14 (ish) course taster menu from Aiden Byrne
I wasn’t sure whether to post this because it was back in May and I have lost the menu so can’t remember what all of the dishes were. But in the end I decided that it was eye-candy enough to just post the pics anyway and let you see for yourselves. 
One of the first courses: a seaweed cracker with pickled mushrooms and fish. Those mushrooms were little flavour bombs.
Ok, bad pic, but the crispy chicken skin was also a winner.
Gold rush apples with apple scented dry ice. That was pretty weird but also a tasty palette cleanser and served with apple liqueur which I had a teeny sip of and was delicious.
Goats cheese (Ribblesdale, really, really good) and onion soup. The pure essence of cheese. Standout.
The interior was an eclectic mix of ‘industrial chic’. Some worked, some was just weird.
The loos were gorgeous though – like a spa!
That was a really tasty bit of pigeon top right.
Beef cheek. Meltingly soft.
Manchester Tart ice cream. Not a huge Manchester tart fan so this was a hard sell for me, but it was ok. And if I remember correctly this also came with scented dry ice – this time it smelled like foam banana sweets!
My favourite dessert – the goats cheese donut! Yup, you read that right people. The same cheese which was in the soup.
Chocolate and coffee. Too much coffee for me I’m afraid.
We didn’t actually get fourteen courses! When we got home and recounted what we’d had, we only had thirteen. We think that because we said no thanks to coffees that we maybe missed out on petit fours, but that is annoying because if they were part of the meal we should have been offered them to take home. It’s the little touches like that which make a difference.
Andrew had the paired wine with each course and the sommelier was brilliant – explaining each wine and why is had been chosen. He even gave me some apple liqueur to sip with the apple course as he said it really added to the experience. They also had great non alcoholic options which weren’t over sweet or over priced as it the case in many places.
It was an interesting meal and all in all I would say it was very good, but it didn’t blow my socks off. Maybe four of the courses were really special but when I compare that to my meal at The French when it first opened, every course was special.
Three days after this we had this amazing meal at Iberica in Manchester. Now that really did blow my socks off, and we are still talking about it two months on. The two chefs that night had seven Michelin stars between them and it really did show.
Would I go to Manchester House again? For sure I’d go a la carte and I deffo want to try the afternoon tea which looks fabulous, but I don’t think I need to go back for the taster menu again.
Manchester House. Bridge Street, Manchester. M3 3BZ
