I’M not a diner given to doggie bags but ‘when in New York’ as they say...and the bulk of the £16-to-share bilberry-topped baked cheesecake just had to leave with us in its cute Neighbourhood branded ‘doggie box’.
We hadn’t given up because it was a heavy end to our meal; in contrast, it was fluffy, creamy and fruity. Not as dense at you’d find in the delis of the real Big Apple – rather than the tribute act version in Spinningfields recently revamped at the cost of a cool million.
TOM is perhaps of the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ rather than the ‘time waits for no brand’ persuasion. Open under four years and hugely popular, yet owner James Hitchen obviously felt it needed freshening up. On first close-up I think the bright green upholstery freshener beats the dull pink. A visual dog’s dinner.
And what happened to the neon servicing contract of the bar motto : “The best view of heaven is from hell”, which is lacking letters. It just looks scruffy. All so odd when there’s such attention to detail about the look of the waiting staff from the besuited upper echelons down to the white blouse, pale blue jeans uniform of the foot soldiers.
‘The Best view etc’ is a great line – the title of an ex-soldier turned photographer’s controversial exhibition unveiling the Afghan police’s opium habits and sexual orientation. There is then a thinking hat behind Neighbourhood, taking it way beyond the realms of middle of the road American-inspired diners, though I take issue with their website boast that they have been “central to the explosion of the restaurant and bar scene in Manchester since opening in November 2012.”
The aim is all-day brasserie in the middle price band. The only real New York vibe to the food is the eclectic cherrypicking of cuisines. This usually falls down in the statrers and it does here with my usual response – do get the oil hotter when you cook the batter.
Compare the flabby, claggy £8.50 trio of tempura prawns on their underpowered wasabi mayo with the real, crisp deal at Umezushi, Yuzu or even (Japanese nous aside) Cottonopolis.
Native lobster is the boast among the grills, so I suppose the same applies to the crustacean in the tacos (£10). You wouldn’t believe it. In a similar limp coating of batter, each piece sitting on a pale avocado mayo-smudged disc. Ahi Tuna sashimi (£9) was better with pretty garnish of daikon spirals and bitter micro-leaves.
Having chosen a gorgeous bottle of La Marimorena Albarino (£41), all melon and peach, creamy but with a slash of refreshing acidity, we stayed with fish for mains and weren’t disappointed.
OK, the large thin slices of chorizo roofing my companion’s roast cod (£16.50) sent out the wrong signals, the ‘cassoulet’ of beans erred towards salty, but compensation came from accompanying padrón peppers. The tranche of flaky cod itself was just terrific, as was my equally generous fillet of grilled halibut (£17.50). Strewn with raw fennel and fresh orange pieces, this avoided its capacity for dryness. Crab was apparently also present among the crushed potatoes but it passed me by.
Then it was that cheesecake and good coffee, while around us folk were supping bottles of Ruinart and getting pleasantly raucous. Despite my reservations about the food offering, it all felt more like heaven than hell.
Neighbourhood, The Avenue North, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3BT. 0161 832 6334.