Pub

I always loved Christmas as a child and it’s not changed much as i’ve grown up, although the reasons have. These days I prefer giving presents to receiving them but the bit I love the most is the food. I adore everything about Christmas food; turkey, pigs in blankets, Christmas spices, eggnog, chestnuts, cranberries etc and yes, even sprouts. So …

I’ve always liked The Blue Pig pub in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, as a pub anyway. Having enjoyed many drinks there from the impressive cocktail menu to the small but excellent selection of local cask ales. For some reason i’d never eaten there though until last week when I was invited to try the new menu. Other than the plastic plants …

I loved my first Gastroclub experience at the Mark Addy in June where it returned from a year long break. I’d planned on attending more events but for various reasons hadn’t made it to any since. So when I heard about the return to the Mark Addy for the Gastroclub Christmas dinner I jumped at the chance and snapped up …

It’s no secret that i’m quite partial to a burger, well good ones anyway. I’ve eaten many this year but one of my favourites is the ‘Peri Peri Chicken Topped Cheeseburger’ from my last visit to The Farmers Arms in Bolton. Since then they’ve launched a full burger menu with some fine looking creations which i’d been looking forward to trying. …

Given how far I travel to eat I was genuinely excited when I realised the winner of ‘Food Pub Of The Year’ at the Manchester Food & Drink Festival awards is just 15 minutes down the road. The Shoulder Of Mutton is located in Holcombe, a tiny village just outside Ramsbottom. From the outside it looks like a good, old …

The last time I visited The Beagle in Chorlton was for the launch of their collaboration with street food collective Guerrilla Eats. In a bold move the pub stopped serving food from their own kitchen and instead relied on various street food vendors to serve their hungry drinkers. That arrangement ended recently but one of those street food vendors, ‘Margo …

Despite having eaten 12+ courses at Manchester House on Friday night and rather a lot at a fabulous supper club on Saturday I woke up on Sunday thinking about food. Specifically about The Farmers Arms. Since visiting 3 times in the first couple of weeks after opening it had been a while since I’d last been and i’d seen and …

I recently made Stosie Madi, head chef of the Parkers Arms blush when I said her ‘Good Friday Fish Fest‘ was one of the highlights of my year. It’s true though, despite eating out around 50 times since, including several fine-dining restaurants – some with 2 Michelin stars – Stosie’s food is still some of the most memorable. Being the …

Despite officially reopening a few weeks ago last Saturday saw the launch party of The Farmers Arms in Bolton. It was a lovely sunny day so I headed down to see what was going on. Arriving to find Chef Jon Jones standing behind a magnificent looking whole hog which had been roasting for over 10 hours and smelt absolutely divine. …

Good food is unfortunately hard to come by in Bolton, there’s a great Thai place, Nam Ploy and a couple of decent restaurants in Horwich but other than that it’s sadly lacking. So I was very happy to hear about the reopening of The Farmers Arms in Little Lever by chef Jon Jones, a Masterchef: The Professionals quarter finalist who has …

TheGastroClub is a group of Manchester food lovers started by Katie Brunt in 2010. I followed it’s progress closely during the early months, almost joining on many occasions. Although i’d often already eaten at the places they visited I love that they ask the restaurants and chefs to offer menus which aren’t available to the general public and containing innovative …

I’m pretty sure that I don’t actually have OCD and probably shouldn’t joke about it as I realise it’s a serious illness. I do have some slight ‘OCD like’ tendencies though such as needing to keep things organised, I’ve spent many hours arranging DVD and CD collections into the ‘right’ order and the same applies to the reviews on this …

I was recently invited to the Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester to sample their relaunched ‘Legendary Burger’ menu. I generally turn down similar offers for a variety of reasons but mainly because they’re often not places i’m interested in visiting. However, as a bit of a burger connoisseur and a fan of rock music I thought it would be an interesting opportunity …

I have a long and ever-growing list of places I want to visit, one that’s been hovering around the top for a while is The Parkers Arms in the Ribble Valley near Clitheroe. I know the area well having visited Nigel Haworth’s country pub ‘The Three Fishes’ in the nearby village of Mitton many times. The Parkers Arms reputation has been …

Last Friday I took a wrong turn on the way to a restaurant and stumbled upon The Nightingale. Rather than turn around and look for the orignal restaurant I decided to give The Nightingale a try. I’m really not sure why as I knew absolutely nothing about it and from the outside it looked like an average pub. It was just a …