Manchester House

Manchester House
Tower 12, 18-22 Bridge Street
Manchester
Date of visit: 6 September 2014


The first thing to get out of the way is that it's a Living Ventures restaurant. So it's blingy. There's a bar with lots of cocktails (though here on a different floor). The staff are trained to within an inch of their lives and only the best of them break out of the confines of appearing somewhat automaton-like with their scripts.

But for all that, it's an attractive and engaging place, both the bar and the restaurant. The most off-putting thing is the entrance, which looks like an entrance to any old office block (which is what it is, of course) and the woman gatekeeper on the desk at the entrance.  Being challenged before even getting near the bar or restaurant itself is something I find particularly uncomfortable.  When the bloom's worn off, they may regret having this barrier against any possible passing chance trade.

Having got past the first greeter (we had booked), we went up to 12th floor, as much because we felt we should, than any particular desire for drinks beforehand.  We went on a rainy lunchtime, so the views from the bar, sorry The Lounge, weren't as engaging as I imagine they can be.

A couple of White Lady cocktails, however, were excellent examples.  Though the excessively loud music playing in the bar was out of all relation to the number of customers (only us two while we were up there!).

White Lady cocktail

That's what you call a bar

Descending in the lift back down to the 2nd floor and the restaurant (all a bit of a faff, when you think about it: surely it would have been better to put them on adjacent floors, though perhaps they had to work round existing tenants and leases?) we met the third greeter of the day.  It's worth saying that once we'd got past the gatekeeper at street level, the other two greeters knew exactly who we were and we didn't have to repeat our names at each floor.

The restaurant is chic industrial glam, and a little less glitzy than the bar.  It's a big space and they must be able to seat a significant number of covers: it was empty when we went in, but full (having turned the odd table too) by the time we left.

The open kitchen and (because the bar upstairs isn't enough, another bar on the right)

Restaurant interior

One uncomfortable feature is that the tables are unusually large. Not just larger than normal (which would be welcome in many cases) but so big that you can't imagine coming to Manchester House for a romantic date à deux. You'd have to have long legs to play footsie. Indeed, the couple at the next table made a point of moving one chair and place setting so that they sat next to each other on adjacent sides of the table.  All the tables for two would have been better turned through 45° and the diners seated next to each other.

Very much to the credit of both front of house and the kitchen, there was the merest hint of a batted eye at our decision that one of us would go à la carte (with the rather odd "A la Carte Extended" option) and the other would take the option of turning the 2-2-2 table d'hôte lunch menu into a six course tasting menu.  Obviously, there was the occasional hiatus for one or the other of us, but the kitchen worked the timings well to produce a meal that flowed well for both of us.

Bread course

First to come was the bread: a feather-light brioche, served with seaweed butter, and (in a separate glass teacup Chinese mushrooms on which was poured some sort of (I think) dashi stock.  I'm not sure about this trend to bread as a course in a meal. I can see the attraction for some chefs, as it both limits consumption and bullies those who'd normally ignore it into eating it. But I find it hard to think of bread as other than an accompaniment to a meal, preferably for the mopping up of sauces, which is something that many chefs forget entirely: which is curious really, as they spend so much time making excellent sauces, yet so often omit to give the diner any means to eat it all up, whether bread or spoon.

The "A la Carte Extended" seems to me mainly a way to charge £15 for three amuses bouches that would come under the category of "freebie nibbles" at many other places. Apologies for the vagueness of my descriptions of these "extended" dishes: it was difficult to catch everything the waiter said, as often when they're working from learned scripts.

"Extended à la carte" nibble 1

I didn't really catch what the first was but it involved peas and I think some sort of curd cheese on some sort of wafer.  Quite Rogan-y in style, but not as well executed as the wafer was a bit soft.

"Extended à la carte" nibble 2

The second extended nibble was a sort of cold foie gras soup with foie gras & something else. Not sure what. But it was damn good.

"Extended à la carte" nibble 3

The third, and final, extended nibble was the weakest: cured mullet, ?sardine? caviar, confit tomato and a bouillabaise sauce. It just wasn't exciting and didn't amuse the bouche.

Crab risotto

The first of the courses of the table d'hôte tasting lunch was an excellent crab risotto with a thick slice of a confit Scottish cep on top. A terrific dish. Simple, classic elegance. And great flavours.

breast & leg of quail, foie gras torchon & chicory with pain d'épices

 The second starter off the tdh was a very good breast & leg of quail, but however good the quail was it was completely outshone and made to feel quite otiose by the accompanying two thick slices of perfect foie gras torchon & some roast chicory with a pain d'épices crumb on top.

Langoustines and carrots

 Off the à la carte came a good starter of a pair of stunning langoustines served with a multitude of carrot preparations and spherified olives.  A good dish, but it somehow didn't hang together as well as the two table d'hôte starters.

lobster & chicken lasagna

lobster & chicken lasagna: so good, it's worth another look

Lobster & chicken lasagna revealed. Look at the work in that!

 The first table d'hôte main course was an absolutely stunning lobster & chicken lasagna that came with charred lettuce & lobster tail. Without any shadow of a doubt, this was the star dish of the meal.  The amount of work in it was remarkable. Really delicious, perfectly executed and remarkably generous, particularly on a table d'hôte lunch menu.  It's remarkable to get lobster and all the more so that much of it on a £22.50 for 2 courses menu. (Since this visit, the lunch menu has gone up to £27.50 for 2 courses, but it'd still be a bargain.)

Poached chicken, gnudi, chanterelles

The second tdh main was poached chicken, gnudi, chanterelles & clever little puri-like baked potato shells. It was good but very definitely in the lasagna's shadow.

Rose veal fillet with cacao beans and foie gras mousse

The à la carte main was less successful. A somewhat insipid dish of lovely Cumbrian rose veal fillet served with cacao beans and foie gras mousse. It needed more salt and more maillard reaction on the meat.

Lemon cheesecake, blackberries

We split the desserts off the table d'hôte.  A very technically involved dish involved lemon cheesecake wrapped in a blackberry gel cannelloni and served with a sorrel sorbet and various textures of blackberry. 
We'd had the flight of wines by the glass with the table d'hôte: most had been solid matches, through drawn, I think, only from their regular selection of wines by the glass.  However excellent the lemon cheesecake and blackberry concoction was, the Recioto di Soave that was served with it was a terrible match that detracted from the dessert. It might have been the best match from what they'd got to play with, but it was a very poor match.

Gingerbread, plum, pear & chocolate

The second dessert was a terrific, restrained dish, involving gingerbread, plum, pear & chocolate. By complete contrast to the other dessert the 10yo tawny port served with this was a fabulous match.

Top espresso (a massive single!) in a cup and a half

Espresso was superb and a single was remarkably large.  Apparently those cups cost £80 each! It's worth saying that all the crockery and cutlery was not merely good, but also very impressive. No slates either!

Macarons

With coffees came a wooden box containing a kaleidoscopic selection of very good macarons. Some of the flavours were good, others less clear. Although not perfectly matched (something highlighted by them all being presented lined up next to each other), there was a pretty decent uniformity too. Accomplished.