THE Wharf is a year old now and posh pub chain Brunning and Price are reaping the rewards of their extravagant transformation of the derelict Jacksons Wharf site, writes Neil Sowerby. At peak times this place is rammed. All helped by the blazing summer of 2013, encouraging all day al fresco down by the old Castlefield canal basin.
We sat inside. After so much sun, succumbing to cabin fever. If the terrace is big, the interior is bigger. Midweek lunchtimes, out of consideration to agoraphobics, just the downstairs is open. Id forgotten how hyperactive the pub feels even when its quiet. So much on offer. All that classy clutter of bric a brac that yells country hostelry so incongruously in these post-industrial surrounds. Contrived but welcoming.
We were here to check out the food offering, but its hard not to immediately succumb to the row of handpumps dispensing ales, many from the Cheshire and Welsh heartlands of the pub group. A pint of Purple Moose (from Porthmadog), anyone? Still the Brunning and Price house bitter comes from Phoenix of Heywood. After 12 months trading, manager David Green told me, they had already offered over 450 different cask ales.
From the latest batch I picked a Peking Duck from the Green Duck Ales stable to accompany my nicely judged starter of poached king prawns with a marie rose mousse, caper berries, chicory and buttered brown bread (£6.75). Across the table, my companion Siobhan, lapping up her citrus and chilli cured seabass with fennel, mint and grapefruit salad (£6.95), went straight for my red wine recommendation, Boutinots Les Coteaux Cotes du Rhone Villages (£3.85 a glass).
I followed suit to accompany my main, an 8 oz medallion of beef with oxtail pudding, mashed potato and red wine sauce (£19.25). B&P source some excellent meat and the rare steak was just right, but the oxtail pudding, suet casing and fibrous filling, was dry and unappealing.
Its a large, constantly rotating menu to suit the gargantuan operation. Typical of its many quirks and unexpected twists was the presence of (a first for me) white pudding and shallot chutney with Siobhans otherwise quite standard chicken breast with fondant potato.
My chocolate brownie pud was hard and unfinishable; Siobhans sticky toffee pud moist and yummy. Odd. As on previous visits, the food offering all a little hit and miss, kitchens ambitions sometimes achieved, sometimes not, lagging behind the terrific service, among the best in the city.
Id recommend perhaps the platters to share. For £24.95 the Seafood Platter features giant king prawn cocktail, hot smoked salmon gribiche, crispy squid, bloody mary crab, smoked mackerel, cockle and samphire salad, lime and chilli cured seabass, roll mops, whitebait, caper berries, salad and brown bread.
The £19.95 British Meat Platter has rare roast beef, pork pie, smoked venison, black pudding, chicken liver parfait, venison and cranberry chipolata, potted rabbit and ham hock, toast and homemade piccalilli.
Perfect al fresco fodder because this summer is going to last for ever, isnt it?
The Wharf, 6 Slate Wharf, Castlefield, Manchester M15 4SW. 0161 220 2960, www.thewharf-castlefield.co.uk
