Tag Archives: Matthew Radway

Bobby’s Rock ‘n Roll Bruch, House of Ho | Restaurant Review

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Soho’s House of Ho (try saying that after you’ve had a few of their cocktails) is a Vietnamese restaurant serving up an unlimited brunch every Sunday called Bobby’s Rock ‘n Roll Brunch. The words ‘unlimited’ and ‘brunch’ are favourites of mine so I went down to check it out.

The restaurant itself has a light and airy industrial feel with touches of Eastern charm. It blends modernity and traditionalism seamlessly and this approach is reflected in the menu.

We began our brunch with sweet and refreshing lychee cocktails and some unfortunately bland edamame. Until this point I genuinely didn’t think it was possible to get edamame wrong – it’s just beans.

Luckily, that was pretty much the only criticism I have of the entire experience. And when your main issue is bland edamame then you know you’re doing something right.

Duck Pho Cuon

Duck Pho Cuon

As part of the ‘unlimited’ brunch you are allowed to choose from a selection of small plates to start with. The highlights of these were the duck pho cuon and the 7 spice marinated squid. The duck came in soft rolls with a coating of crispy onions which was a great texture combination and was served with a spicy sauce that added just the right amount of kick. There was also a mushroom version of this dish that was perfectly fine but a little underwhelming in comparison. Both my colleague and I agreed that the fried squid was the best that we had ever tasted; it was marinated in the perfect combination and amount of spices.

Other dishes worth trying include the chili glazed chicken wings which came in a smoky, spicy, sticky sauce (another one to try saying after a few drinks) and the chicken pomelo salad which was a light and refreshing dish that helped combat the sheer amount of meat and carbs in the others (that’s not a complaint – they are excellent food groups).

Apple-Smoked Pork Belly

Apple-Smoked Pork Belly

For our main courses we had the apple-smoked pork belly and the ‘shakin’ beef. Wow. Just wow. The pork is cooked for 36 hours and you could cut through the fat on top of it like butter. I don’t even like pork and I enjoyed this dish immensely. The beef is cooked for 30 seconds at 400 degrees and was beautifully tender. I honestly can’t choose between the two dishes – if possible, try them both.

 

The meal ended with an expertly cooked crème brulee but by this point I think I was too stuffed to fully appreciate it. I was also very drunk. Because that’s the really good thing about this meal – the alcohol is unlimited too. We were knocking back Proseccos and cocktails like nobody’s business. If that doesn’t convince you that this brunch is excellent value then I don’t know what will.

So get yourself down to House of Ho this Sunday. It won’t kill your wallet but it will break your belt.

 

 

Rosso, Manchester | Restaurant Review

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Last week I finally managed to visit Rosso, an Italian restaurant in Manchester that I haven’t stopped hearing about lately. It turns out that it’s with good reason – Rosso is a tasteful, inventive restaurant that’s clearly had a lot of thought put into both the food and the overall experience from the décor to the friendly, informative staff.

As is always the best way, my colleague and I began our evening with cocktails. I had the Old Fashioned which was smooth and well mixed. My colleague’s Bramble was a sweet and refreshing combination of gin and winter fruits.

Having whetted our appetites, we ate a trio of starters. To begin with we had seared king scallops with crisp pork belly and an apple and cider purée. The scallops were light but flavourful and were perfectly complemented by the apple. This was followed by a mixed vegetable antipasti platter. It was an excellent selection of true Italian delicacies and was our favourite of the starters. Particular praise must go to the selection of cheeses which had mature and confident flavours. Our final starter was orzo with sweet potato and char-grilled tuna steak. The steak was perfectly cooked and its saltiness was deliciously matched with the sweetness of the orzo.

Char-grilled tuna steak with orzo

For the main course we once again split three dishes; a decision that I will never regret but that will have permanently effected my waistline. First up was a home-made mushroom ravioli of the highest quality. It had an intense, rich mushroom flavour that was offset nicely by the sauce. This was followed by goose served over balsamic roasted plums with a hint of bitter chocolate. An appetising combination on paper, it sadly failed to live up to its promise. My colleague and I agreed that the problem with it, if we’re totally honest, is that it was a perfectly average dish in a restaurant of culinary delights. There was nothing particularly wrong with it, there was just nothing especially right about it either.

Which brings me on to a dish that deserves its own paragraph – the rack of lamb in a pistachio crust with a rosemary and treacle jus. Simply put, it was genius. The best dishes have bold and unexpected flavour combinations and this one has them in abundance. If you do visit Rosso I’d highly recommend that you order it.

Rack of lamb

To go with our food we had a Primitivo Dolinci from the organic red wine selection, a nice addition to the wine menu. It had an excellent nose and a subtle, fruity taste that was not too dry. I’m not normally a red wine drinker but I found it to be quite pleasant and a good match for our food.

Finally, my colleague had a gooseberry cheesecake that was a little bland, if technically well made. It was a good cheesecake, it just wasn’t a very good gooseberry cheesecake.

I had a chocolate tower made with valrhona chocolate (a particular favourite of mine) and layers of assorted raspberry accompaniments. Dark chocolate and raspberry is a classic combination and one that never fails to please me. I thought I was full before this dessert arrived but all notion of that disappeared after my first bite. Thank God for that extra pudding stomach we are all born with.

Chocolate stack

As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, I highly recommend Rosso. I think my colleague summed it up best when he said “It’s the sort of place I’d propose in”. If you’re looking for a restaurant for a special occasion or to really impress someone then Rosso is ideal.

Oscars, Manchester | Bar Review

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If you ever find yourself on Manchester’s Canal Street make sure you set aside time to visit the little gem that is Oscars. Although centred around musicals, it manages to avoid being a tacky themed bar (although themed it is) and instead celebrates vintage Hollywood with all the class and panache of Gene Kelly himself.

Inside you’ll find staff who truly care about the drinks that they serve, their ingredients and the flavour combinations. Whilst there I had the privilege to sample a variety of drinks from their extensive cocktail menu. A particular favourite of mine was the Pomegranate Bloom made with Bloom gin and, of course, pomegranate. Many of their Bloom goblets were light and fruity and more than palatable even to people who don’t normally like gin – me included.  Ones to watch out for if you fall into that category include the Summer Bloom and the English Bloom. Also on the menu was a delightful Opihr cocktail with notes of cardamom, cumin and ginger and the Mary Pickford cocktail which will satisfy even the sweetest tooth. Less successful for me were the Moulin Rouge and the rather bland Folies Bergere.

Bloom Gin Cocktail

Bloom Gin Cocktail

As for more traditional spirits, I recommend the West Rock rum mixed with Fentimans Ginger Ale. It was my favourite drink of the night and one that I will certainly be ordering again.

On the evening I was there, entertainment was provided by Paul Walker who sang  a selection of musical numbers from stage and screen. His choice of songs was spot on and his powerful voice and warm rapport with the crowd really added to the experience.

Oscars Bar Interior

Oscars Bar Interior

I can’t recommend Oscars highly enough. A word of warning though – it’s a small room so if you’re planning on going on a Friday or Saturday you might want to get there early to nab a table. If people know what’s good for them then it’ll be very busy.

 

The Dining Rooms at The Worsley Park Hotel, Manchester | Restaurant Review

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The Dining Rooms at The Worsley Park Hotel is a light and spacious restaurant that takes traditional British food and gives it a modern twist. So far, so ‘every decent hotel restaurant’.

From the minute we arrived the staff created a pleasant and friendly atmosphere and our waiter was very helpful and knowledgeable about the menu and wine list. He recommended a 2013 Chenin Blanc to accompany our food choices and he was spot on. It was a lovely wine that somehow managed to compliment both the meaty courses that I chose and the vegetarian ones selected by my colleague.

All of our food arrived promptly, although this might partly have been because the restaurant was surprisingly empty for a Friday night. It’s worth noting here that the hotel is a little out of the way which probably explains the number of customers.

To start with I had chicken liver parfait and my colleague had asparagus with blood orange and hollandaise sauce, both off the specials menu. The blood orange nicely cut through the taste of the asparagus, which was well cooked. My parfait was flavoursome and had a lovely texture but, as is so often the way, it needed a little more toast to accompany it.

Chicken Liver Parfait Starter Asparagus Starter

For the main course I had lamb in a Chambord jus with mashed potato and roasted beetroot and my colleague had a macaroni and cheese pie with garlic bread and salad. My lamb was tender and meaty and went perfectly with the beetroot and jus. My colleague too was impressed by her macaroni and cheese pie, finding it to be an inventive take on a classic dish which used great quality ingredients and was just the right size. However, there could have been more of the accompanying salad as on its own the pie was a little salty.

Macaroni Cheese Pie Lamb with Roasted Beetroot and Chambord Jus

To finish, I had a white chocolate panna cotta with raspberry sorbet and a raspberry soup. The creaminess of the panna cotta went perfectly with the sharpness of the raspberry – it was possibly my favourite dish of the evening. My colleague had the sampler which came with miniature versions of the chocolate torte, the blood orange cheesecake and the sticky toffee pudding. Each was served with a suitable sorbet or ice cream and it was clear that thought had gone into the flavour combinations. The torte was dense and rich, just as it should be. Unfortunately, the cheesecake was a little bland and the sticky toffee pudding whilst delicious was lacking in sauce leaving it a little dry in the middle. However, I suspect that this might just be a problem with the miniature taster dish rather than the dessert when served on its own.  Both desserts, as with all the courses, were immaculately presented.

Dessert Taster White Chocolate Panna Cotta

The Worsley Park Hotel is a cut above your average hotel restaurant and is certainly a good choice for a meal on a special occasion. Does it manage to do anything radical in its attempt to provide a modern twist on traditional dishes? Not really. Would I recommend visiting anyway? I certainly would.

 

Yang Sing Manchester | Restaurant Review

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I think it’s important to start this review by saying that I’m not an easy person to please, especially with food. I say this simply because the rest of the review is going to be filled with gushing praise, beginning with…

Last Friday at Yang Sing restaurant in Manchester I ate the best Chinese meal I have ever eaten. My colleague and I were served six courses of house specialities ranging from chicken feet to jellyfish amongst a whole array of Cantonese delights and none of them disappointed.
We were seated by our very friendly host in the surprisingly bright and airy basement and were very helpfully talked through the menu and wine list. From here until we left the service was impeccable; we were attended to at all times without feeling like the staff were constantly on top of us.

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Our food odyssey began with a truly succulent duck in a sweet soy sauce served on the bone and served with the aforementioned jellyfish which managed to somehow be both slippery and crunchy all in one. To drink we had a 2011 Pinot Blanc which perfectly accompanied the food. This was followed by a deep fried chilli stuffed with prawn that wasn’t to my taste but my colleague enjoyed it. Along too came the notorious chicken feet which were incredibly flavoursome but a little fiddly and two types of dumpling – ginger, shallot and coriander and prawn. Both were among the best dumplings I’ve ever had.

Next came ostrich steak which was probably our least favourite course, although it was perfectly pleasant. Following this, we had steamed scallops served in their shells with an accompaniment of glass noodles which were exceedingly good. I noticed that it seemed to be a popular dish with the diners around me and rightly so.

At this point our wine was replaced with a light and fruity Sancerre rosé that went perfectly with our next dish of stir fried prawns with mixed vegetables, spring onion fried rice with garlic and a Malaysian chicken curry that my colleague found a little rich but I couldn’t get enough of.

By now we were more than a little full but the food train rolled on as a fresh fruit platter arrived which was just what we needed after the oily, starchy food of the previous course. I’m not normally a fan of melon but somehow this restaurant has managed to source the only melon I’ve ever really enjoyed. Finally, our epic meal ended with a little coconut tart that was not too heavy and the perfect size for a sweet.

Overall, as you can probably tell, I can’t recommend this restaurant highly enough. If you live in the North West then make your way over to Yang Sing for a truly fantastic meal out.