Barbecue

If there’s one thing that Manchester’s missing, it’s good barbeque food. Sure there’s Red’s; I was a fan from the start but they seem more concerned with getting sauces into supermarkets and brewing their own (mediocre) beer these days. Then came ‘Smokehouse’ or ‘Manchester Smokehouse’ as it’s officially known. Headed up by Jason Latham, a chef who not only knows his way around …

It’s all change at Splendid since my visit last year. Firstly, they’ve changed their name from Splendid Sausage Co to Splendid Kitchen, presumably because they ended up selling a whole lot more than just sausages. More recently they’ve begun a series of ‘Kitchen Takeovers’ on Monday nights, which have seen prominent Manchester street food vendors serve their own food for one night only. …

If you’ve been to any new restaurant, event or craft beer shop in Manchester this year you can’t have missed the influx of beers from Hawaiian brewery Kona. Although I must admit to getting a little bored of seeing them absolutely everywhere, I do enjoy most of them. So when I was invited to Northern Quarter rib joint Cane & …

There seems to be a new restaurant opening every week in Manchester at the moment. Some are more exciting than others of course but one that caught my attention recently was ‘Cane & Grain’. They promised to bring ‘Rum, Ribs, Bourbon & Beer’ to the Northern Quarter, as a fan of all four I was naturally excited. Last week I was …

It’s ever so slightly awkward turning up to an event to find it’s hosted by a man who threatened and upset your friends just days earlier, simply for asking a question. It happened when I was invited to a ‘Suckling Pig Banquet’ at Red’s True Barbecue by Manchester Confidential and arrived to find ManCon’s infamous founder ‘Gordo’, aka Mark Garner at …

Meat fans of Manchester rejoice, something special is happening. Red’s True Barbecue, much loved across the Pennines in Leeds have arrived and they’ve brought meat, lots of meat. I’d been eagerly anticipating their arrival since hearing they were to take over the old Livebait site on Lloyd Street, Albert Square. The official opening is this Thursday (13th February) but I …

Last Thursday was one of my best days as a food blogger, though looking back feels slightly surreal. I started with a fabulous preview lunch at Aiden Byrne’s new fine-dining, Michelin star chasing restaurant ‘Manchester House‘ and ended up slightly worse for wear stealing pulled pork and pickles from a prolific food blogger. Sandwiched in-between was the launch party of …

I’d been looking forward to visiting Barbecoa for months. I love southern USA style BBQ food, the menu online seemed like a posh Southern Eleven, one of my favourite Manchester restaurants. I also love Jamie Oliver and Barbecoa is his collaboration with American BBQ expert Adam Perry Lang so I had extremely high expectations. We arrived on a very wet London afternoon and were …