Eleven good things I ate in March

Cheese custard, Palestinian maqloba and a sneak preview of Skof

March whizzed me in and out of its revolving doors like a snake in a salad spinner. The month’s final flourish of hacking an hour off the morning’s snooze allocation always leaves me dizzy so it has taken me a while to get this roundup published, I apologise to you and your bated breath. Here though, is a walk through the best things I ate last month around Manchester including new openings, old haunts and as always, plenty o’ fish.

Read on for the best things I ate in Manchester in March…

Salt-aged sirloin Donburi at Hakkapo (£17.50)

I’d been keeping a close eye on Hakkapo as it got ready to open not far from where I live. When I moved to this area, there were very few places to eat and drink but more and more good stuff has moved to nearby First Street and Circle Square. Some of my faves round here are Indian Tiffin Room, Bundobust, North Brew Co, One Sushi, Yes, Bunny Jacksons (mainly for the great house band) and Monkey Trio.

The corner unit on First Street where Hakkapo resides has been a tough spot for all of its predecessors so I was glad to see the likes of Eat MCR giving them some coverage. I ate there as soon as I could following their unfortunate false start of an opening day. Hakkapo comes from the brain of Krzysztof Borowiak, a Polish restaurateur who loves Japanese food and culture (‘Po’) and his business partner and chef Simon Lee (‘Hakka’ referring to Lee’s Chinese heritage). An intriguing mix, then. I loved this simple, modern donburi bowl with strips of rare, salt-aged beef and a soy egg yolk sauce. I’ve been loving Polish wine for a while now so it’s good to see they have some good stuff from Krzysztof’s homeland on the drinks menu alongside some from Chateau Mercian, a winery I rate in Japan. Look out for more on that via Listen To Me Wine.

Bold Street Bad Buoy (£12.25)

What has felt like a year-long, rain-soaked winter has started to crack into the odd day of bright sunshine. On one such morning in March, I sat outside Bold Street Coffee near the uni for my daily dose of vitamin D. Bold Street does great coffee but it has an underrated breakfast butty menu too. Like this ‘Bold Street Bad Buoy’, a brioche bun stuffed with a sausage patty, cheese, fried egg, avocado and hollandaise sauce. A welcome change from porridge.

Chicken liver parfait at Climat (part of a £75 Friday wine tour with three other venues)

Richer than Taylor Swift and just as glossy, a small group of wine tourers and I were lucky enough to indulge in this unbelievable chicken parfait lounging atop a thick slice of charred sourdough and topped with pickled rhubarb. We swooned over it with a couple of tasters of red wine (A Rioja and a Greek Syrah) as we watched the sunset from our high stools in the rooftop bar. I recently added Climat to Time Out’s best restaurants in Manchester list. The list wasn’t originally started by me, but I get to add my picks to it now and again and this addition was long overdue. Go to Climat ASAP if you haven’t yet. It’s unbeatable for a spring lunch.

Roasted and glazed Creedy Carver duck with celeriac and fig leaf cooked by Skof chef Tom Barnes (Part of a £200 Eat Well MCR charity dinner event)

Every year, the wonderful Eat Well MCR puts on a mind-blowing charity dinner as part of the Northern Restaurant and Bar Show (NRB) celebrating local and national UK chefs. The lineup gets better and better each year and it’s for a very worthy cause; Eat Well does immense work feeding people suffering from food insecurity in our community. Please check them out.

I am fortunate enough not to be faced with food insecurity and even to be able to sometimes eat for ‘free’ as part of my work. So if I am going to bust out an eye watering wad of cash on a multi-course meal cooked by chefs from Michelin-star restaurants, what better way than to do it while supporting this great charity?

One of the most exciting courses on the menu, even before tasting it, came from Tom Barnes who is poised to open his Manchester restaurant Skof. The lighting at this event was a bit wild (see more of that later in this article) so the picture doesn’t do justice to the perfectly executed plate of soft-pink, crisp-skinned duck breast, silky celeriac purée, and sticky jus dotted with what I *think* was a kind of fig leaf caviar. Let me assure you, it was perfect.

Everyone is talking about Skof. Without a doubt the most anticipated new opening of 2024. This taste of things to come shows it’s going to be everything we’re hoping for.

Maqloba from Baity at Kargo (£16)

Hugely popular Palestinian restaurant Baity had to close in Didsbury recently, which alongside the closure of Greens has left a depressing dent in the dining scene there. Thankfully, the team were scooped up by Salford’s Kargo market and I finally managed to get my arse there in March after months of fruitless good intentions. I’m a massive fan of Middle Eastern food and this Palestinian maqloba (meaning upside down in Arabic) was equal parts comforting and exciting. Fragrant, cinnamon and saffron spiced rice, roasted aubergine and cauliflower, and braised lamb are served as an upside down puck topped with toasted almonds and served with minty laban (yoghurt). I could eat this all day, every day. It’s also a good feeling, however futile it may feel, to be able to support a local Palestinian business during these horrific times. Free Palestine. End the genocide now.

Peach melba from La Chouquette Didsbury (About £3.50)

I’m always saying I’m not really a cake person. Don’t really have a sweet tooth. But when faced with a shiny little number like this winking from the window display at Didsbury’s French patisserie La Chouquette, how could anyone in their right mind resist? Under the peachy dome is soft sponge, raspberries and fresh whipped cream. I downed in in three bites.

Athenian salad with sea bass tartare, served with saffron citrus dressing and Ossetra caviar cooked by Zisis Giannouras from Fenix (Part of a £200 Eat Well MCR charity dinner event)

Back at the Eat Well MCR charity dinner event which was hosted in the Flintstones-does-Dubai setting of one of Manchester’s newest restaurants Fenix. A high end Greek place from the team behind the equally OTT Tattu. I’m not at home in such ostentatious surroundings and I often expect places like this to be a bit fur coat, no knickers on the food front. Well, if this dish is anything to go by, the food at Fenix completely outshines any of that razzle dazzle.

Everyone at the table fell silent when this course arrived. Delicate citrus cured sea bass wrapped up in a dill-scented yoghurt and topped with a mango disc and jet black Ossetra caviar (aka the posh stuff) sounds lovely and all but the sum of these parts made for some kind of witchcraft. A dish I will not forget in a hurry and it has convinced me to get over myself and go back and have a full meal there sometime.

Hamachi and tuna carpaccio, Sushi Marvel (£16.50)

You may have noticed that raw or lightly cooked fish is a favourite of mine and here is another bobby dazzler in that department. Sushi Marvel has bounced around from Chorlton to Ancoats and is now settled on Bridge Street. A street of doom for many food and drink businesses. Take the spot over the road which was Neon Tiger then Juice Box, both of which I had a lot of time for but both closed down within a year. The Sushi Marvel site was previously home to Exclsve - an restaurant designed by investors which was never going to capture hearts tbh. OGs like Cafe Istanbul continue to thrive but new stuff down here, not so much.

So with that in mind, I urge you to check out Sushi Marvel and this dish is a shining example of why. Pretty as a pouting influencer, this sexy fish has substance as well as style. Classic tuna sashimi spoons with its paler but more delicately interesting sea-bling Hamachi (aka Japanese Amberjack) with asparagus and cucumber along for the ride. It’s all drizzled with a sauce made from pumpkin and the unmistakeable twang of yuzu and scattered with black tobiko roe. Marvellous.

A slice of Magic Number pizza from Nell’s, Kampus (£30 for a 22 incher)

I recently had the sheer pleasure of helping to put together a group of Manchester women in wine who plan to meet regularly for tastings. It’s a great chance to spend time with other wine bods to talk about things that our mates/families/partners are sick of hearing about while tasting great wine together. Oh and to hatch plans for bringing down the patriarchy and making men obsolete.

I’m joking ofc… or am I?

Anyway after approximately 10 bottles of chardonnay (and friends) at our inaugural meeting hosted by Anna at The Beeswing in Kampus, we cork dorks needed something to soak up the booze. Nell’s next door was calling. The menu has had a recent revamp so we tried a few of the noobs. My favourite slice was a simple one, the Magic Number featuring vodka sauce, salsa verde, buffalo ricotta cream, basil oil, fresh basil, and ricotta salata as well as the all important mozzarella. A summer stunner.

Bundo chat from Bundobust (£5.95)

I sometimes take Bundobust for granted. I go so often for a pint of something interesting and a few plates of gujarati snackage, always trying whatever is new on the menu alongside some old faves. It’s like a comfy pair of jutti to me now. But I thought I’d give a shout out to one of the dishes I almost always order: Bundo chat.

If you’re not familiar with chat, bundo or otherwise, it’s an Indian street food starm, generally a mix of crunchy stuff, yoghurty stuff and tangy sweet stuff - a combo I find absolutely irresistible. Some say its invention harks back to the days of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who reigned in the mid 1600s, other say its roots go way back to around 500 BC. Either way I’m glad it’s going strong in Manchester in 2024.

Bundo’s version features layers of impossibly crispy fried samosa pastry, chickpeas, diced spuds and onion, and sev (those skinny fried noodles you may know from your Bombay mix), all layered up with cool yoghurt, chilli sauce and tamarind chutney. Show me a better beer snack, I dare ya.

Holy Grain sourdough and cheese custard at Podium (part of a £55 tasting menu)

The opening dish on the tasting menu at Podium could had been invented just for me, so in tune was it with my glutton buttons. A wide bowl of thick, warm, Lancashire cheese custard in which to dip great chunks of Holy Grain sourdough. It’s served with an onion and bay ‘tea’ and, because more fat is always welcome, a generous ramekin of Cheshire butter, marbled with marmite butter. If this had been the entire meal, I wouldn’t have complained. Look out for a full write up of my meal at Podium soon.

(For transparency, I was lucky enough to be invited to eat at Podium on this occasion)