By Neil Sowerby I LOVE secret recipes. You know, the kind containing some key ingredient a culinary empire is built on. The kind that get locked up in safe vaults. How reassuring it was to ...
Reviews
Review: Manchester House Chef’s Table
By Neil Sowerby MENTION arch-rival Simon Rogan and Aiden Byrne goes all modest. “I’ll taste a dish of his and realise I’m not in the same league,’’ he mutters wistfully, but the statement is palpably ...
The new Pavé Coffee paves the way
Unless you’ve been in a coffee coma for the past few years, you’ll know that coffee has changed a bit recently. Unlike my first job at a garden center cafe, baristas don’t just press the ...
Review: Breakfast at Common – smell the superior coffee
By Neil Sowerby ONCE upon a day breakfast in the Northern Quarter invariably meant a bleary fry-up in the Koffee Pot. That’s still a well-priced option, even though this institution has moved around the corner ...
The Kitchens Leftbank - street food given a home keeps its street cred
By Neil Sowerby THE critic/cynic gene in me says beware: the big commercial guns are cashing in on street food now. Artisan, craft, locally sourced, hand-sliced, all the buzz ingredients, they are all up for ...
An Innside job well done – Spanner’s Street on First is a real contender
ORGANIC growth of cities is as passé as Quarters being one fourth of a whole. Nowadays these aspirant hip urban enclaves are dotted across the map in their dozens, it seems. At least First Street, ...
Review: The Lawn Club – David Gale’s Grass-tronomic Idyll in the city
By Neil Sowerby GRASS cuttings in your turn-ups, jolly japes playing croquet with a parasol, while girlish cries of ‘Don’t spill the Pimms, cherub’ ring across the sward. That would be the Lawn Club of ...
Saluting the new Dockyard – Spinningfields’ ship really has come in
By Neil Sowerby ONE man’s Deli Po Boy is another man’s doorstop buttie. If a real stevedore turned up at this Dockyard with a healthy appetite after a heavy day’s unloading he might be hard-pressed ...
Review: Neil Sowerby loves NQ newcomer Tariff And Dale
I AM sitting at the bottom of a lift shaft contemplating the delights of bone marrow in an eclair. A first. On my table are the crumbs of scoffed sausage rolls that can best be ...
DISH OF THE WEEK: Halibut, saffron and mussel beurre blanc at TNQ restaurant
Neil SowerbyANTHONY Fielden is one of the city’s unsung culinary heroes – producing beautifully balanced dishes from impeccably sourced ingredients. It makes the Northern Quarter Restaurant a beacon among the burgerlands. I particularly like his ...