THERE are watershed moments in life and I’ve just encountered one. Let me map it out starkly: He Failed To Finish His Chop House Steak And Kidney Pudding. I averted my gaze shamefacedly as our server escorted away the ample remnants. Not that there was anything wrong with it; indeed it was beefily, unctuously moreish. I’d not even overdosed on the fat chips or the mushy pea mountain.
Just as the portions I serve at home are viewed as Brobdignagian, so it has always been a badge of honour when eating out to clear my plate, whatever the challenge. So this was Death of the Gannet, Farewell Trencherman of Yore. Blame it all on the Roasted Bone Marrow starter, if ye must.
The last time I ate at the Albert Square, hippest outpost of the Chop Houses (Mr Thomas’s and Sam’s still shop for corduroy at Greenwood’s Menswear) the chef was Paul Faulkner, now ensconced at Brassica in Heaton Moor. His was a sprightlier take on the robust North West cuisine the Manchester city centre trio are legendary for – perhaps responding to the more modern, almost boutique, refurb of the Venetian Gothic Revival masterpiece that is the Memorial Hall. Call it a palazzo of the palate.
On the evidence of this latest meal there has been a retrenchment in the kitchen. And that’s not a criticism – when ingredients are so well sourced and treated carefully. Naming no culprits, but there is one outfit in town whose suet crusts could down a rhino in full flight. The ’Famous’ S&K pud (£13) here is contrastingly subtle with gravy that’s a dark, penetrating jus.
Which takes us on to the Bone Marrow Challenge. Which done for me. Gaze on my bones (main picture) and recognise what a wimp I would have been to settle for crispy black pudding or corned beef hash cake to kick off.
At Fergus Henderson’s London base camp for ‘nose to tail’ eating, St John’s Smithfield, £8.90 gets you a few dainty stumps of bone with parsley sauce; here a large plate cannot contain a human Rottweiler’s repast. Just £6.95 with a tangle of dark onion marmalade, watercress and sourdough. I hoovered up the molten marrow.
Chop House sommelier extraordinaire George Bergier is a champion of English wines and while an opening glass of Sharpham Red 2011 from Devon was merely fruitily pleasant, the Bolney Foxhole Vineyard Pinot Noir 2014 we shared for the rest of the meal was a superb expression of the grape with lots of cherry fruit and judicious oak.
It went equally well with my companion’s scallops and belly pork with watercress sauce (£10.95) and her pan-fried sea bass with fennel, samphire and crunchy crab cake (£18.95), both dishes proving Chop Houses Do Fish Well, Too.
I was soon congratulating myself for having left room for three puddings (The Gannet Flies Again). Rhubarb was celebrated big time, poached and in sorbet form with blobs of sweet cheese and rolled oats – think deconstructed crumble (£6). For 50p more a dark chocolate brown touched on the fringes of the Black Forest through kirsch cherry and cherry ripple ice cream accompaniment.
Yes, and there was room for the irresistible Eccles Cake – two of the beauties actually, paired tangily with Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire (£6).
Service in the downstairs restaurant was as exemplary as ever. While my heart remains with old haunt Sam’s – where I have never left a smidgeon of my steak and kidney pud – I’m growing to love the cloned Albert, too.
Albert Square Chop House, Memorial Hall, 14 Albert Square, Manchester M2 5PF. 0161 834 1866.
