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Restaurant and dining guide

Neil Sowerby

It's time to celebrate a slightly surprising eating out enclave - the Great Northern Tower on Watson Street. Let’s call it the Tower Quarter. No, let’s not. Just be glad an unlikely spot is blooming.

The lower reaches of the Tower now host a trio of destinations. If you don’t want to pour your own beer at table while dining at Taps or get over-bubblied in Epernay champagne bar, there’s a promising new kid on the apartment block - an Indian restaurant called Zaika, which I rather like.

In the head in the clouds stakes, this tower has always been a runt compared with Big Brother Beetham.

BBB, of course, boasts the Cloud 23 Bar (views and mark-ups to take your breath away, only the whoosh of the fast lift thrills me) and Podium restaurant (chef David Gale’s fine food let down by the corporate beigeness of the backdrop).

In comparison, GNT has been hiding its proverbial light under the proverbial bushel. Its sloped architectural style leans derivatively on No 1 Deansgate and it’s got less wow factor than that Breakfast Time sports hack who won Strictly Come Prancing.

But hey, it’s handy for Peter Street’s weekend fleshpots, (my idea of the Nightmare Before Christmas), while those of a melancholic disposition can wander the desolate innards of the Great Northern Warehouse before blowing their festive budget at 235 Casino.

Ghosts of Christmas pasts in Relish, Persia, Teasers and Numero haunt the square outside, while the party animal undead who can’t find anywhere cooler make do with Bar 38.

We hurried past en route for Zaika, which according to the brochure means ‘sophisticated tastes’... I suppose in the way Ithaca means ‘Homer-erotic Greek God photos on the stairs’ or Panacea means ‘Krugl is a cure for all fat wallets’.

We’d been to the AMC Cinema, where we’ve never been turned away. It’s so quiet sometimes tumbleweed get a special discount.

We had considered trying out the OceanTr2356sure, which has replaced the Italian Numero as the Casino’s street-level dining operation, but after a sardonic Coen Brothers flick about a a Jewish professor’s midlife crisis it had to be comforting curry with a capital Z. And that’s just what we got.

After EastZEast and Zouk I now associate Zeds with stylish Indian food served beyond the dispiriting Rusholme enclave. Shimla Pinks to become Zimla Pinks, when it finally moves home?

Zaika’s driving force Bob Hoque is from Bengal but has been on the Manchester curry scene for eons, notably at the Royal Tandoori, Burnage. He has other ventures, too, including a sandwich emporium around the corner from Zaika. So I reckon Bob’s not without a bob or two.

This shows in the investment in the restaurant. It’s not built on the scale of Akbar’s or the Blackfriars EastZEast. It’s rather more intimate, lots of plain wood and glass simplicity with purple predominating in the decor.

In the far room we heard much whooping and guessed rightly that much booze had been taken and paper hats donned.

I presume the Christmas party crew weren’t drinking off the ‘VIP wine list’, which featured £150 bottle of Burgundy and Cristal at £270 (cheaper than at one or two spots I could name).

Bob told me they had separated these (really well-chosen) prestige offerings from the normal list so as not to scare the ordinary punters. We chose from the ordinary list. An unassertive Casas Rivas sauvignon blanc from Chile (£16.95) was just the job to handle the subtly-spiced fish that formed my dinner choice.

My lovely companion was a mite unadventurous in her choices from a menu that stops off at few culinary destinations in the sub-continent, but that was a reviewing plus. Onion bhajis (£3.50) and lamb biryani (£10.95) were both exemplary, the first crisp and yet moist, the biryani’s saffron-tinge rice teeming with almonds, egg, melting slices of lamb, with a cardamom and clove rush.

Fish, not always a strong point in our city’s Indian restaurants compared with the Chinese, is here treated royally. Tilapia may sound like a quickstep off Strictly Come Jigging but is, in fact, a flaky white fish that lends itself to swift grilling. For my £6.95 starter I got a lovely chunk of it with a delicate spice undertow I still can’t quite ascertain accompanied by a sort of tian of Bombay potato, which was the star of the meal for me.

Zaika’s chefs have a delicate hand on the spice spoon. Only a very peppery Punjabi dal dish didn’t work me. Our other side, saag paneer (spinach and Indian curd) made up for it big time, as did my Keralan-influenced main, king prawn dhania masala, a creamy sauce herbfest (£13.95) with decidedly sprightly prawns.

A flabby naan was a disappointment but not a big one. We had, anyway, over-ordered, so I resisted the lures of kheer, Indian-style rice pudding, my craving for which may one day result in major girth issues! As I can see Zaika becoming a regular haunt, I’m just going to have to deal with it. I feel a resolution coming on.

Zaika, Great Northern Tower, 2 Watson Street, Manchester, M3 4EE
T: 0161 839 5111