Food & Drink
Top food critic declares Manchester restaurant as ‘one of the best meals of the year’
Raving reviews just in for an Ancoats gem
“This is bloody good, isn’t it.”
That’s what top food critic Jay Rayner had to say when he dined at Ancoats’ restaurant Erst last week in an experience he proclaimed as ‘one of the best meals of the year so far, a succession of modestly priced platefuls, which bring on low groans and delicate signs of happiness’.
Writing in his column for The Observer, Rayner began his critique of his Erst experience with Carlingford rock oysters dressed ‘with a precisely judged spoonful of mignonette’, something he described as ‘very bracing’.
He then declared the flatbread, which is spread with freshly chopped tomato pulp, to be ‘the best £5 I have spent in a very long time’.
@erst_mcr / Instagram
@erst_mcr / Instagram
Rayner tried a number of Erst’s most popular dishes, including meaty Cantabrian anchovies, ‘floating on their olive oil pond’, garlic herb buttered anchovies, slices of cured seabass, thinly sliced lamb’s hearts with lettuce, grilled green beans and a green chilli sauce, and the ‘George Clooney of garlic breads’ which he described as forcing him to type ‘utter blathering, enthusiastic b*llocks’.
But he reserved his optimum gushing for Erst’s famous fried potatoes: “Seriously, look at them: baked potatoes that have then been crushed with force until they are a mess of crevices and edges and folds.
“We break off one bit after another. Somewhere in the middle there might be soft potato. Mostly they are just the thrilling business end of crispness right to the heart.
“It is £5 worth of glorious, crowd-pleasing fun.”
@erst_mcr / Instagram
@erst_mcr / Instagram
And this isn’t the first time the restaurant has received critical acclaim among the experts: In January this year, Erst earned a place in the Michelin Guide 2021 for offering ‘something refreshingly different in the city’.
And last year, Marina O’Loughlin from The Sunday Times sang their praises, saying their food seems to come from people who ‘genuinely like to eat’. She also sampled the fried potatoes, noting how they were ‘fiendishly good’ shards of ‘golden, glistening crunch’, adding that these things have ‘done the hokey cokey with the hot oil’.
As you can see, the review – and all the rest of them – couldn’t be any more complimentary and will undoubtedly ensure Erst’s booking list is full for the foreseeable future.
A massive congratulations to the talented team over at Erst, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for them – you can stay up to date on book on their website here.
Read Jay Rayner’s full review here.
Food & Drink
Italiana Fifty Five’s new winter menu features pasta so fresh it’s made in front of you
So, so good!
Italiana Fifty Five, the popular Italian spot with locations in the city centre and Didsbury, has launched a brand new winter menu and it’s a must-try for pasta fans.
They’re serious about fresh pasta, and in the front window of their Wilmslow Road restaurant you can see chefs prepare various types of pasta on traditional equipment.
This includes everything from rigatoni cylinders to squiggly ribbons of reginette.
Manchester’s Finest Group
New additions to the menu include a carbonara, made to the traditional recipe with egg and parmesan, as well as a fresh ravioli with spinach and sage.
You’ll also find an eight-hour cooked beef shin ragù with pappardelle, and an oven-baked vodka sauce dish, complete with crispy bits on top.
Other new additions to the menu include a cappellacci di burrata, served in a meaty Tuscan sauce, and a mushroom-heavy reginette dish.
Manchester’s Finest Group
There’s a couple of autumnal-leaning starters too, including bruschetta topped with stracciatella di bufala, and some Sicilian-style arancini too.
The new menu is available at all sites, however you’ll only find the fresh homemade pasta in the Didsbury branch. Get yourself booked in HERE.
Italiana Fifty Five have extended their August 50% off deal on their a la carte menu, so you can now grab a bargain until Sunday September 15th.
This means dishes like their trofie with pesto, lobster ravioli and their famous linguine pecorino, served flambéed at the table from a giant wheel of cheese are still half price.
The a la carte menu is available all day, every day, and takes in a breadth of Italian classics, antipasti and pasta dishes, pizza, cuts from the grill and desserts.
Manchester’s Finest Group
You’ll be able to kick off with dishes like mozzarella fritta, calamari and capesante gratinate – seared scallops finished with parmesan cheese under the grill.
It will also, of course, include perhaps its most famous dish – the linguine pecorino, which is flambéed tableside in a huge wheel of aged pecorino cheese.
For pushing the boat out, there’s also a sharing slab of chateaubriand steak, carved at the table and served with parmesan baby roast potatoes and a cherry tomato and parmesan salad.
Manchester’s Finest Group
Then you can finish up with homemade desserts, like a panna cotta, pistachio cannoli or a classic tiramisu.
The offer is available at all three Italiana Fifty Five sites – Liverpool Rd, Great Northern and Didsbury Village.
Get booked in HERE.
Food & Drink
Popeyes opening new drive-thru in Manchester tomorrow with FREE chicken
It’s the second Popeyes to open in Manchester
Louisiana-style fried chicken chain Popeyes has announced plans to open more restaurants this year, including a second site in Greater Manchester – which opens tomorrow, Friday April 26th.
The chain opened its 33rd UK site in Piccadilly Gardens in October last year, which proved an instant hit with visitors forming queues along the street and around the corner just to sample its classic Southern fried chicken.
Regular customers have learned to take early lunches to avoid the rush as it fills up with hungry people every day.
Now its new drive-thru, located on Bury New Road, is opening tomorrow, Friday April 26th, with both the doors and lanes officially opening from 11am.
Greater Manchester and the North West’s first drive-thru location, the restaurant will mark the brand’s 11th opening in 2024 and 47th site in the UK.
And of course, they’re giving away FREE chicken on opening day, with the first three people queuing both on-foot and in cars winning free Chicken Sandwiches for a whole year.
As well as that, the first 25 customers in both queues will also be rewarded with a free Chicken Sandwich and exclusive Popeyes merchandise.
You’ll have to get there early if you want to be one of the first three, however, as fans queued for more than 16 hours when the Piccadilly Gardens site opened last year.
And from Saturday, April 27th, you’ll also be able to grab breakfast at the new restaurant.
The ‘Brekkie’ menu features British Breakfast classics with a New Orleans twist, like the Big Cajun Breakfast Roll, Cajun Hash Browns and Nutella-topped buttermilk biscuits.
Breakfast will be available until 11am every day, and will even include a Bacon Roll Meal for just £1.99, which includes a Bacon Roll, a Hash Brown and a drink.
For those who have not yet had the pleasure of sampling Popeyes’ crunchy flavoursome goodness, its menu features classic offerings like the Chicken Sandwich, with signature 12-hour marinated chicken and original Southern biscuits and gravy.
Additionally, a variety of side dishes like mac & cheese, mash with Cajun gravy, and original biscuits will be served, alongside milkshakes in various flavours including vanilla, chocolate, mocha, and specialities like Oreo, Lotus Biscoff, and strawberry cheesecake.
What’s more, fans across the UK can now start their day with a Cajun twist – with Popeyes Breakfast Menu now available nationwide.
Tom Crowley, Popeyes UK Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Following the success of our Manchester Piccadilly restaurant, we are thrilled to bring our newest Popeyes to Bury New Road, marking our third restaurant in the North West.
“Our new restaurant will also be a Drive-Thru, meaning customers in Greater Manchester can enjoy our Famous Louisiana Chicken by dining in, via the Drive Thru lane, or by ordering online for kerbside collection.
“Our most recent openings have been some of the biggest to date, not just in the UK but for Popeyes globally, and we’re confident that Bury New Road will be just as popular.”
If you fancy winning free Chicken Sandwiches for a year, but don’t have time to queue up outside the new restaurant, then keep your eyes peeled on our Instagram tomorrow, Friday April 26th, as we’re going to be running a competition where you can win just that!
T&Cs: Offer entitles the holder to 3 free Chicken Sandwiches per week for 52 weeks. The 12 months starts on receipt of the email containing the first 3 links. Available in any Popeyes Louisiana Chicken UK restaurant, only on our Classic or Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Non transferable, not valid in conjunction with any other offer. Offer is redeemable only when you order online for collection through our website. Over 18s only.
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