A NEW Year, a new head chef at Grafene. Will Ben Mounsey be the man to elevate the fine dining focus at the Chapel Walks restaurant? He certainly brings an impressive cv with him from two top Wirral restaurants, the legendary Michelin-starred Fraiche (sous chef) and three AA Rosette The Lawns at Thornton Hall (head chef). During a year out exploring Asia he also worked at the two Michelin-starred Restaurant Andre in Singapore.
Ben hasn’t wasted much time in revamping the menu, which he promises will “avoid the obvious, with surprises throughout. The result is a celebration of flavour; with a meticulous attention to detail and presented with purposeful simplicity.”
Ben told us: “I’m an admirer of the work of Paul and Kathryn Roden and it’s a real honour to be joining the team at Grafene. My style of food is different than you will have experienced at Grafene previously – and this is not by accident.”
We are promised reconstructed classics and homages to all things Manchester, so a graphene crisp – a nod to the restaurant’s name and Manchester’s scientific heritage – completes a starter of pork cheek, curry, carrot and veloute. Elsewhere, there’s black peas in a combo with venison celeriac and leek, and a dessert of Eccles cake, currants, yoghurt, butter, tea.
Ben faves The Stone Roses get a nod with ‘Sally Cinnamon’, which features popcorn, nimixtilised (we’ve Googled it to no avail) melon and granola.
Lancashire lamb will served with nasturtium, beets, black garlic, wool (!!!); duck from Goosnargh alongside asparagus, fennel, mushroom; and milk, rice pudding, with rhubarb Yorkshire rhubarb and liquorice.
Grafene is offering an a la carte with grills at a fixed price of £45 for three courses including chef’s ‘surprises’, and five and seven course tasting menus, ‘5 to Taste’ for £45 (£35 vegetarian) and ‘7 To Taste’ at £65 (£55 vegetarian). At lunchtimes there will be a British tapas menu, giving the opportunity to sample dishes drawn from the a la carte in a relaxed format, with three plates for £17.50 and five for £25.
And Grafene have refreshed the cocktail menu big time, too
In addition to the new food menus, Grafene has curated a fresh selection of cocktails. These include:
The Spritz – gin, fresh orange and blood orange, lemon juice, prosecco, grapefruit crisp.
The Mancunian(below) – bourbon, cinnamon and nutmeg sugar, dark chocolate liqueur, blazed sugar on cinnamon bark.
Mint Buttermilk Martini – barrel aged rum, mint buttermilk, vanilla, white chocolate, brownie rim.
The Grafene Snapper –- homemade roasted snapper mix: (tomato, red pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme, paprika) gin, lemon, coriander.
Grafene, 55 King Street, Manchester, M2 4LQ. 0161 696 9700. Both the menu and cocktails are available from Thursday, February 15. Open Sun-Thu noon-11pm, Frid and Sat noon to 1am. Grafene is open on a Monday and Tuesday noon to 11pm from February 26.
