Abode Manchester... lunch deal

[Infrasonic]

http://www.michaelcaines.com/restaurants/m...ster/lunch-menu

3 courses matched with wines £16.00

'Till the end of August apparently.

[ajnicholls]

Insanely good value. Beats my staff canteen. Don't know if they approve of doctors drinking at lunchtime though............

[Bapi]

http://www.michaelcaines.com/restaurants/m...ster/lunch-menu

3 courses matched with wines £16.00

'Till the end of August apparently.

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Mmmm, Thom et al. Are you chaps thinking what I am thinking?

[Gary Marshall]

what, that you'd need 9 courses to fill that belly?

[Gary Marshall]

. Don't know if they approve of doctors drinking at lunchtime though............

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gives them something to do whilst they're smoking

[Bapi]

what, that you'd need 9 courses to fill that belly?

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You haven't seen me for a few months. I no longer have a belly Gary. And that's a little rich coming from you. I have seen Sam's photo of you on Facebook. You know the one where your cheeks seem to have incorporated two medium sized Butterball turkeys.

I agree though- three courses isn't going to quite cut it is it? Still, that leaves more room for a mid afternoon snack before dinner.

[thom]

I'm sensing a grand day out coming on!

I've eaten there numerous times (see The Modern Manchester thread) and it's always been excellent.

God knows how long they can keep their crazy pricing. Interestingly after my last lunch there which was busy I was with a BBC producer yesterday who was equally gushing about the food but said on a recent Thursday trip he'd shared the room with only two other diners.

Either way it tastes good, it's cheap, I say let's go eat it.

Cheers

Thom

[RDB]

Funnily enough chaps I was thinking the same thing as I enjoyed the 'Amazing Grace' meal deal today, just got back!!!!. An absolute steal and some of the best food I have had in Manchester city centre for a very long time.

Starters: I had 'Home cured bresoala with marinated provencale veg'. Good quality bresoala, great veg, nice parmesan and dressed beautifully'.

My better half had 'Ravioli of goats cheese and basil, peppers and rosemary cream', tried a bit of course, a magic bit of pasta and perfect sauce.

Mains: I had 'Roast guinea fowl, baby veg and foie gras veloute'. Sublime dish, the discs of guinea were amazing, veg seasonal and perfectly cooked, veloute a little short of full foie taste, but well rounded all the same.

'Mushroom risotto, mushroom broth and Parmesan', incredible risotto, full stop.

Dessert: I had, 'Chocolate duo, dark choc mousse, white choc ice cream', was very rich, but a small enough portion not to be too much

'Strawberry parfait, with strawberry sorbet'. This was an astounding dessert, came with a basil sauce, light refreshing and a taste of summer.

We got coffee and petit fours ( choc and caramel truffles and passion fruit and white choc panna cotta) which were a dessert in themselves.

The bread was also top notch, really and I mean really fresh and warm.

I had the matching wines which were good but not perfectly matched in my opinion ( I could be wrong). The guinea fowl came with a 'Sangoma Syrah 2005, Cape Peninsula, South Africa' which was a bit overpowering. With the bresoala a 'Zaccagnini Verdicchio dei Castelli di jesi 2006' which didn't stand up to the beef enough.

The glass of ' Jurancon Moelleux 2005' was good with the choc pud, unfortunately I had drank it waiting for my dessert so they had to give me another (free of charge) to compensate

Next time I would definitely do the 'tapas' as they looked pretty special.

So who is organising this time?? Thom????

[ajnicholls]

I went yesterday for lunch and was pleased to see the restaurant was 2/3 full; not bad for a Saturday afternoon in the wrong end of town.

Agree almost entirely with RDB's assesment of the food and wine. I had the bresola; well flavoured and a very good salad of provencal veg accompanying it. The matched wine, whilst having a good ammount of acidity, couldn't take the flavours of the dish. My partner's ravioli of goat's cheese was an excellent example. If only I didn't truly hate goat's cheese! This was accompanined with an aussie chardonnay, which worked very well.

We both had the guinea fowl with foie gras veloute and seasonal veg. Beautifully cooked and presented. The veloute had a subtle foie flavour, but not quite enough for me. Having said that, this is a cheap lunch deal. The summer veg of peas, broad beans, asparagus and baby carrot worked brilliantly. This was matched with an NZ pinot noir, that was good if not amazing.

Went for the cheese course which was served at a good temperature, allowing the flavours of the cheese to shine. A wonderful Crofton was the highlight. This came with a Portugese moscatel, which was the right side of sweet without being cloying.

Espresso came with salted caramels and a lemon sorbet with raspberry.

All the above, with a bottle of water, came to £37.

Insanely good value

Adam

[Harters]

Insanely good value

Anything to drum up punters, perhaps?

We had a very average dinner there in June. Absolutely nothing to set the world alight in terms of the menu or the cooking (except for 1 dessert which was fab). And at knocking on £140 for the two of us, not good value either.

Place was much less than half full on the mid-week evening - and half of them being Michael Caines' own party.

[ajnicholls]

Anything to drum up punters, perhaps?

Don't doubt that at all, but the quality of the main surpassed most of the meals I've had in Manchester over the last couple of years. I would go back for ALC on the basis of the lunch deal

Adam

Edited August 3, 2008 by ajnicholls (log)

[thom]

I would go back for ALC on the basis of the lunch deal

And indeed I did! Well, kind of. After five or six excellent lunches over the last month of two (see my myriad of comments in the Modern thread) I went last Thursday in the company of one Mr Andy Lynes.

To be honest, it was towards the end of a very long week and also followed immediately on from a whistlestop tour of Manchester which had included over-strength cocktails in Ithaca and something scary and near-7% in Bar Fringe (no trappists this time) so don't expect details, just (hazy) impressions...

I'm still not convinced about the room. But maybe that's just tainted by the wonderful times I had there when Dave Haslam used to run his retro club-nights back in Rossetti days. The space has been changed so little it still feels weird to be dining on the dancefloor.

Anyway, despite the promise of the A La Carte I once again fell in line with the grazing menu. I just can't resist lots of clever little mini-dishes. I had (I think) the goats cheese raviolo with herb cream (becoming a favourite), a langoustine dish and a divine crab and scallop mousse with stuffed courgette flower and lemongrass and ginger. And, uhmm... tum-te-tum... some other stuff. Oh, and a knockout dessert. Which escapes me for the minute.

Ok, ok, I really need to start taking notes, but take it from me (and the other converts on here) that despite my lack of detail this is seriously good cooking at give-away prices. I know the GM from his Radisson days and he rolled his eyes when I asked him how long they are going to keep doing the lunchtime deal. I'm sure the financials pain him deeply but if it converts people into loyal punters then he's shrewd enough to know it can make all the difference in Manchester's difficult dining scene.

When we ate on a Thursday night it was at least half-full. If they can keep anything like this level for lunches and weekday dinners (not to mention weekend lunches as noted by Adam) then Friday/Saturday dinners will be full to bursting and Manchester will have it's first fine-dining success (in culinary and commercial terms) for longer than I care to remember.

Cheers

Thom

Oh, as an aside, I'm really not convinced by the rooms themselves or their recent refit. They are definitely not up to the standard of the fine-dining. And, the first floor cafe-bar can be a bit up and down - a decent place for a light (though not inexpensive) meal with a something-for-everyone menu but really not hitting the heights as it should.

[Infrasonic]

Offer been extended 'till the end of September...

[Bapi]

Mmmm, a large group of people whose opinions I trust and who work in the industry went last week. Whilst the food was mostly enjoyed, the service was apparently woeful nudging towards the inept. The main criticism seemed to be that the level of service was so poor as there was no one senior in charge to marshall the troops.

Still tempted to go and judge for myself so thanks for the heads up.That is if Thom pulls his finger out

[BertieWooster]

He's away this week. But, yes, I've heard similar regarding the current level of service there. Which is a real shame. Sure they'll sort it out.

[RDB]

Mmmm, a large group of people whose opinions I trust and who work in the industry went last week. Whilst the food was mostly enjoyed, the service was apparently woeful nudging towards the inept. The main criticism seemed to be that the level of service was so poor as there was no one senior in charge to marshall the troops.

Still tempted to go and judge for myself so thanks for the heads up.That is if Thom pulls his finger out

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My better half's opinion entirely Bapi. The service is extremely chaotic, no one in charge, albeit they appeared to have a plinth (sp?) looking out over the dining area where a 'general' appeared from time to time, before quickly retreating. We asked for water on a few occassions which did not arrive, until the second course. The wine pairings were delivered too long before or too long after each dish. The table next to us who had ordered the tapas were missing many dishes.

I was distracted by all this from the shock of eating such good high end food in Manchester