By Ruth Allan
Manchester's Harvey Nichols has been a key player in the city's fine dining scene for years. It's had a number of high profile chefs at the helm. And yet the food has retained a certain character and panache that other restaurants imitate but don't always match.
As you'd imagine would happen in the 1940s - or at the lavish Grand Budapest Hotel in Wes Anderson's latest blockbuster - an austere-looking waitress serves Champagne from a proper trolley. With options that include straight, classic and Kir Royale, each is a journey in its own right.
Riffing on the Champagne palate, hints of apple and blossom are reflected in our starters. The Loch Duart salmon gravadlax, keta caviar, smoked eel and apple crème fraîche is an able match for the wine, but Cheshire rabbit, sweetcorn, pancetta and watercress or the Goosnargh duck, pear, fennel yoghurt and Szechuan pepper sound equally seductive. The salmon, meanwhile, showcases the understated flair that's made the Second Floor's name, with an artful combination that's both balanced and beautiful.
High and mighty
"I love to watch people scuttling away in the rain" Neil says, as we look out the window. Scuttling under Selfridges windmills, or into the Triangle, they look like colourful ants from up here. You have to hand it to a space that looks stunning on a sullen afternoon, and we while away the break between courses spotting landmarks in the distance.
Neil has the stone bass, roast butternut squash, cep and truffle gnocchi. "It looks a little... set", Neil says. But fish, cep and seaweed build to an oceanic overture. The lemon sole with wild mushroom risotto, artichoke barigold, grape and almond is easier on the eye. This isn't going to surprise, but it's properly cheffy take on lemon sole.
I'm particularly taken with dessert. Each pillar of the deconstructed Manchester Tart seems as memorable as the next; black vanilla seed- flecked custard, softly coconutty ice cream, caramelised bananas, raspberry puree, swirls of dense banoffee-style toffee all crowned with antlers of wafer. It practically sings. Neil's vanilla panna cotta, rhubarb and ginger is a little solid to the spoon, but presentation is confident.
With a bottle of wine from the Wine Shop next door and a solid price tag, this has to be a contender for one of the classiest lunches in Manchester right now. Nice work, Second Floor.
Harvey Nichols Second Floor, 21 New Cathedral Street, Manchester, M1 1AD.Two courses for £32, three for £40. Tel: 0161 828 8898, www.harveynichols.com