WORDS
MARK SMITH, RUTH ALLEN
PHOTO
JEROEN NIEZEN
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The French
Manchester
|
British
| £
55
a radical shake-up
at Manchester’s
famous French restaurant has seen foie
gras and baroque furnishings make way
for fresh, foraged fare and hand-carved
tables as part of a takeover by two-
Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan.
Ox tartare accompanied by a flower and
brassica salad, sourced from the hotel’s
own roof garden, is typical fare, while a
seaside fantasy of razor-clam sashimi
(
served with perfectly scrambled eggs) is
so fresh that you almost expect a flock of
seagulls to join you at your table.
One of only two chefs in the UK to
secure a perfect 10 out of 10 in the
Good
Food Guide
for his cooking at L’Enclume
in the Lake District, Rogan is likely to
delve further into Manchester’s culinary
history for inspiration over the coming
months. Dinner starts at £55 for six
courses, lunch from around £30 at this
landmark restaurant, and there’s a great
wine list to explore, too.
The Midland Hotel, Peter Street,
Manchester; tel: +44 (0)161 236 3333,
the-french.co.uk
Izakaya
Amsterdam
|
Fusion
|
€65
east meets west is a
snoreworthy cliché, but it couldn’t be
more pertinent at this new neighbourhood Japanese.
Izakaya’s head chef, Hariprasad Shetty, may have been
poached – from London’s Nobu Old Park Lane – but his
menu of playful dishes are not. In the open kitchen, his chefs
work over a
robata
(
charcoal grill) and
hibachi
(
dinky hotplate)
to conjure flavours as wantonly frisky as the ladies working
around the corner.
Part of the swish Sir Albert Hotel, Izakaya is the
westernmost eatery on the Albert Cuypstraat, a street
known as ‘the kitchen of Amsterdam’, for its gauntlet of
fragrant market stalls from all over the culinary atlas. Despite
stiff competition for the city’s salivary glands, it thrills with
every dish. Sliced, pinkish, braised pork with cubes of zingy
apple and unctuous foie gras is less Henry VIII than it sounds.
Crispy rice with spicy tuna tartare harbours an addictive,
otherworldly tang. Even the palate-cleansing dish – a
generous ceviche of variegated tomatoes – is a festival of
fresh flavour. East meets best, more like.
2-6
Albert Cuypstraat; tel: +31 20 305 3090,
izakaya-amsterdam.com
R E S T A U R A N T
R E V I E W S
The crispy rice with spicy tuna tartare harbours
an addictive, otherworldly tang
V I E W P O I N T S
