From the archive · page 3
The Food Geek Awards – 2015
Welcome to the fourth annual Food Geek Awards (previous years are here). I started these awards to be bit more interesting and concise than posting loads of ‘Top 10’ lists. Most of the awards contain a top three,…
The Solita Christmas Burger 2015 (And NQ Refurb)
The Solita Christmas burger is now a firmly established Food Geek Christmas tradition. I left it late this year but made it to the original Northern Quarter restaurant on Christmas Eve Eve Eve to get my festive fix for…
Winter Game Menu Preview @ Ibérica, Spinningfields, Manchester
Summer is my absolute favourite season. Mainly because I love the sun; eating and drinking outdoors just makes me happy and everywhere looks and feels better in sunshine. I can’t help getting grumpy when the days start…
Restaurant Story, London – Michelin Star, But Does It Wow & Where’s The Story?
There aren’t too many restaurant openings that I get genuinely excited about these days. But Restaurant Story was definitely one of them when it launched in 2013. The ‘book themed’ restaurant where diners were asked to…
Christmas At Café Football, Hotel Football, Manchester
Since ‘retiring’ last year Ryan Giggs seems to have seriously upped his workload. Assistant manager of one of the biggest football clubs in the world is a full time job to most, but he’s also pursuing a number of…
The Gourmet Gays – A Venezian Evening Of Cicchetti
I’ve been attending supper clubs for over two years now, but although I’ve been to loads they’re mostly run by the same few people. It had been ages since I went to a new one. Step in the new kids on the block, ‘The…
Sandinista, Manchester – Winter Menu Showcase
I like to think I know Manchester pretty well, especially when it comes to eating to and drinking. But I’d never heard of Sandinista when I was invited to preview their winter menu. I assumed it must be new, but it…
Splendid Kitchen, Manchester
There are a few places I go to eat that are guaranteed to cheer me up. Splendid Kitchen is one of them. Since opening as Splendid Sausage Co around 18 months ago, their menu has evolved from gourmet hot dogs to…
George’s Dining Room & Bar, Worsley
I can’t say I was particularly interested when I heard Ryan Giggs had bought a restaurant, even less so knowing it was in Worsley. Not that there’s anything wrong with the lovely little village, it’s just a bit out of…
Breakfast @ Friends Of Ham, Leeds
I’m really growing to love Leeds; in fact, in many ways I think I prefer it to Manchester now. I’m still finding out about the city, but one place I keep going back to is Friends Of Ham. Having been a few times for…
‘I liked this before anyone else knew about it’ #DBHIPSTER
When I first started going to the ‘Drunken Butcher’s’ supper clubs the concepts were pretty simple. Generally based around a specific cuisine or individual meat; Spanish or French for example; pork, game or steaks…
Wahaca Finally Bring Their Mexican Street Food To Manchester
There’s no shortage of places to eat Mexican food in Manchester but most are either market stalls, fast food/takeaway orientated or fused with other cuisines. Lucha Libre were the first to really bring the traditional…
Solita Prestwich – Is The Third Solita The Best Yet?
It’s no secret that I’m a big Solita fan, I have been right from the start when they had just one burger on the menu (it’s true, honestly!) Back then they were just a small Northern Quarter grill restaurant but over the…
A QuinTEAssentially British Day Of Tea Blending & Afternoon Tea At The Midland
It’s not every day a professional tea designer creates a special blend of tea for you based on your interests. But Bernadine Tay – tea designer at Quinteassential – did just that for an event I was invited to at The…
Breakfast @ Wahaca, Oxford Circus, London
Usually when I wake up in London wanting breakfast there’s only one place on my mind; Dishoom’s ‘Bacon Naan’ is legendary and one of my all time favourite breakfast items. But one day I fancied something different,…
6/Cut Pizza Co Monton – ‘Proper Sourdough Pizza’ In… Eccles?
It wasn’t so long ago that you just couldn’t get a decent pizza in Manchester. Then came a few street food vendors putting the restaurants to shame by producing stunning pizzas from their portable wood fire ovens. This…
BAO, London
You always want something more when you can’t have it. And as I stood waiting opposite BAO at 21:55, I REALLY wanted it. I knew the Taiwanese steamed bun restaurant was the current ‘go to’ place in London and I’d heard…
‘The Cheek Of It’ by The Drunken Butcher
Many people – including Iain, aka the Drunken Butcher – say the cheek is the best part of any animal. It makes sense really given how much work those muscles get through. They can be tough though without careful…
Burger & Lobster, King Street, Manchester
With so many new restaurants opening in Manchester these days it’s hard even for somebody as obsessed as me to keep up with them all, never mind be excited by most of them. One that I had been looking forward to for a…
International Cheese Awards 2015, Nantwich
If you love cheese as much as I do there’s no better place to be in July than the Nantwich show, home to the ‘biggest cheese marquee in the world’ where the ‘International Cheese Awards’ are held annually. I loved my…
