IT used to be a football truism about fickle foreign imports: ‘Can they hack it on a wet Tuesday night in Scunthorpe?’ It was taken as read that the teak-tough wee tanner ball players down ...
Reviews
Review: Rosso, Spring Gardens
ELEGANT is not a word you could attach to many thoroughfares in Manchester city centre, but we love the grand sweep of King Street from Cross Street up to Spring Gardens. Great to perambulate up. ...
Review: The Marble Arch (and its beer Mash Ups)
MARBLE bookends. First the shiny new flagship brewery, then back to where it all began. Quite a day, which ended with a replete waddle across a sun-dappled Angel Meadow after a reminder how satisfying the ...
Review: James Martin Manchester
FUNNY the short term memory we have about restaurants. Take Leeds and the meteoric rise of Michael O’Hare to Michelin stardom with The Man Behind the Curtain, which only launched in 2014. Most of the ...
Review: Tattu spring/summer menu
OUTSIDE ToM Towers the last of the vernal blossom is being scattered by Storm Hannah. So we’ve been seeking consolation in the eternal springtime that inhabits Tattu. In China each spring they celebrate the return ...
Review: The Spärrows
SPARROWS nesting in the archway opposite Umezushi? Surely some mistake. Wasn’t Unit 3 earmarked to be that Japanese restaurant’s offshoot KIAA (Kitchen In The Arch), billed as a “painless one stop shop for all your ...
Review: Cibus, Levenshulme
CIBUS takes in a lot of Italy – from the fog-shrouded lagoons of Venice to Puglia, the country’s scorched ‘heel’. Owner of the Levenshulme pop-up restaurant Giorgio Fontana is a proud Venetian while his head ...
Review: 20 Stories lunch menu
SAD but eternally true, it has always been easier to find a better value lunch in the fine dining bastions of London than in Manchester’s middling destinations. It’s been a year or two since we’ve ...
Our verdict on El Gato Negro’s surprising Sunday menu makeover
TIME was when every month seemed to bring a Spanish restaurant opening. You couldn’t move for small plates along Deansgate and its tributary streets. More recently that flood has reduced to a trickle. Porta’s a ...
Review: Porta Tapas, Salford
SPANISH cheese is not just Manchego, delightful though that can be with a bit of age on its golden curds. When Porta announced they were opening a third tapas outlet in Salford we prayed they’d ...