My favourite place to eat out in Manchester is… Tai Pan. I’ve been coming to this restaurant for over 20 years now… My parents used to bring me here most Sunday afternoons for dim sum when I was a kid and nowadays it’s a place I take my kids pretty frequently, too. There are diners that come here who I recognise from 20 years back, which is a testament in itself. There’s nothing really groundbreaking on the menu, though I see this as the standard when it comes traditional Chinese/Cantonese cooking. There isn’t another Chinese restaurant I would recommend.
The best dish I’ve eaten in Manchester recently is… The chargrilled heritage carrots from El Gato Negro Tapas. I don’t really like carrots, to be fair, and maybe it was because my expectations were so low when someone order these carrots that when I first tasted them I was just blown away… salty and sweet and bursting with flavour (none of which seemed to taste like your average carrot). I’ve been back to El Gato Negro a few times now and the carrots are always the first thing I order.
My favourite dining room in Manchester is… Albert’s Schloss. I love that it’s big and grand, yet rustic and very relaxing. I like the openness of the place. I like the big square wooden tables where you can cram a coupe of families on but still seem to have loads of space. The atmosphere in here always seems to be buzzing. It feels like I’m on holiday when I come here to eat.
My favourite lunch spot in Manchester is… One Plus (above) on Charles Street. It’s a Chinese restaurant with a twist. It’s only been open a couple of months and a it’s a bit of a game changer… Upstairs it serves ‘cook yourself Chinese Hot Pot’. The fresh ingredients come along on a conveyor belt Yo Sushi style. You take the ingredients and cook it yourself in boiling pot of stock. There’s a little cooking device which is built into the table. There are plenty of wide, varied and diverse ingredients to choose from, from fresh razor clams to rib eye steak. I just think it’s very innovative, there’s nothing like it in Manchester. Then there’s the downstairs, which serves traditional rice and noodle dishes. The noodles are freshly made on site and because it’s an open kitchen you can see the noodle master essentially perform for you. That’s something else that I haven’t seen in Manchester. I’m just very lucky that’s just a stone’s throw away from my studio.
If I had to eat only on thing for the rest of my days it would be… Special fried rice with a small pot of Chinese takeaway curry. My parents used to own a Chinese Takeaway and I used to make my Dad cook it me as often as possible. If I’m ever home alone and I can’t be bothered to cook it’s always special fried rice from the local takeaway.
Manchester-born Stanley Chow is an artist and illustrator, whose work is acclaimed across the world. One reward – he has been chosen as one of Marketing Manchester’s ‘Global Ambassadors’ alongside Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Mark Elder. You’ll find his work regularly featured in the New Yorker magazine. Nearer home you’ll find the prolific Chow’s portraits of celebs and sportsmen in a variety of venues. He has two current exhibitions in the city – ‘Mannequin – Female Icons of Fashion, Art and Pop Culture” at Artisan restaurant (Until April) and ‘Curated by Stanley Chow’ at the National Football Museum, showcasing the football moments and players that have inspired and influenced him (until June).
Picture of Stanley (as an occasional DJ) by Jack Kirwin.