Manchester - The Cotton House and others

[Bapi]

Tom- so sorry not to have replied- I somehow missed this thread. In any case, as I have defected to West Yorks I would have deferred posting in favour of the sage like contributors above. I have never heard about Rafas before - but am now keen to try it. Where is it please?

To reiterate RDB's comment about Stock- I loved the building but not the food. I had the shellfish platter too- which was rather good and possibly over generous. It contained scallops served with a rich, tomato based sauce. The problem was- I had ordered scallops as a main course- which came out served in exactly the same sauce! Which was a bit poor really. Result- I couldn't look at another scallop for a year.

Interesting news re Caines- I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with; as you say Bertie and Adam- we need somewhere. Jay was not too enamoured with The French at the Midland Hotel, last weekend.

Edited April 20, 2007 by Bapi (log)

[thom]

Rafas is a great place - one of my favourites in Manchester - but you have to know what you are in for. It is a pretty authentic tiled basement tapas bar, but although the food is always enjoyable and the atmosphere is excellent don't expect high cuisine or a gastronomic awakening.

The food is very decent and I like the fact that the menu is much more adventurous that you would find in La Tasca et all (it has a special section for stews, with plenty of tripe!) but they do have a fondness for the microwave with tortillas etc which is disappointing.

The wine list suits the food admirably but the best thing is, as described above, the atmosphere. It feels 'properly' Spanish without being a theme bar. It's always busy (you'd stuggle without booking on a Tues/Wed evening and no where else in Manchester could say that), the service is quick and friendly, and when full the place has a clattering, racous energy which really does make you feel like you're on holiday.

It's been there around 15 years or so (started by an Spaniard who is an ex professional footballer - well, Stockport County) and it really is an unsung gem in Manchester's restaurant scene. It doesn't do PR, or advertise, or win awards, or ever get a 'buzz' about it, but people just relentlessly and repeatedly chose to eat there.

Cheers

Thom

[Bapi]

Well you know I am not too hard up for decent tapas where I live Thom, but it does sound good. Where is it my little cauliflower?

[thom]

Well you know I am not too hard up for decent tapas where I live Thom, but it does sound good. Where is it  my little cauliflower?

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El Gato I haven't been to (yet), but from reviews and feedback I would place it and El Rincon at very different end of the scales. Both very good, but very very different.

Anyway, El Rincon is on a street whose name I forget, but basically you need to be on Deansgate, heading away from the Kendals end towards Castlefield. After you cross the Peter St/Quay St junction look for your next right which should be Great John Street which is a little Georgian street with all the doctors brass name plates on. Then, hang first right again and you are in a small back alley. The first major door is a club called Ampersand and the second, just before the eponymous "corner", is to El Rincon.

I think actually it might be called Longworth St? To have a successful restaurant in a basement site in such a tucked away location is quite something. That said it is only a stones throw from Granada and was always very popular with assorted Corrie actors etc when they wanted to avoid the paps.

Anyway, you never did you Juniper write-up did you you lazy git?

Cheers

Thom

[ajnicholls]

Took my parents to Juniper on Saturday night. It was their first Michelin-starred restaurant, so it was a very new experience to them.

Food was excellent . All had the tasting menu. Too hung over to go through every course at present, but highlights were an excellent carrot and crab soup, which came with a scallop at the bottom, a beautifully cooked lamb dish that came as rump, shoulder and liver and the dessert, a Snickers creme brulee.

My mother, bless her, came out with " I liked the idea, but all this foam is just getting rediculous". It was on all 4 of the first courses. Everything had nuts in it too.

Still by far and away Manchester's best restaurant. Even if it is in Altringham and I had to brave the Metrolink back into the city at 11:00, full of pissed-up 15 year-olds.

Adam

[RDB]

Took my parents to Juniper on Saturday night. It was their first Michelin-starred restaurant, so it was a very new experience to them.

Food was excellent . All had the tasting menu. Too hung over to go through every course at present, but highlights were an excellent carrot and crab soup, which came with a scallop at the bottom, a beautifully cooked lamb dish that came as rump, shoulder and liver and the dessert, a Snickers creme brulee.

My mother, bless her, came out with " I liked the idea, but all this foam is just getting rediculous". It was on all 4 of the first courses. Everything had nuts in it too.

Still by far and away Manchester's best restaurant. Even if it is in Altringham and I had to brave the Metrolink back into the city at 11:00, full of pissed-up 15 year-olds.

Adam

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Sounds excellent Adam, and it is indeed without a doubt Manchesters best. Maybe more restaurants need to learn a lot from Juniper, as Manchester is simply imploding in terms of good places to eat (sorry Thom ). Having read Jay's reviews over the past two weeks and the lack of winners in the Northern hospitality awards, I think it really adds further weight to the argument.

[thom]

As Manchester is simply imploding in terms of good places to eat (sorry Thom ).

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Quite apt that on a foodie website I cannot help but bite... My point has always been that Manchester has serious failings in fine dining, but not necessarily in good places to eat per se.

In addition, I must say RDB that if Paul and Katie don't have you on the payroll already then they should do so without further ado...

Juniper can have some truly wonderful moments, but I think it's laying a bit much at it's door to state that it is the panacea (not Panacea) to all Manchester's dining ills.

Cheers

Thom

[thom]

He took it over some months ago, though the refurb hasn't started yet. The rumour doing the rounds that he's intending to pitch the semi-underground restaurant at the Rossetti at Planet Michelin seems somewhat ludicrous though (though just being a 'nice' restaurant would, as you say, be good enough).

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I just do not see the Michelin thing for Abode.

Getting the talent and keeping it in Manchester is very tough.

Getting the diners to appreciate what you are doing will also take time.

Doing all this whilst making a restaurant commercially viable is the real challenge.

Doing all this, whilst making a restaurant commercially viable, in a tucked away basement site in a hotel (amongst three other hotels with decent food offerings) in Picadilly (a very non-dining/heavy drinking end of town, albeit it's changing) will, I think, be nigh on impossible.

I don't doubt for one minute Abode could contain a very nice restaurant (as Bertie says that alone would be great) but I think the only way it will get a star is if Michael ups sticks and moves in to do the job himself.

I don't know whether PR gurus have decided that announcing an intention to clinch Michelin for Manchester is the way to introduce a restaurant to the city and get the populance onside but I fear they have been grossly misinformed.

I am waiting, patiently, for someone to open a restaurant with no PR agency, no launch party, no courting of B-list celebrities, no grand claims and no flouncing out after twelve months if the high-falutin' business plan isn't holding up.

We need someone to come in under the radar, take a dog of a site for a pittance of rent and rates meaning they don't need volume to survive, and then just cook. Consistently and passionately and excellently.

Like Anthonys.

Really this is half heartfelt lament and half a cheap shot at reverse psychology, hoping my words directly or indirectly spurs Abode on to new heights and possibly even a star. If, of course, Michael Caines reads this. And if, more to the point, he could care less what I think...

Cheers

Thom

[ajnicholls]

I have to agree. The Michelin star talk around Abode has been from places like the Manchester Evening News, and they are not the most discerning. Manchester's restaurant scene doesn't aim towards Michelin and those that have tried couldn't pull it off (Establishment for example)

For those that know Manc, there is a bar/restaurant called Relish. The chef there said he was aspiring to a star. If you've been there, you would know how ludicrous this idea is. This is a place that hammers house music at an ear-bleeding volume and sells burgers.

I concur that the scene here isn't bad, but the fine dining/occasion restaurant is fundamentaly lacking. It is beyond me why. Birmingham and Nottingham can sustain enough trade to have high-end restaurants. There is a sizable business community here and there must be a serious amount of expense-account dining done. This seems to be what keeps a large number of London's Michelin-starred establishments going.

Having Juniper here is fantastic and Paul is a chef of outstanding innovaition. The variety of their menu and the huge number of themed evenings they do is way ahead of anything else in the vecinity. Am I being greedy wanting someone else nearby to do anything half decent? At least we have Red Chilli.......

Adam

[thom]

The Michelin star talk around Abode has been from places like the Manchester Evening News, and they are not the most discerning. Adam

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You'd think so, but actually the first person who mentioned the star to me was Michael Caines himself down at the Catey's last year. I'm guessing this has been the line from the top down and his local PR have led in with the bullish line.

I haven't actually eaten in Abode, but people who have tell me it's pleasant (and sometimes patchy) but certainly not Michelin-aspiring. Why would Michael and his team say Abode in Manchester will be?

As for the Relish comment, I heard the same thing. Did you hear it at the Food and Drink Festival launch or did the local press pick up on it?

Ah well, as you say, we still have Red Chilli...

Cheers

Thom

[RDB]

As Manchester is simply imploding in terms of good places to eat (sorry Thom ).

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Quite apt that on a foodie website I cannot help but bite... My point has always been that Manchester has serious failings in fine dining, but not necessarily in good places to eat per se.

In addition, I must say RDB that if Paul and Katie don't have you on the payroll already then they should do so without further ado...

Juniper can have some truly wonderful moments, but I think it's laying a bit much at it's door to state that it is the panacea (not Panacea) to all Manchester's dining ills.

Cheers

Thom

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Sorry Thom my comment was not aimed at 'making you bite', but the apology was more about me continually re-iterating the same point over and over. I am in total agreement about fine dining, and I think it is something a great deal of people on here and elsewhere feel.

I am not on Juniper's payroll, but it is a restaurant to be proud of and celebrate, not just in the Northwest, but nationally. It is evident on this thread and elsewhere the amount of people who have tried to find something approaching fine dining in Manchester and have been dissapointed then vowing to do Juniper the next time. That says a number of things.

I am waiting, patiently, for someone to open a restaurant with no PR agency, no launch party, no courting of B-list celebrities, no grand claims and no flouncing out after twelve months if the high-falutin' business plan isn't holding up.

I think Juniper did that all those years ago, and it has yet to be followed.

You are right maybe I engage in too much Juniper related sychophancy, I just wish I had a few other places to pamper with similar grandiose obsequiousness

[ajnicholls]

As for the Relish comment, I heard the same thing. Did you hear it at the Food and Drink Festival launch or did the local press pick up on it

My flatmate works for the parent company and I spoke to the chef at the launch. I laughed out loud!

[Gary Marshall]

Ah well, as you say, we still have Red Chilli...

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we've got red chilli AND anthony's

[BertieWooster]

Yeah, but the Leeds Red Chilli isn't a patch on its sibling/parent.

Oops, talking about Leeds, I'll be deleted for being off-topic.

[Mrs Woman]

Just spotted this Manc new opening snippet on Hardens: http://www.hardens.com/articles/article_de...ype=blog&id=342

[Infrasonic]

Just spotted this Manc new opening snippet on Hardens: http://www.hardens.com/articles/article_de...ype=blog&id=342

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Ithaca, just a few doors away from Restaurant bar and grill and Panacea.

Was having trouble getting a late licence due to objections from local church bod and is well overdue on it's completion.

I don't hold out much hope of it being a great place to eat......

Blingtastic more like.

I hear on the grapevine that Cocoa Rooms is shut "for a refurb". Funny, it's only just over a year old, and it's website has been suspended ......

http://www.thecocoarooms.com/

I

[BertieWooster]

I hear on the grapevine that Cocoa Rooms is shut "for a refurb". Funny, it's only just over a year old, and it's website has been suspended ...... 

http://www.thecocoarooms.com/

I

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Now be fair--it opened October 2005, thats over eighteen months. And everywhere needs a refurb after that long obviously.

Especially if Z list celebs are regulars.

[ajnicholls]

Ithaca is supposed to be a "Pan-Asian" restaurant, which will no doubt be another awful concept fusion place. The emphasis on everything I've seen about it has been on the bar and the VIP room for footballer's wives. Being bankrolled by Arnie Hira, who runs Oddyssey in Altrincham.

Can't say that I'm sad to see Cocoa Rooms shut. Never have I seen such a pretentious bar.

Adam