Two Greedy Mancunians were recently invited to check out and have lunch at the new addition of The Terrace (opened in August) at Manchester Restaurant Bar & Grill. Upon our arrival the staff were very friendly and welcoming, took our coats & led us upstairs to the terrace to be seated. Kenny our waiter for the afternoon gave us our menus and took our drinks order - we ordered a delightful bottle of Fluerie (a French red that was lovely & light - perfect for lunch). We were also bought out some home made bread balls with chilli vinagarette dipping sauce as an appetiser. The vinagarette was fresh and zingy and it gave us something to nibble on whilst we made up our minds on what to order.
For starters I had the Iberico Ham & my fellow honourary Greedy Manc for the day Yasmin (sadly Alex couldnt make it) ordered the Chicken Liver Parfait. The Iberico Ham came with toasted sourdough bread and was sereved with a simple heirloom tomato salad which had green, yellow & red tomatos. The ham was really light, thinly (freshly) sliced and was melt in your mouth. Nothing further was required or provided with the ham as a good quality Iberico Ham speaks for itself.... and it did!
The Chicken Liver Parfait was cased in clarified butter and also came with toasted sourdough bread, but was also served with a spiced apricot & pear compot. The parfait was rich, creamy and garlicy and was certainly not skimped on in quality terms. The addition of the spiced apricot and pear compot worked so well, the chef clearly knows how to balance flavours, and it gave this dish the feel of an adventurous take on a classic chicken liver parfait. All in all we thouroughly enjoyed our starters.
Next up was our main courses - I chose the 8oz Fillet Steak whilst Yasmin opted for the Tuna Au Poivre.
Our waiter Kenny, I should mention, was both friendly and seemed genuinley interested in the customers without being introusive. And it's to kenny I have to thank for suggesting the onion rings as a side to my main course - I'll come on to the steak shortly, but i do have to make a point of mentioning the onion rings - quite frankly they were bloody good! I will even go as far as saying they are the best onion rings I have ever tasted - lovely sweet onion in a light delicious batter (they were also arranged in a tower in size order - nice!). Anyway, back to the steak - I ordered the fillet steak (rare) with the Colton Bassett Stilton butter, and was served with a small bucket of chips. The steak was a little bit over cooked for rare coming more medium-rare, but due to the quality of the meat this did not make the slightest bit of difference as it was not at all tought and was just so tender and melted in the mouth. The blue cheese butter was also a nice addition to the steak as it didnt shy from the blue cheese flavour - a butter with intense Colton Bassett Stilton flavour to it.
Yasmin ordered the Tuna Au Poivre which was a sashimi grade tuna loin with a pepper crust and ordered "seared" - again it was the quality that spoke for itself - the quality of the fish was exeptional. It was perfectly cooked practically raw in the middle just nicely seared on the outside. In a moment of indecision between chips or salad as an accompaniment Kenny was happy to accomodate "a bit of both" - a nice fresh salad with vinagarette dressing went very well with the tuna. The tuna was also served with a light bearnaise sauce. Another nice touch was the lemon was served in a muslin bag so no stray pips ended up on your plate!
Anyway, by the time we had finished our main courses we were both feeling almost too greedy and needed five minutes before ordering desert. There was a good selection of cakes available and on display on the desert trolly that was wheeled over to our table, Yasmin ordered the fig and almond tarte with home made icecream - although tasty, there were not enough figs involved in the tarte and the icecream was superb, but having such a small serving of it only left you wanting a bit more. I, of course, ordered the cheeseboard (for those reading this who dont know of my fondness for cheese, you should check out the other blog I run www.themightycheeseboard.blogspot.com). It came with plenty of crackers, grapes, some of that lovely spiced apricot and pear compot, and a selection of 3 absolutly fantastic cheeses (a stilton, a goats cheese, and a mature cheddar).
To sum up the Restaurant Bar & Grill - we would say its food is a combination of simplicity and pure quality. Their menu has a main focus on the grill and the dishes are not over complicated or covered with heavy sauces. And yes it may be a bit more pricey than your average restaurant, but you certainly get what you pay for - an absolutly fantastic & well cooked meal! The service and staff are very friendly and unpretentious. Two Greedy Mancunians are more than happy to reccomend going to the Manchester Restaurant Bar & Grill.
To round up our lunch we had a couple of drinks to send us on our merry way - I had a cocktail from the selection of award winning cocktail menu - a "Bramble" - tasted like an alcoholic ribeana and had a blackberry and mint leaves on the top and was delicious - Yasmin ordered a sambucca which came with a couple of coffee beans floating in the top - very nice!
