Grill

I’m a bit of a sucker for tradition, especially at Christmas. Only good ones though, usually involving food, not rubbish stuff like the John Lewis ad. After having the Solita Christmas burger for the past four years I definitely consider it one of them. After deciding to eat at Solita the next job is picking which one. With four to choose from it’s not …

It’s been over three months since I intended to get this ‘First Look’ of Solita Preston published. They’re pretty fast movers so there’s every chance a new Solita has popped up to join it since. (As it happens, there haven’t been any more openings but they have announced a couple of new ventures. More on that later). Solita Preston is …

It’s no secret that I’m a big Solita fan, I have been right from the start when they had just one burger on the menu (it’s true, honestly!) Back then they were just a small Northern Quarter grill restaurant but over the last couple of years they’ve gone from strength to strength. And restaurant to restaurant. Last year saw the …

With so many new restaurants opening in Manchester these days it’s hard even for somebody as obsessed as me to keep up with them all, never mind be excited by most of them. One that I had been looking forward to for a long time though is ‘Burger & Lobster’. I really enjoyed visiting their first London restaurant three years ago …

It’s well known that Solita is one of my favourite restaurants; besides the great food it’s the fact that they never stop changing and improving that I love most. Blink and you might miss an amazing special, don’t return for a few months and you’re likely to find a completely refreshed menu next time. It wasn’t even six months ago …

If you’d told me in the late 90’s that I’d be making regular trips to bowling alleys in 15 years time, I wouldn’t have believed you for a second. I wasn’t very good at bowling admittedly but mainly because of the types of places we had available back then. You know those bright, garish mainstream chains – usually on retail parks – full …

Long time readers will know I’m a huge fan of Northern Quarter restaurant Solita, having visited many, many times in the two years since they opened, including around 25 times in 2013 alone! For the good of my health I’ve cut back significantly this year but was still incredibly excited to hear about their plans to open a second restaurant …

Having enjoyed my first visit to Gorilla last year I’ve been meaning to return for ages, before a recent gig at the Academy I did just that. Located under the arches near Oxford Road station it’s shiny and loud inside, it was busy too but we managed to grab the last free table. As if trying to get rid of …

Last Wednesday I attended the launch of ‘Chalk Bar and Grill’ the latest addition to Didsbury’s ever growing dining scene. I didn’t actually intend on blogging about it, and this certainly isn’t a ‘review’ since all I ate were canapés. But since I enjoyed them so much and was impressed with the place in general I thought i’d share my photos …

It’s hard to believe now but when popular Northern Quarter restaurant SoLITA opened in the summer of 2012 there was actually only one burger on the menu. As their popularity grew so did the number of burgers on both the main menu and regularly updated specials board. Although I’ve enjoyed many of them over the past 18 months, I was pleased to see the new …

The Lowry Hotel is rightly regarded as the best in Manchester but its restaurant hasn’t always had the same reputation. Marco Pierre White failed with ‘The River Room’ almost 10 years ago while it’s replacement, ‘The River Restaurant’ was apparently excellent between 2006 – 2010 but has had mixed reviews in recent years. It’s those reviews that had stopped me visiting previously but when I heard the restaurant was …

Forget the John Lewis ad (or Coca-Cola if you’re feeling retro) it’s not Christmas for me until i’ve had the SoLita Christmas burger. OK, so it’s only the second year of this particular tradition but I hope it will continue and become as regular as the others. Last years was pretty spectacular but somehow they managed to top it with …

It’s no secret that i’m a huge fan of SoLita in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. As somebody who loves to try new places there aren’t many restaurants I revisit regularly but thanks to Foursquare I know I’ve been to SoLita at least 21 times so far this year. Possibly bordering on obsessive? For fear of boring you all to death and …

As I confessed after visiting Dog Bowl in May, I’m not the biggest fan of bowling, though admittedly this is mainly because i’m not very good at it. I only went to Dog Bowl because I was invited but I actually chose to eat at Manchester’s other ’boutique’ bowling alley ‘All Star Lanes’. Located in The Great Northern on Deansgate it’s …

You’ve probably noticed that I don’t need much of an excuse to visit SoLita. I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time there recently so after my last visit self-imposed a ban in the hope of maybe fitting into my holiday clothes in a couple of weeks. I lasted 13 days. Actually impressive by recent standards and the ban wasn’t broken …