HAVING a wild time at Menagerie wasn’t supposed to be like this. The wilfully decadent New Bailey restaurant/bar,created at a cost of £2m, opened last autumn to mixed reviews for its cast of performers on the catwalk or pouring champagne from high wire perches. The Miami-inspired food (Lobster Rockefeller meets Chicken Milanese meets Cajun Eggs Benedict and the like) didn’t fare much better with the crirics.
So an invitation to pop along to the Menagerie Wild Food Supper Club, hosted by Fruits of the Forage rather had us choking on our Cristal.
It’s on Monday, July 17, from 7.30pm and costs £45 a head (£5 per guest going to Action Against Hunger) for a six course tasting menu, featuring locally foraged produce and wild preserves, tracing a journey from plant to plate.
So what’s on the menu from the Bollington based wild food caterers? British fava bean falafel with nettle and dock seed flatbread; potted invasive crayfish with wild seeded focaccia and pickled sea veg; roasted Cheshire hogger with wild herb orsotto, sorrel oil and wood sorrel.
Until now it sounds like a menu you might get offered at Where The Light Gets In, but then THREE puddings kick in – raspberry sorbet, elderflower drizzle cake and damson dark chocolate. Oh but they cone with the likes of toasted barley praline and truffle and wild herb tea. Then a scantily clad lass pours a jug of organic scrumpy on you from on high.
OK, ToM couldn’t resist a little joke at the end. We think it’s a fascinating breaking of stereotypes. Very Manchester 2017. Even if Menagerie is all but in Salford!
Menagerie, One New Bailey, New Bailey St, Salford M3 5JL. 0161 832 3818.