Delicious Delirium

The glorious Filipino menu we were served consisted of:

• Nibbles: ‘pulutan’ (fried pork puffs)
• Starter: fried lumpia (or fried spring rolls) and dipping sauces
• Main: ‘ulam’ (or chicken adobo) and ‘gulay’ vegetables (butternut squash with coconut and lemongrass) served with rice
• Dessert: gorgeous fried plantain spring rolls with caramel sauce and crushed peanuts

Each freshly prepared dish arrived with a craft beer that had been hand picked by Mama Z to match the flavours of the food.

Filipino Disco in full swing

The food was great, my favourite being the gulay vegetables and the plantain spring rolls. I do have photos of the food, but they are so blurry and dark you won’t be able to make any sense of them! Check Mama Z out on Instagram for a better idea.

A revelation for me was how much I enjoyed the beers.  I’m not a big beer drinker, but I loved every single one – even the stout (Wild Beer Millioniaire). And the beer drinking definitely helped with the whole disco vibe as we were chatting and laughing all night with Stefan and Tuesday.

So all in all, an absolutely buzzing, brilliant and tasty night.  Make sure you get down to the next Filipino Disco.

Thanks to Skiddle for inviting us as guests.  All opinions and words are my own.

 

 

 

It’s All Mixed Up at Fraiche

Last night I enjoyed the second meal of my life at a michelin starred restaurant.  It was at Fraiche in a gorgeous little village called Oxon, on the Wirral.

We had a really lovely night, and the food (well 80% of it!) was excellent.

I would recommend it, because it was exciting, interesting and we felt very spoilt and well looked after, and actually it was relatively inexpensive (for a michelin starred restaurant).

However, would I go back there again? No, I don’t think so, not unless they radically rebranded, no.

Firstly, I wasn’t a fan of the decor.  It just felt like something between a living room and a nightclub, with no natural light whatsoever.

There were blinds at the front of the restaurant, but they were shut and the rest of the restaurant was low lit and candlelit, and in honesty, it felt a bit too dark (hence the lack of any photos!). And I think I can best describe the interior as confused.  Video footage of flowers and rollercoasters were projected onto the walls to create atmosphere, and a lot of the ‘slanty’ trendy furniture felt a bit tacky.  It’s not that anything was individually bad as such, it just didn’t add up to create a overall alligned effect.

And this theme of disjointedness flowed into the food.  It was very delicious, but it felt like it was being interesting for the sake of being modern and whacky.  It seemed like ingredients frozen with liquid nitrogen kept appearing in dishes, but it didn’t necessarily improve the flavour, it felt like it was for show.  For example, at the beginning of the night we had an entree of a parmesan frozen lollipop.  A cool idea, but it didn’t taste of anything.

I must stress again that we did have a delightful evening, we really did.  The staff were so attentive and knowledgeable – we couldn’t have felt more special, which played a huge part in us having such a great night.

There really were some stunning dishes on the menu.  The wild sea bass with fennel and butter milk with a smoky squid ink crisp was awesome and beautifully plated.  And the blackberry, apple and verbana mousse ‘thing’, was sweet and tart in all the right ways, it was quite something. I wish I could describe it better to you, but I’d had quite a bit of Sancerre by the 11th course, so my memory is a bit blurred.

The cheeseboard was super impressive.  We got to choose five cheeses from a trolley packed with about 30 intriguing looking cheeses. Our waiter absolutely came into his own at this stage, he really knew his cheeses and was incredibly passionate.  We got five gorgeous slabs with cute little accompaniments, such as quince jelly and dried blueberries, especially chosen to go with each cheese.  It was good stuff.

I’m really glad I went to Fraiche, but I just feel like someone needs to sit down with the owner and get him to strip back and decide, is he running a michelin starred restaurant or a nightclub? I’d be far more interested in authentic food that’s part of a more cohesive menu served in a simple setting, as opposed to the slightly jarring food and decor we experienced.

Please note the image used is not from Fraiche restaurant, it’s a stock photo.

 

Pizzageddon at PLY

Last Monday night PLY restaurant invited myself and Jamie and some other Manchester Instagrammers to try out their new menu.  We had had a delicious sourdough pizza at PLY earlier in the year so we were more than happy to go back for more.

What I hadn’t quite anticipated was the volume of food and cocktails what would keep on coming all evening (although that definitely wasn’t a problem).

It started with mouthwatering charcuterie and beetroot carpaccio for starters, along with a fennel salad that was a bit too watery for my liking.  The starters were followed by I kid you not, six different pizzas.  We were very happy! All were very tasty but my definite favourites were the chorizo and squash and the pear and blue cheese pizzas.

And the cocktails.  Definitely a terrible (yet brilliant) idea on a Monday night to be downing a load of tasty cocktails.  There were too many to mention, but I loved the Pantone Two Eleven – gin, rhubarb, strawberry and prosecco – fresh and fruity with a lovely tang from the rhubarb.  I wasn’t quite as keen on the Americano Float cocktail which was made from vermouth, coconut gelato and prosecco.  I found it a bit sour and it had an odd aftertaste – but perhaps I’m just a philistine as I do have a very sweet tooth!

Apart from the good food, it’s a stunning and atmospheric venue, it has an arty/industrial feel and it wouldn’t be out of place in New York.  And even though it was a Monday night it was really busy and buzzy.  So alround, it was a rather excellent night.

beetroot carpaccio

New York vibes

Mouthwatering charcuterie

Vitamin Bee cocktail with gin, bergamot, honey, lemon (that’s pollen across the top)

Pear and blue cheese pizza (bianca, fior di latte, gorgonzola, pear, maple walnuts – crispy smoked pancetta)

Rustica pizza (bufala, mozzarella, proscuitto, parmesan, sun dried tomato)

Americano Float cocktail – vermouth, coconut gelato, bubbles

Riverford Pop Up Feast, Uppermill

We signed up to weekly Riverford veg boxes three months ago as part of my bid to be more environmental. We haven’t looked back since. I am now a Riverford evangelist. The produce is delightfully fresh and flavourful and it’s given us the opportunity to cook some cracking meals that really focus on the veg. I’ve been especially pleased that we’ve been confronted with foods we wouldn’t normally cook – eg daikon radishes, kolrabi and corn on the cob. We’ve had to dig deep and work out what to do with the stuff, and without fail, the outcome has been delicious.

I was looking forward to the Riverford Pop Up Feast in Upper Mill as it was another excuse for me to gorge myself on Riverford veg and learn more exciting ways of celebrating veg in dishes. The meal was part of a number of events Riverford were running to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Riverford’s Yorkshire farm. Riverford itself has been running for 30 years, but the Northern franchises have been a newer addition. Riverford customers were invited to attend at a bargain price of £15 a head.

A marvellous feast of veg!

I can confirm that the food was exceptional, and here’s the menu:

Sweetcorn with romesco

Tomato, pickled peppers and feta panzanella

Courgette and bean salad with orange, tahini and poppy seed

New potatoes with tarragon butter

Beetroot, rhubarb and blue cheese salad

Macerated nectarines with brown sugar meringues

Jamie and I were lucky enough to sit with Greg Penn, Business Development Manager for Riverford’s Home Farm in Yorkshire. We really bent his ear. I wanted to know everything about Riverford, the farming and the franchises. It was fascinating hearing all about it and we also spent a long time raving about Riverford vegetables and our favourite recipes. This might not be everyone’s idea of a good night out, but I was in my element!

Yet more veg!

I went home very full and inspired. I also came away fired up to spread the word about Riverford and other organic farms, so that more people can join me in evangalising about beautiful organic vegetables, and of course so that farms and companies that are helping the planet get more support.

Thanks to Riverford for inviting us as guests.  All opinions and words are my own.

Chez Nous, A Hidden Gem in Sale

I know very little about Sale in Manchester, and it certainly wasn’t on my culinary radar.  The neighbouring town of Altrincham is absolutely chokka block with great restaurants, but I have to admit, I hadn’t heard of a single restaurant in Sale.

That all changed when I was asked to do some photography for a lovely Bistro called Chez Nous on Marsland Road.  After a tremendously enjoyable afternoon snapping (and tasting) all sorts of dishes from black pudding bon bons to deep fried crab, my friend Jennie and I were ready for a sit down and a proper dinner.

Chez Nous is an elegant restaurant, but still very cosy and welcoming.  The exposed brick walls and the black and white photos of Sale in the 50s are a nice touch.  And even though I’d spent the afternoon working there, as soon as dinner time arrived I embraced the role of being a guest in an atmospheric and pretty restaurant.

Chez Nous

Jennie and I decided we might as well go the whole hog and order three courses.  So I went for deep fried Panko king prawn for starters, seared fillet of sea bass with Asian vermicelli and bok choi for main and a greedy sticky toffee pudding for afters.

Deep fried Panko king prawn

Sea bass and Asian vermicelli

All of it was top notch. I really enjoyed the breadcrumbed prawns, which were fresh and crunchy, although I did wolf those down, so unfortunately I didn’t really reflect on the flavour, other than yum! The sea bass was perfectly cooked and the sweet and sour vermicelli was a lovely accompaniment.  Finally the pudding – I think the photo of the sticky toffee pudding below speaks for itself. Moist and creamy and gorgeous, it tasted as good as it looked.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Apart from the delicious food, I just thought the staff serving us were brilliant – personable, fun and friendly and very attentive.  I couldn’t have asked for more.