Surprisingly for a food blogger I hadn’t heard a lot of feedback about Annie’s Restaurant. I knew it was owned by Jennie McAlpine (also known as Fizz from Coronation Street) but that was pretty much it. Luckily for me a friend was invited to dine so I joined.

The interior was a surprise. Upstairs houses lots of comfy sofas and then downstairs you have the main restaurant with more seating. We were asked if we would like a drink prior to dining but we were both hungry so chose to go straight into the dining area.

I was shocked by how quiet it was, for a Sunday evening I was expecting it to be really busy with the Sunday lunch trade but there were only two other tables occupied, one with people we happened to know!

Having already looked at the menu my friend was incredibly disappointed that the cheese and onion pie was off at the time. She was intrigued to see what made a pie, chips and beans cost £12.95. The high pricing seemed to be a theme with a burger and chips costing £13.95 and bottles of wine on the wine list at an eye watering £150 per bottle. And that’s for a bottle of red, not a more celebratory bottle of champagne. Interestingly the cocktails are reasonably priced at £6.95 each. Something seems amiss here.

Anyway, onto the food. I ordered the potted mackerel to start with my friend going for the scallop and black pudding dish. The scallops were slightly overdone so a little chewy but not too bad. The black pudding was quite dry and chewy unfortunately so a little unpleasant. The potted mackerel wasn’t as described on the menu. Potted mackerel should be exactly that, flakes of mackerel potted with lemon juice and topped with butter, or that’s what I was expecting. What arrived as flakes of mackerel bound in mayonnaise with melba toast. The mackerel had been nicely seasoned and wasn’t a bad dish at all, it just wasn’t potted mackerel therefore not what I was expecting.

For main I went for the sea bass with my friend choosing the traditional Sunday lunch. The sea bass had been filleted and pan fried before being served atop a bed of pickled cucumber, mange tout and peas. A healthy option it was a good dish with the fish seasoned well, the pickled cucumber a nice touch and the mange tout still crisp. The peas were slightly overdone which, doesn’t really bother me, what bothered me was that the menu described the dish as being on a bed of spring greens. Whilst the vegetables on my plate were green and apt for the Spring season, they certainly weren’t spring greens. My friend wasn’t as lucky with her roast and this possibly explained why the restaurant was so quiet on a Sunday evening. The beef had been rested too long, the Yorkshire pudding hard, the vegetables far too soft and the potatoes mushy on the inside rather than being fluffy. Such a disappointment.

Things picked up with dessert. I had the cheese board which came with a nicely spiced fruit chutney. The menu didn’t state what the cheeses were or where they had come from as they do in other restaurants and the crackers were Jacobs rather than something more locally sourced but it hit the spot. My friend chose the jam roly poly which was slightly stodgy, as it should be, with a good jam running through it. It wasn’t amazing but it certainly hit the spot after her disappointing main course.

As we left we were bid farewell by the staff (who are great by the way. Really attentive, eager to please and chatty when encouraged) with packages of ginger crunch biscuits and jam. I have noticed that Annie’s now has an online teashop which is where these goodies can be purchased. And goodies they are. The biscuits, crunchy on the outside and slightly gooey in the centre had huge pieces of stem ginger running through them. I’d have been happy with these topped in custard as a dessert! The jam a similar story, good chunks of fruit that aren’t overly sweet and a lovely slightly runny consistency. Once again they are quite pricey with biscuits costing £3.95 and a jar of jam costing £3.85 but of good quality and something I would consider buying friends or family as a gift.

I am not sure what group of people Annie’s are trying to hit with their food and pricing but I won’t be rushing back. I know other restaurants in Manchester charging a lot less for larger portions of better quality.