IT seems to have been a work in progress for so long but Randall & Aubin’s meticulous approach has finally paid off with this specialist seafood restaurant – with plenty of rotisserie meats on offer too – officially open to the public from 6pm on Wednesday, May 31.
Chef Ed Baines and co-founder Jamie Poulton are very patient people, not the kind to ‘roll out the brand’ indiscriminately. It has taken them over 20 years to branch out from the Soho original and, though it follows the acclaimed food and drink template, the 125 cover Bridge Street branch is no carbon copy, giant mirror ball aside.
Ed’s philosophy is simple: ‘The approach to dining at Randall & Aubin is ‘everything for everyone’. We serve hearty premium dishes in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Honest food, honest cooking celebrating premium ingredients and cooking them well. Everything we do we make from scratch using traditional methods.”
“The majority of the meats cooked at R&A are either grilled or cooked on the Rotisserie to make it as succulent as possible. Sunday will always be celebrated with prime Rotisserie beef served in a traditional way, it is the finest beef to be found in Britain.”
All this is very much in the tradition of the original 1911 occupant of Randall & Aubin’s Soho site, a butchers of that name. Nevertheless ToM, perennially bereft that this city hasn’t been able to keep a good seafood restaurant is greedily eyeing those trademark seafood platters (accompanied by a proper prawn cocktail, naturally). We’ll be in to review soon.
Randall & Aubin, 64 Bridge St, Manchester M3. 0161 711 1007. Open seven days a week.
