I love the hustle and bustle of Manchester city centre so it takes some good food to make me go down to the university end of town instead not once but twice in a week. And that food came courtesy of Bakchich Lebanese Restaurant.

Down the side of Manchester Met on Chester Street, Bakchich came to my attention last year via an alluring Instagram pic. So off we went and had a thoroughly enjoyable meaty feast. When we went back last week we decided to go easy on the meat and start with a veggie meze platter.

Dippy, tasty, sharing food is pretty much my favourite kind of food. The platter incudes some really good hummus with loads of  tahini, chunky falafel, baba ganoush and tabbouleh which always panders to my ridiculous love of parsley. I will make it my mission to make tabbouleh at home very soon – it just makes me smile. Anyway all of this plus a pile of flatbread and we had only just begun.

For the main event I definitely made the right choice with the gambary meshawi; a pile of red hot grilled king prawns on a bed of Arabic rice. The prawns were really meaty and flavourful and I don’t know what makes Arabic rice so tasty but it was like a drug: even when  I had enough I couldn’t help keep going back for a hit! Prawns served like this are messy but it’s nothing a finger bowl and pile of napkins didn’t fix and I do think they taste better for being cooked on the shell.

Andrew couldn’t resist the meat so he went for  lahma meshawi and was totally impressed with how well these lamb kebabs had been cooked and how tasty the lebanese marinade and grilling made it. He went half bread half rice and frankly it would have fed a football team. 

We were full but there’s always room for a bite of baklava and some mint tea!

Speaking of tea, like many Lebanese joints this place doesn’t serve alcohol. I’m off the booze so was thrilled that the lack of licence meant more interesting drinks choices. I always like the lemonade with rose which is super sweet, but I went for a fresh carrot and orange juice to boost my vitamin intake for the day. 

So that was Tuesday.  By Saturday I was back again for a pre theatre meal with a friend. Her spiced roast potatoes and my Armenian sausage were both generously spiced and, as the stain on my top ascertains, juicy! For mains we had those delicious lamb kebabs again and kasba b’lahma– slow cooked lamb which fell off the bone. Stuffed we had planned to go back for pudding post show, but we were still full over two hours later. Oh well I guess a pudding visit is on the cards very soon!

Thanks to Bakchich Lebanese Restaurant for the Tuesday meal and a special thank you to the lovely manager who was telling us all about the tiles (seriously if you love the hashtag #ihavethisthingwithfloors then you must visit! ) And the artwork. It’s a great value restaurant off the main drag, but if you want fresh sharing food mixed with interesting flavours and food to share then it’s worth the five minute diversion.

Bakchick Lebanese Restaurant– Unit 4 The Quadrangle, Chester Street, Manchester. M1 5QS

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