The City Inn is part of a huge redevelopment to change the Piccadilly entrance to Manchester, resulting in a series of slick modern buildings, a new bridge and overall it looks like someoneâs had a good tidy up to this part of the city.
The hotel slotted nicely into the upmarket modern and sleek, but reasonably-priced, bracket. And now it seems the City Café is finding its place in the Manchester food scene and Friday a couple of weeks back it was filling up nicely, with a variety of customers.
We started off with a pre-scoffing glass of champagne in the Blue Bar, which actually is a hidden gem in Manchester and worth a look. As you might imagine, the small bar is decked out in rich blue with a sparkly blue counter top, plush upholstered chairs, and a deep midnight shade on the walls. Anyone buying a drink at the bar between 6-8pm every night gets complimentary nibbles, and we were brought mini black pudding balls in breadcrumbs and a bruschetta.
One of the pulls to the City Café is the twice-weekly change to the market menu, and I wanted to see what new chef Steve Midgley had to offer. The standard menu has some great dishes on it, but the market menu enables the head chef to have total creative freedom. The price is so reasonable as well: at lunch itâs £9.95 for two courses and £14.95 for three, and for dinner itâs £14.95 for two courses and £16.50 for three.
A gale was blowing against the window, and the Cauliflower and blue cheese veloute from the market menu was a great warmer (although it canât have been designed as such, being July). The strong cheese melded beautifully with the cauliflower to make the thick soup, and it needed nothing more than the chive crouton to literally and metaphorically top off the dish.
My main course was a beautiful combination of chicken breast and chorizo sticks sat on a bed of spinach. Next to it a chunky thick gooey risotto cake was beautifully creamy and brought down from carb-heaven for me.
From the main menu, the Pressed ham hock and parsley terrine starter (£6.50) was a chunky filling number, although the white peach chutney was a little sweet for my taste buds, but the tiny little pan-friend quail egg added a nice element to the man-sized portion of pressed meat. The Aged rack of lamb nicoise (£14.95) delivered a couple of rare glistening cutlets, perched on creamed white onion, with a basil jus that was so delicious we wanted more of it.
A side order of new potatoes (£2.95) came with a deep earthy flavour tinged with parsley, and the char grilled Mediterranean vegetables (£2.95) flavoured with pesto would have encouraged anyone veg-hater to eat their greens. The asparagus was the only thing left on the plate as was tasting ever-so slightly bitter at the end of the season.
The dessert menu is impressive and full of delicious things such as Glazed lemon tart with raspberries and raspberry sorbet, Banana and hazelnut arctic roll and rhubarb and ginger crème brulee.
Confusingly thereâs two strawberries and cream, but I went for the trio option (instead of the standard option) which appeared as a mini trio of strawberry tart, Eton Mess, and strawberry sundae (£5.95), which was as good as it sounds. Mini versions of full dishes will surely never go out of fashion, and they fool you into thinking youâve not eaten as much.
Compared to the crisp crunch of my tiny strawberry tart, the Lemon tart (£5.50) had a perfect soft pastry coating to hold the firm but tart filling, and was very satisfying.
The a la carte menu is just as good value as the market menu - £15.95 for two courses or three for £20.95. The City Café is becoming a destination venue in Manchester and is really coming into its own.
City Café, City Inn, 1-3 Piccadilly, Manchester, M1
T: (0161) 242 1020.
W: www.cityinn.com