By Neil Sowerby
ARRIVALS at Manchester Airport are greeted by a large ad repeating Giles Coren’s verdict on the star dish he ate at Simon Rogan at The French: “I would walk to Manchester barefoot in the rain for one more mouthful of the chopped raw ribeye of ox in coal oil”.If The Times’ food critic was ecstatic, his Guardian counterpart, Marina O’Loughlin wasn’t – “Unlike barbecuing, where smoke enhances, this meat has given up the ghost and let the oil dance a demented caper all over it.”
You pays yer money (£84 now for the 10-course tasting menu) and you takes yer chances, as they say. To check out the high-profile restaurant in the Midland Hotel reviewers and food guide assessors have hot-footed it up to Manchester. Not literally, Giles. By Pendolino, I expect. The consensus is: it’s the best in town and a national contender, but still lags behind Rogan’s original base, L’Enclume in Cartmel (two Michelin stars and a perfect 10 in the Good Food Guide).
That much is obvious again from the simultaneous arrival of the Sunday Times’ Top 100 Restaurants List and the Observer Food Monthly Annual Awards. Rogan’s L’Enclume is in No 3 spot in the former, while the French makes 61st and his new London outpost Fera leaps in at 25. L’Enclume is among runners up in the OFM best restaurant along with Northcote at Langho near Blackburn; the French nowhere to be seen.
Northcote (24), the nearby Freemasons (99) at Wiswell, Holbeck Ghyll (71) in the Lakes and Simon Radley (14) at the Chester Grosvenor are among seven North West restaurants in the ST Top 100, which is topped by Marc Wilkinson’s tiny labour of love, Fraiche, in the Wirral.
The list is compiled by The Sunday Times in association with Harden’s. Now in its fifth year, it is based on 70,000 reviews from more than 6,000 consumers. The French laast year was the first ever Manchester entrant in the Top 100, which has been going five years.
List editor Karen Robinson, said: “It is very exciting to see the evolution of the list – this year has seen a marked increase in the number of restaurants outside London, a sign that we are becoming an increasingly sophisticated culinary nation."
That, of course, is true of our city these days, but Taste of Manchester feels it is scracely reflected by the Sunday Times.
The less fine dining focus of The Observer Food Monthly gongs is rather kinder (though Liverpool here does significantly better).
All the following are runners-up in their categories: Greens in West Didsbury and Topaz Cafe, Ashton-under-Lyne (Best Ethical Restaurant); The Limekiln Cafe, Saddleworth (Best Cheap Eats); Unicorn, Chorlton and Village Greens, Glossop (Best Independent Retailer; and past winner The Parlour, Chorlton (Best Sunday Lunch).