Choice
Restaurant Castlefield Manchester - reader comments
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"Like
your Top 10 restaurants list states, this is definitely
one of the best restaurants in Manchester and
one of my favourite restaurants in the whole
world. That said, I visited last Thursday and
was disappointed with the steak - I
asked for medium rare and got a very well done steak,
as did another member of our party. Everything else,
including the Bury Black Pudding fritter was still out
of this world though!"
- matthew, manchester 20/5/07 (visited on a thursday
evening) |
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| "This
restaurant was a huge disappointment.
We wandered in at 8:30pm on a Friday evening and were
surprised at the emptiness of the dining room (about
one third full). We should have taken that as a warning
sign. My partner's starter of goat's cheese was beautifully
creamy, but she couldn't comment on its flavour as it
was overwhelmed by an unpalatable melange of strawberry
jam and balsamic vinegar. The cheese was much improved
by scraping the sweet globs of sugar to the side of
the plate, but the cheese alone was also curiously homogeneous
in texture. Perhaps some variety in the form of a crunchy
melba toast may have helped. My terrine of bacon, black
pudding and Cumberland sausage was pleasant overall,
but spoiled by a honey and mustard dressing that was
hot enough to sear the back of the throat. Now, I like
mustard, but I do not appreciate it setting fire to
my sinuses as it did in this dish. Once the offensive
dressing had been removed, the terrine itself was rather
nice, but couldn't make up for the initially poor taste.
Unfortunately, the mains were not much better. My vegetable
crumble was topped with an unpleasantly greasy mess,
and its tomato sauce tasted more of Campbell's soup
than the promised tarragon. My partner's belly of pork
was worse, as a nicely presented dish was ruined by
a sickly honey and cider sauce. It was so sweet it made
our teeth hurt, and I had to return it to the kitchen.
To the credit of our waiter, he was immediately apologetic
and promised to take it off the bill. We didn't request
a replacement main course, but instead ordered the cheese
plate to finish. Three cheeses (or possibly two, as
two had almost identical flavour) came with plain biscuit
and a delicious walnut relish. The relish was the high
point of the evening, and we would certainly have it
again. Unfortunately, my Eton Mess tasted less of fresh
strawberries than the same strawberry jam that had been
foisted upon my partner's starter, and I couldn't finish
it. The service was adequate. Our waiter
meant well, but several delays - we were waiting a long
time for water, it took a while to get attention to
return my inedible main course, and port to accompany
the cheeseplate had to be asked for twice - rather ruined
the evening, In summary, we won't be back until they
hire a chef that can exercise some quality control before
plates leave the kitchen. Sweeter is not necessarily
better, and even someone with the palate of a sugar-fixated
ten-year-old would have issues with the current menu
at Choice!"
- dermot lynott, manchester 20/4/07 (visited on a friday
evening) |
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