Harters

You're not. I'm not sure which I dislike most - this sort of time constraint or only being offered "extreme" times for a table (you know the sort of thing - 5.45pm or 10.30pm)

My perception was that when the judges did comment that there had been a marked change, it tended to be for the worse. Or is my perception faulty? How does the decision making process now work, BTW (assuming that it is not a predetermined fix)? I gather the judges opinions are worth 50% and the public vote is the other 50%. I think tonight's winner got something like 26 points and the second place person about 24. So, how many more pubic votes would the second place person have to beat the other chef by to win (if you see what I'm trying to get at.)

Mrs H is toying with a night here for a special occasion we have upcoming. Current menu looks classic and pretty good. But has anyone been lately and can confirm? And do they still have a stuffy dress code - jacket & tie?

MUMTAZ - BRADFORD Living south of Manchester, we wouldn’t normally think of driving an hour to Bradford for a curry but our tour of Good Food Guide places within 60 minutes meant it was time for a schlep over the M62. It’s big. Very big. And, on this Saturday night, very busy – mainly with local asian families having a grand old family time of it. And the restaurant isn’t missing a trick. There’s Mumtaz sweets to be bought for takeaway. And Mumtaz spices and sauces. And Mumtaz baby food. Then you eventually get to the restaurant. We’d booked but no-one checked – we were just shown to an available table. We ordered some drinks (Mumtaz is alcohol free). They came quickly – a Sprite and half a litre of excellent mango lassi. And a bottle of filtered tap water, which I presume was free. I started with channa chaat – a bowl of warm chickpeas in a tamarind sauce, topped with yoghurt. I liked this – the sharpness of the tamarind working well with the contrasting softness of the yoghurt. My wife’s starter was a vegetable samosa – well made, with a good mix of veg and nicely seasoned, but a samosa nothing more, nothing less. Her main was a Pakistani dish of lamb on the bone, cooked with chilli, tomato and ginger. Not a complete winner here – some of the pieces of meat being much tenderer than others. My main was lamb with kerala – known as the “bitter gourd”. It isn’t really but it added an odd, but very nice, flavour to the dish that’s difficult to describe. The dish itself was quite dry which is how I prefer my Indian food. We were too full for dessert but, unlike many Indian restaurants, there was a large dessert menu and other tables were getting stuck in. In summary, we’re glad we went but wouldn’t be in rush to drive that far again – not when we have the likes of Akbars, EastzEast and Dilli almost on the doorstep.

We also only ate at Juniper twice. First time was fantastic (although I did seriously consider getting a bag of chips on the way home). Second time (in its final month) was much less stellar. Even so, it sounds like a trip up north is now on the cards.

Congratulations on the result, Bertie. I find myself in agreement with several of the decisions there - my "non-eating life" often takes me to both "visitor attractions" John

No longer. Unless they've re-introduced a jacket rule since we were there about 12 months back

David Thanks for that. I occasionally make a pasty and always top crimp - hdant realised side was traditional. I've lived all my 58 years around the Manchester area. Can't recall a Truffles, I'm afraid. What sort of era are we looking at? I worked in the city centre from 1966 - 1980 but, after that, had quite a few years when I rarely visited. Good luck with the competition. John

David Is there a reason why you've top-crimped some and side-crimped others? John

Difficult question - you had not started school when I turned 33 We were at the Market at the end of March and had a good evening ( see post #162 upthread for details). No longer as retro and/or downright odd as it once was. Went to Abode for dinner months back and left unthrilled.

Absolutely. I just need someone to help me develop a black pudding jalfrezi and an eccles cake/ras malai combo and my fame and fortune will be made. As an aside, I'm entirely with Phil on this one. Ethnicity is no real determining factor for good enjoyable food. And to beat him to what I know, from a past discussion elsewhere, would be his next point that I'd agree with, neither is "authenticity". A McDonads packed to the doors does not good food make. J

I wouldnt normally tip an all-you-can-eat buffet but I'll make an exception for Nawab in Levenshulme (apologies if I've posted this in the distant past). Buckets of choice and, for buffet, damn good quality. It's around eleven quid. No alcohol now (and since then, the food has got even better and far more asian families eating).

David The "normal" menu is pretty good and worth a trip, although perhaps not much of a journey. In the area, it's on a par with EastzEast and Seven Spices, perhaps a little better than Akbars and Shimla Pinks. I didnt know they did a buffet - is that just a Sunday lunch thing? John

RIVER RESTAURANT, LOWRY HOTEL Literally just across the Irwell into Salford, so still counting as Manchester city centre. An extremely well-priced Sunday lunch - three courses for £17.50 - made even sweeter by booking through a Manchester Confidential deal which threw in a bottle of house wine between two people (Aussie Cabernet Shiraz, normally priced at £20). Three choices at each course. I started with a very seasonal asparagus soup, which I can best describe as silky. My wife had a ham hock terrine. This was a chunky texture with well flavoured meat but, perhaps, a little salty. Alongside was a very punchy piccalilli – each vegetable crunchy and with a distinct taste, with everything brought together in a good mustardy dressing, improved with a few flecks of red chilli. We both went with roast beef as a main. Two good slices of medium rare meat and a Yorkshire pudding. On a separate serving plate, a selection of veg and some of the crispiest roast spuds we could recall. A little horseradish cream perked things up without overpowering. Gravy, however, was not of the finest, being a little on the sweet side, but this is really nit-picking. We didn’t fancy either of the puddings (sticky toffee or rhubarb “burnt cream”) so finished with Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese, some water biscuits, a small Eccles cake and a cranberry jelly (which was too sharp to be perfect). Service was friendly and attentive and well worth the added 10%. The room was busy and had a good buzz. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would have done even without the wine deal. On the way out, we picked up a leaflet for another current offer. Lunch on Monday and Tuesdays offers three choices at each course. No price attached – pay them what you think it was worth.

He didn't, IMO. That said, I thought it looked the nicer plate but Nigel's ice cream cone was a great wacky finish to a menu that started with scratchings. Don't see either of their main courses making it through to the banquet.

Closely followed by Peveril of the Peak, which is about a three minute walk from the Britons and is in similar style. A Kentuckian friend enjoyed the "experience" of both.

Interesting comment from Chris - echoes pretty much the review on Manchester Confidential, as I recall.

It's there on the list, David. Unfortunately, so are so many other places in the area - when we started eating out regularly at the beginning of last year, we said we'd work our way through the Good Food Guide listed places within an hours drive before we widened the net. That's 2008 edition listed places - we doing them pretty much alphabetically (you can perhaps tell I was a clerk before I retired) and are up to "M" at present. Roughly one every couple of weeks. Mumtaz in Bradford is next up!

I don't normally watch, except on Fridays, but seeing it's my own region thought I better have a nosy (not least because Mrs H has announced we're going to Northcote for the anniversary dinner in August). I'd be happy to eat either starter, although I'm with Marcus' view that the cold bean soup probably isnt right for the occasion. And I did rather chuckle at Nigel's observation about signed copies of the book being available for purchase at the Church Green. J

RED LION, CRICK, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Yet another from fiveminutesaway.com. Just off Junction 18, M1. A traditional village pub right down to the thatched roof. They're making a bit of an effort with a traditional pub lunchtime menu. Plenty of folk in just having a pint or three, but plenty also eating. Mrs H wasnt very hungry and just wanted a sandwich. And a few chips of course. Corned beef sandwich was a corned beef sandwich but English and French mustard together with horseradish was brought without asking. Decent chips. I had a portion of chicken, leek and ham pie, which had a sufficiently reasonable shortcrust pastry to make me think it had probably been made on the premises. With it, some carrots, cabbage and new potatoes. Unfortunately, the dish was marred by a canteen-like gravy poured over everything. Not my greatest pub "find" whilst out and about, but a damn sight better than anything Watford Gap services would have had to offer.

We can confirm the entry in the Good Food Guide that this one will test your sat nav! We were stopping overnight in Dover having got the ferry back from France. We’d also had a four course lunch in Calais so, perhaps, didn’t necessarily do full justice to the Yew Tree. But it was to be a good meal. A small village gastropub with two rooms. One room pub, the other gastro. Two staff – one cooks, the others does everything else. Six tables and a short menu with about six choices at each course, with starters at around a fiver and mains in the £13 – 16 bracket. A seasonal starter of asparagus, soft boiled egg and “English dressing” came as a cold salad with some rocket. Good concept, although the egg was cooked more than permitted dunking. English dressing was a good vinegary homemade salad cream. The other seasonal starter was an asparagus soup. No cream to distract from the very fine flavour but a sprinkling of croutons and a drizzle of very fruity olive oil lifted it. A main of lamb rump was cooked pink and sliced very thinly. It came with Provencal vegetables in the form of smallish dice of pepper, courgette, onion and black olive. There was a savoury but fairly indeterminate meat-based sauce. Good dish. The other main was simplicity itself – grilled Dover sole, a few new potatoes and asparagus making another appearance. We were too full for dessert. As mentioned a bit out of the way (perhaps not so much, if you’re familiar with the area and can ignore the sat nav) and well worth seeking out.

In the end we went to Aquaraile, which has an absolutely cracking location on the second floor of an apartment block, overlooking the beach and the harbour entrance. There is an “a la carte” menu but we went for the 45 EU “Menu Gourmand”. There was an amuse of a liver mousse which, in itself, was rather bland but it was served with a drizzle of a very intense consommé. We both started with the “assiette de fruits de mer”. This brought each of us a plate of whelks, winkles, grey shrimps, three oysters, a couple of prawns and a langoustine. Served with bread, mayo and vinegary/oniony sauce. My partner then had a fillet steak. Excellent béarnaise sauce and pretty good chips. I went for the tagine of monkfish. Perfectly cooked fish poached in fish stock. The stock had also cooked some rice, courgette and carrot which now formed almost a soup. The cheese course offered an excellent selection and we asked the waiter to pick us some from the immediate area. For dessert, I had a chocolate fondant but, instead of melted chocolate, the centre was a citrus sauce. Served with some slices of orange and ice cream, this was great. My partner had “Traditionnel Calais” – a coffee cake, with coffee icing and espresso ice cream. Another winner!

Well, in the end we went to the Marquis and throughly enjoyed the food. It was a good start to our week in Belgium & France (I'll be adding a Calais lunch recommendation to the France sub-forum a bit later) It’s a converted village pub, found only by going up the sort of roads you read about in the newspapers where sat. navs. have taken someone and you hope no-one is coming the other way. All trace, internally, of its former use gone, the decoration is all stripped woodwork and modern artwork on the walls. It looks good. Some canapés came with drinks – good olives, a nice fish cake and a carrot and curry cream on a cracker. There are two fixed price menus. One is priced at £17.95 for three courses and offers three choices at each course. The other, bewilderingly called the “a la carte” offers five or six choices and is double the price. My partner went with the cheaper menu and started with mackerel fillet which had a perfectly crispy skin, couscous and grilled red pepper. Delicious! The main was a very good sole fillet topped with cockles, mussels and samphire. It sat on a bed of crushed Jersey Royals. She finished with a vanilla pannacotta. Meanwhile, I’d gone for the more expensive men. A starter of slices of crispy pigs trotter, stuffed with ham hock, and topped with fried quails eggs. It came with a pungent piccalilli. This was bang on for porky flavour – I liked it a lot. The main was duck breast. It came pretty much fully cooked through but was still tender. Also on the plate, some baby turnips, choucroute and mash. I liked the earthy flavours going on here, but felt it was perhaps more of an autumn dish than spring. Dessert was a chocolate and pistachio brownie with a chocolate tortellini. The latter a clever concoction – white chocolate mousse surrounded by a tortellini shaped strip of dark chocolate. Some passion fruit sauce finished off a very good pud. All in all, this was a meal of really enjoyable food. However the experience was let down by service. Or lack of it. There were three staff. Two efficient and getting on with the job. The third – the one with the pad – flitting about from one task to another without completing anything. Needless to say, we drew the short straw. There had been delays at every stage, upping the “irritation stakes” from “mildly peeved” to “getting really pissed off”. We’d waited too long for a drinks order to be taken, for menus to come, for each course to arrive; for the dessert to be delivered (having asked for it twice); for us to be asked if coffee was wanted – by then, it wasn’t. The wine list had no half bottles but there were a number of wines by the glass, including several from Kent vineyards. Food and drink came to £91 which was very very reasonable.

Thanks for the resurrection, Chris. I was fascinated to read Thom's 2007 outpourings as to whether Alti should be classed as Midlands or North Western - not least because I recall having a similar discussion about Cheshire in my real life at about the same time. Some books will have the county in the Midlands. Such sources are tosh. Cestrians are as northwestern as anyone else. Innit. And politicians going round fiddling with boundaries (which might make a change from fiddling expenses) does not alter things one jot. South of the river you're in Cheshire; north of it you're in Lancashire. Simples! As to the OFM, I also look forward to it each month. It's normally a sensible and interesting read. And I was glad to see that with their awards this year not everything northern went to somewhere in Chorlton (which might otherwise have been taken to be a bit of a fiddle)

We needed a quick lunch near to home and an emailed flyer reminded us that a third branch of this South Manchester mini-chain had opened down the road. The flyer also told us that there was a lunchtime offer discounting main courses by 50%. That settled it - even before I remembered that "Timperley Chris" had given a mention here for the chain a week or so back The restaurant occupies the premises that held the Steak & Kebab Restaurant for more years than I care to remember but instead of the old dark and rather depressing décor, the Fat Loaf is light, bright and modern. It doesn’t jar with the Grade 2 listed building status of the exterior. The menu is a good read as well. There’s a bar menu which might bring you a fish barmcake with mushy peas, or “pie of the month” with mash, but we opted for the main menu and its chance of 50% discount. My wife started with a crayfish and hot smoked salmon cocktail. Pretty much a remake of a 70s prawn cocktail and none the worse for that. A good sized portion of contrasting fishy flavours, nice sauce, crunchy iceberg. I had sardines on toast, with sweet & sour onions, sultanas and pine nuts. I bet the Sicilians have a name for this but sardines on toast was fine for me. It certainly worked as a dish, the flavours coming together nicely. We both went for skirt steak as a main. Skirt isn’t a cut you see too often in these parts and this was a good bit of meat. It was cooked on the rare side of “medium rare” and I suspect this is one of those cases where the chef knows better than the punter. It was pretty much bang on, although my wife, who has eaten it in France says it’s served thinner there and is better for it. It came with chips – advertised as the abominable “fat chips” but these were proper chip-sized chips and were OK. Much less successful was a mushroom, onion, spinach and tomato bake on which the steak sat – in reality a gloop of fairly flavourless veggie stuff. The main would have been pretty good value at just under £12; at just under six quid it was the best bargain I’ve had in goodly while. Bill, including for a beer and a bottle of water was £29. Good lunch – we’ll be back for dinner soon.