By Neil Sowerby
SCENE is a huge shiny gastrodome that fits the dining out template of the new Spinningfields – think Fazenda, Iberica, Tattu – with some of the street food folkiness of Thaikun thrown in. It’s a far cry from the belphuri hawkers of Mumbai’s Chaupati Beach or the thattu dosa wallahs of the Kerala backwaters and the fear is that it’s just another annexation of buzz words – think ‘artisan’, ‘craft’ and ‘dirty’. Or the dreaded ‘food with a twist’.
First glance at the menu is a mite bewildering. It’s a gathering of the old faithful Brit-tailored faves – Tikka Masala, Balti, Korma, Madras and the like alongside assorted chicken dishes with more exotic monickers, Chettinad, Lababdar and Hyderabadi, there to justify the menu’s claims to be a gazeteer of regional specialities from across India. The chef tells me he hails from Lucknow in the centre and has radiated out.
Street food, though? Then you stumble upon the ‘Street Corner’ and ‘Chaat Corner’ sections and, a real nod to what the Sub-continent regards as “eating out – ‘Indo-Chinese’. These are tapas size platefuls from £4.95 for tikkas and kebabs to £7.95 for crumbed calamari, a South Indian staple apparently. I found it coarsely spiced and greasy. The Indian Lal Toofan lager (£3.30 a pint) to wash it down was an odd tasting brew. A big glass of peppery Aussie Shiraz called Richland Black (£6.15) handled the food better.
Pick of the food was definitely the charcoal-grilled lamb chops (£5.95) and Banjari Gosht Rajasthani Laal Maas (£11.95), a tender, aromatic chicken dish with fresh fenugreek and whole red chillis. Of the fish dishes the mild Monkfish Malai (£14.95) was the most attractive, if a touch under-spiced, the sauce similar to an accompanying paneer dish.
The main room of this 180-cover behemoth is dominated by a huge artwork featuring Agra station. In the old days it would have been a rosy-glowed Taj Mahal against flock wallpaper. Indian food, with a nod to regionality, has moved on along with the decor. Aamchi Mumbai in Cheadle Hulme (read my review here) dedicates itself to the cosmopolitan cuisine of Bombay. Better food than at Scene, but again a concept waiting to roll out into a chain.
For more singly authentic food I’d go to Sanmini’s in Ramsbottom for Tamil Nadu style home cooking and for South Indian vegetarian stuff, Lily’s in Ashton-under-Lyne. For a glamorous buzz and for naan breads the size of a sheep, Akbar’s in Liverpool Road. Maybe we made the wrong menu choices on our visit to Scene. Next time I go, when it has settled in, I aim to explore the backstreets of their menu.
Scene, 4a Leftbank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3AN. 0161 839 3929. http://scenedining.com
