Food ✪✪✪✪✪✪ Ambience ✪✪✪✪✪
Service ✪✪✪✪
18-22 Bridge Street
Spinningfields
Manchester
M3 3BZ
0161 835 2557
www.manchesterhouse.uk.com
I was determined to write this review of Manchester House without mentioning the “M” word. However, they said it first.
“Yeah, this place is a one-off; Tim Bacon opened it up specifically to try and get the star,” said our waiter, just as we were settling down at our vast four top.
Tim, the owner of this and several other leading Manchester restaurants, died of cancer just a few weeks before my visit.
The star which he craved is, of course, the one that a certain French tyre company hands out to restaurants serving food considered to represent “very good cooking in its category”.
The contrast between those six prosaically unimpressive words, and the drastic effect they can have on the lives of chefs and restaurateurs is stark. The Michelin star is, to some, the ultimate goal.
Since Manchester House opened in 2013, two editions of the little red book have been published, and neither included that all-important symbol alongside the description of Manchester House. So what? Well, so more fool the Michelin Guide’s inspectors, at least on the evidence of our lunch.
