Food Geek | Food Blog restaurant reviews, recipes & other foodie stuff..

Regular readers will know I’m a massive chilli freak; I put loads of fresh chilli in pretty much everything I cook at home and use chilli powder and cayenne pepper like salt. When i’m out almost everything ‘hot’ isn’t hot enough for me; Nando’s ‘Extra-Hot’ just isn’t and Almost Famous suicide sauce certainly didn’t make me reach for a noose. …

Last Tuesday I had the honour of being the first guest through the door to eat at the newly opened Simon Rogan @ The French restaurant in the Midland Hotel. When I first heard that Simon Rogan was to open a Manchester restaurant I was ecstatic, my trip to L’Enclume a couple of years ago reamins one of my most …

T&Cake is a modern café just outside Huddersfield in the pretty village of Almondbury, West Yorkshire. They serve interesting sandwiches and small snacky dishes along with a huge selection of bespoke teas, coffee and loads of cake. It’s owned and managed by Stephen & Tracy Jackson who gave up running a fine-dining restaurant after 20 years to follow their dream. …

Last Monday one of my favourite Manchester restaurants SoLita launched their new lunch menu, on paper it looked like fantastic value so I paid them a visit to find out. The menu is available on weekdays  and currently contains 11 items priced at £5.95 each as well as Fries (£1.50) and Sweet Potato Fries (£2.50). I’ve no doubt that this will …

I’ve sort of wanted to eat at Almost Famous for a long time, sort of. I was certain that i’d love the food (based on photos, reviews and general reputation) but equally sure that I wouldn’t be able to deal with that whole ‘oh so cool’, ‘hey look at us, we’re so frickin edgy’ attitude. Not to mention the hipsters that eat …

Despite it being the talk of the town for most of 2012 and knowing that i’ll absolutely love the food I am still yet to visit Almost Famous in Manchester for various reasons. I’m not a hipster, I’m not really a fan of queuing for food but mainly because their marketing really annoys me. However, I couldn’t resist visiting ‘Miracle …

I’ve had many a big night out in Liverpool which required a full English breakfast the next morning. Despite being a food geek (obviously) and if i’m honest a bit of a food snob, for some reason it has always been at the same old dodgy greasy spoon which makes the losers cafe on The Apprentice look like The Ritz. …

I love good food but that doesn’t mean i’m obsessed with fine-dining and Michelin stars. I’m just as excited by simple food cooked properly using high quality ingredients. When looking for a place to stop at for lunch somewhere on the route back from Etrop Grange I somehow came across Chorlton Green Brasserie. It only opened in October 2012 but …

I first heard about chef Ernst van Zyl late last summer, the more I read about him and saw his stunning looking food the more I was desperate to go and try it. However, as I had a pretty fully booked end to 2012 I decided to test my willpower and wait until January before paying him a visit. Mrs …

I last visited Italia back in November whilst it was still in it’s ‘soft launch’ period after being rebranded under new management. I had a fantastic time that night with the only disappointment being a lack of interesting desserts, this was understandable as the restaurant had only been open a couple of weeks and the menu was still under development. …

I must confess that despite being a foodie and a bit of a burger snob I am still quite partial to a McDonalds Big Mac. I think the reason is that it’s quite unique thanks to it’s middle layer of bread and particularly Big Mac Sauce, there isn’t really a direct equivalent available from the better burger places. Or at …

It’s no secret that i’m a huge fan of SoLita in Manchesters’ still growing Northern Quarter. As I love trying new places I often don’t get back to a restaurant very often, even if i’ve had a great time there but SoLita is the one place that I just can’t resist returning to again and again despite having already eaten …

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 …

* Click here to view the 2013 Food Geek Awards (03/01/2014) * I didn’t make a ‘Best Of’ post last year as I wasn’t really taking the blog seriously enough back then. Also, I think it would have been dominated by my trips to L’Enclume & Noma anyway. This year I was certain I wanted to do something but as …

As I admitted in the review of my last visit to Jamie’s Italian i’m a huge Jamie Oliver fan. I buy all his books, watch all of his shows and have had some great times in his various restaurants including Jamie’s Italian Manchester shortly after it opened. Unfortunately, this Christmas Eve I was reminded that Jamie’s Italian isn’t really a …