NOTHING delights me more than dining with a waterfront view, river, lake or sea. Distant twinkling lights and swishing ripples after dark all add to the sense of enchantment. Al fresco is best, but a dining room with panoramic windows will do. From the heady scents coming off the bay in Keralan spice capital Cochin to the Downtown-facing table on the terrace of Miami’s Michelin-starred Mandarin Hotel (a complimentary pashmina for madam and wicked Manhattans) I’ve found you can’t beat a chew with a view.
It was always a regret that The Lowry Theatre at Salford Quays didn’t make more of its position for the ground floor restaurant. It has finally now, 15 years after it opened. I remember rushing back from holidays for the launch party and ruining a pair of chinos by brushing against a pillar where the lime green paint was still drying. Damn the primal CBeebies colour scheme so at odds with the muted browns and greys of all those canvasses stowed upstairs that give the complex its name. But I digress.
Back to the future. Does it work? We are sitting in the relaunched restaurant, called Pier 8 after the stretch of quayside where so many Port of Manchester stevedores toiled. We feel spookily alone as if we had strayed into some production of the Marie Celeste or The Flying Dutchman.
The megabucks reconstruction has opened up glorious vistas. From our window table we gaze out at the Imperial War Museum North and The Lowry Footbridge leading to MUFC’s Theatre of Yawns (thanks Louis) but the reflection of the dining room shows not a soul, save the chefs keeping busy in the distant open kitchen. There’s a total of 300 covers across the operation; this can’t be good.
Our fault for choosing an inevitably quiet Wednesday just after New Year at 7.30pm when all the pre-theatre menu folk have dined and gone into the two auditoria… the weekend ahead is well-booked, explains Head Chef Oliver Thomas.
Oliver (above left) has headed the kitchen here for four years after a similar role for three years at The Lowry Hotel (he must have the artist’s name written into his contract of hire). Now he finally has a dining room that looks the part. The centre of the room is a glowing tardis-like core and there’s a swarm of petals hanging from the ceiling (is it an artwork?).
The colour scheme is less adventurous – mustard, blue and black – but all is classy, casual and comfortable. Like the food, which ticks a lot of boxes but makes no challenges.
I can see why this has to be. Despite the investment, the food must seem a sideshow next to the return of An Inspector Calls to the Lyric Theatre (even I saw it last time but one) or whatever London musical has finally made it to the provinces.
The lights dim as if a show is about to commence when the girl playing our waitress delivers our starters. Three lads in hoodies mooch past on the walkway. They wave at us, we wave back, feeling like exotic fish in a tank.
Neither of our fish starters (each £9) is particularly exotic; both are exemplary takes on standard riffs. The slash of cauliflower puree accompanying my plump scallops is intense, the lentils and bacon lardons in a smoky ensemble with a dense wine reduction. Cornish crab is shoreline fresh, white and brown meat separated, so you can appreciate the different textures and taste. Couldn’t work out what the green swirl was fashioned from, mind.
Equally impressive were our puds – dark chocolate torte, chocolate sauce, raspberry sauce, raspberry sorbet (£7) and lemon posset, salted walnut praline, rosemary shortbread (£9), classic rich combos with the chocolate and raspberry, lemon and rosemary duetting perfectly.
In between, the mains were as flat as Manchester United at the moment, reluctant to release full flavour. Parsley-crusted Scottish salmon (£16) shared its plate with rosti potatoes, white beans, celeriac, cockles and an under-powered shallot cream sauce in dish tat never really gelled.
My lamb rump (£19) was prettily pink but under-seasoned and lacking oomph, but I enjoyed a trio of nutty, crisped sweetbreads and the sour-sweet comfort of red cabbage.
Glasses glass of Kiwi Sauvignon and a Spanish red were acceptable matches for starter and main, but the wine list is dull, especially if Pier 8 aspires to be a destination restaurant. But does it? Is it merely destined to remain the overture to the main event? The food probably deserved four stars, but the overall experience notched the score down one. I have my doubts. The premiere of On The Waterfront – I had raised my hopes too high.
Pier 8, Lowry Theatre, The Quays, Salford M50 3AZ. 0161 876 2121. Full menu here. Available at lunch and from 5pm until 9.30pm. There’s also pre-theatre menu and a simpler bar menu that finishes earlier.