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 untrue. Both high-profile chefs are the real thing. The hyped up telly battle between them is as past as a puff of fennel pollen dust, as inappropriate as a patch of chocolate soil in a pudding; what remains is a city blessed with two of the finest restaurants around.
For a week or two, though, Aiden’s on his own. Simon’s Manchester outpost, The French, is shutting for a chink of August for a refurb, leaving Manchester House to carry the burden of expectation in this rarefied world of labour-intensive technique and premium prices.
It is a commercial burden, too, at lunchtimes. Top London restaurants use affordable Set-price lunches to persuade customers to tackle a la carte dinner there next time. Manchester House follows the same path, giving you to the opportunity sample Aiden’s specialities at a reasonable two courses at £22.50, three courses at £27.50 (served daily Tues-Sat) from 12-2:30 pm.
For your chance to WIN a Set Lunch for Two enter Taste of Manchester’s big competition next week.
We went one better and booked the Chef’s Table (which is how Simon Rogan came up), which is available free of charge for a table of six as long as everyone books either the six (£60 per person) or 12 course (£90 per person) taster menu at lunch and just the 12-courser at dinner.
Perched on a separate unit, you are on a front row seat close enough to the action to share the excitement of the ‘pass’ – without getting splashed with anything hot! – and for the omni-present Aiden to introduce the dishes. Such is the elaborate composition of them, I had to ask him to repeat his descriptions twice.
This is the kind of food only the geekiest of foodies would attempt at home, yet the complex preparation did not dominate what appeared on the plate – all six courses sang with clear, defined flavours. A crab risotto benefited from the dense flavours of the brown meat, a scattering of puffed rice adding a contrasting texture.
Similarly, wild boar ham (from animals bred by owners Living Ventures’ exec chef) had the perfect earthy partner in the carrot intensity of roast and puree with a lick of fennel.
Mains were red mullet in a delicate leek-infused shellfish consomme and the really labour-intensive working of a squab pigeon – roast breast, leg confited in duck fat, the offal bits pressed inside a cumin and coriander crumble (apologies, Chef, if I’ve not quite got it all nailed – suffice to say it tasted mightily impressive).
First pudding paired a mango and lime parfait withsummer fruits and sorbet beautifully; even better was a delicate chai redbush tea sorbet with dark chocolate and cherries that vies for my desert of the year. The subtlest of sakis, a sweeter than expected plum one matched it perfectly.
It was the oddball member of the £35 a head six-wine flight you can add one – and I’d recommend doing so. It was a fine collection of food-friendly glasses with just the right amount of acidity.
There’s a similarly interesting wine by the glass offering if you just go for two or three courses, which obviously ups the price. Bur this is still a great bargain for food, servce and surroundings at this level.
Manchester House, Tower 12, 18-22 Bridge Street, Manchester, M3 3BZ. 0161 8352557, www.manchesterhouse.uk.com