Albert's Restaurant & Bar, Didsbury

I had been to Albert's Restaurant & Bar last year on the way to Dublin via Manchester Airport and had been incredibly impressed with the lunchtime meal deal and as we were in the area, we decided to try it again.

As the main part of the £10.95 deal at this ponsy Didsbury restaurant I had ‘albert’s fish and chips’ which was defined as sustainably sourced pacific cod fillet in a beer batter served with proper mushy peas, bread & butter and home-made tartare sauce.

For those that want to know, I had the Anglesey mussels in broth to start, which were absolutely fantastic.

The fish had an excellent clean fresh taste and fell apart into big enjoyable chunks. Sadly the batter was soggy and oily and clearly something had gone wrong in the frying process. Very disappointing.

The chips were very modern, very big, very rectangular pieces of potato which had been carefully presented on the plate, which to their credit was large, round and white. Unfortunately, although the potato texture was OK these had also not been cooked correctly. They weren’t crispy at all and had an oily, almost burnt flavour.

The mushy peas were indeed ‘proper’ with great flavour and texture.

As it was a restaurant I had to ask for vinegar, but I definitely didn’t have to add salt. The kitchen had, very kindly, added a huge number of great big blocks of rock salt onto the plate. Some of them were easy to remove as they were so big, but others were carefully camouflaged on the white background and made for an exceptionally unpleasant taste when they appeared in a bite of food. This was completely unnecessary and although having pre-salted chips is becoming more the norm in restaurants, where the bloody hell does the idea of adding lumps of rock salt come from? Ironically, there was a perfectly good salt dispenser on the table.

The tartare came in its own mini ramekin, had a good consistency and a lovely subtle texture.

A big chunk of lemon squeezed well and I decided to pass on the triangles of sliced white bread.

A really poorly thought out and badly made plate of food.  

Northern Quarter Restaurant, Manchester

A 40^th birthday party and the host’s choice was the excellent Northern Quarter Restaurant in Manchester. I’m a big fan of the Northern Quarter with its combination of eclectic bars and restaurants and a real sense of being an independent spirit in a big conventional city. It does enjoy being different but its enthusiastic celebration of all things artisan makes it a lovely break from the mundanity of life. 

I went for the fish and chips with homemade pea puree and tartar (their spelling) sauce at £9.50.

The fish was excellent and had a fresh, light flavour. The batter was light and crispy and had a really well balanced taste. A lovely combination.

The chips were really good. Twice fried and full of floury loveliness. 

The pea puree was good but didn’t pack as much of a flavour punch as I expected. 

The tartare (my spelling) was excellent with the myriad of ingredients working well with each other and it came in a big portion on the plate with lots of little chunky fresh flavours. 

I was surprised that there was no lemon and the salt and vinegar needed to be requested. The vinegar came in a jug which made it another job for high-quality motor skills.

The TNQ, as it’s branded, is posh and therefore the pea puree and tartare has to swiped across the plate which meant that the chips were sitting in both of them and as I’m a little odd I always prefer to have all the ingredients separated out so I can choose what to add at any time of the meal.

I went for the house red as they only sell bland bottles of lager which is still a bit of a surprise. When I asked what beers they had the waiter was quite animated telling me their range of continental lagers, but I can never get excited about San Miguel.  

On the whole it was a pleasure to eat at TNQ and I’m looking forward to my next visit.