By Neil Sowerby
THE smart money has been on Hawksmoor to redefine steak for Manchester. If that provokes a backlash against these London arrivistes then those who choose to snub their newly opened restaurant in the Old Court House, Deansgate are the losers.
I only speak on the evidence of eating in their Capital establishments, where the menu (even beyond steak) is hugely enjoyable – at a premium price. Canny Mancs are taking advantage in their droves of the Soft Launch 50 per cent discounts available until the official opening on March 5. After some 4,000 emails it’s sold out.
For those of you having to refresh your wallets to book full price (cuts of chateaubriand are£13 per 100g, a 350g rib-eye will cost you £26.50 from the board; there is also an express menu served at lunch and early dinner, with 2 courses for £24 or 3 courses for £27) I can offer the encouragement of a preview visit to sample the bar and check-out the decor.
It looks darkly wonderful (see below) – like a cross between Dr Johnson’s lodgings and an upmarket Mrs Miggins Pie Shoppe, with subtle Art Deco flourishes, in big spaces that breathe. It makes Gusto across the road, for all that has been spent on it, look second best. Let’s thank those London invaders, Huw Gott and Will Beckett, for showing us how it should be done.
It’s not all giving us what worked in London first, though. The raw materials of the meat-based menu will come in from North Yorkshire supplier Ginger Pig; and Gott and Beckett have been checking out local breweries to supply Hawksmoor Deansgate’s beer list.
Hawksmoor Manchester, 184-186 Deansgate.
