ADMIT it – the thought of an £85 epic tasting menu can fill you with dread, even when it’s been devised by that great culinary wizard Simon Rogan. For us an experience not to be missed at the cutely revamped French in the Midland, cooked by the wizard’s apprentice, head chef Adam Reid.
But it’s good to be offered a simpler lunchtime alternative, the new a la carte menu, a three courser with plenty of choice that can cost you as little as £38 with no sacrifice in quality of the dishes on offer. It’s available Wednesday to Friday,12pm to 1,30pm and offers the flexibility of ordering one, two or three courses.
Here’s a sample menu at the restaurant crowned our best in the 2015 Manchester Food and Drink Awards:
To start: Wild bass cured in pepper with radishes, apple, oyster cream, toasted rye
£12; Salt baked swede, smoked Maran yolk, ox tongue and truffle with a broth of barbecued beef and onion £11; Westcombe custard, crispy kales, sour bread fried in cheese fat, winter cresses, ramson capers; £12; Flaked Cornish crab with horseradish cream and chicken skin, kohlrabi and dill juices £12.
Mains: Loin and rib of beef from Lindale, hay baked celeriac, creamed kales, hen of the woods £28; 55 day dry aged middle white pork, yellow split peas, acidic apple with blewits, turnip and sweet hazelnut £24; Grilled halibut with brown butter lobster, parsley, sprouting broccoli, pig skin, and smoked roe cream £24; Celeriac baked in hay, fermented cabbage, abalone mushroom, grains and mustard cream .£18
Dessert: Forced Yorkshire rhubarb, yoghurt sorbet, Douglas fir syrup and toasted oats £10; Pears poached in rosemary, Sweet cheese ice cream, walnut biscuit and honey mead syrup £9; Spiced apple cake, cultured meadowsweet mousse, pink lady sorbet £9; Selection of British cheeses from the trolley £18.
Book via this link. Or catch Michelin-starred maestro Rogan’s demo in the Chef Live Theatre at the upcoming Northern Restaurant Bar show.
Simon Rogan at The French, The Midland Hotel, Peter Street, Manchester, M60 2DS. 0161 236 3333.