Princess Street, Manchester
24 Bar and Grill is a modern,
stylish and sophisticated restaurant and cocktail bar beneath Princess Street
Hotel. The restaurant belongs to the boutique hotel but is open to the public
seven days a week and its central location and stunning interior makes it ideal
for cocktails, pre-theatre dining or a leisurely lunch.
The emphasis is placed firmly
on British cuisine, with many classic dishes being given a contemporary
makeover.
I stumbled across the
restaurant purely by chance, thanks to an offer on my ‘itison’ app that was too
good to turn down. Two of us were able to enjoy two courses and a glass of
house wine (or soft drink) for £22 – such staggeringly good value, it was
almost too good to be true.
The choice of courses was down
to you: either a starter and a main course or a main course and a dessert. For
all three, you simply had to stump up an additional £4. How could you say no?
We visited 24 Bar and Grill on
what was the hottest day of the year. The temperature outside was a sweltering
29°C,
so the beautifully cool, air-conditioned interior was the perfect place to
spend the afternoon. The restaurant was blissfully quiet, with only a couple of
other tables also seemingly taking advantage of the bonkers deal and a group of
ladies on a hen party having afternoon tea. The staff were friendly, welcoming
and attentive, explaining to us exactly what we could have as part of our deal.
The décor is very plush, with marbled
floors, swanky booths and mood lighting. Opposite the restaurant is a frosted
glass-fronted bar with large, rectangular booth seating, ideal for cocktail
parties.
The choice of dishes comes
from a limited menu which changes seasonally. There are three options for each
course; hardly overwhelming, but a decent choice all the same. For starters, I
had a salad of slow cooked chicken with sweetcorn, radish, avocado and quinoa
tossed in herb olive. It was a light, tasty and healthy salad, perfect for a
hot summer’s day. The green, leafy salad was beautifully dressed and perfectly
balanced in flavour, with lots of quinoa for texture. I’d never eaten quinoa
before and, being honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. It didn’t seem
to have much flavour but it added texture and depth to the salad bowl.
For main course, I had fillet
of haddock with beetroot gnocchi, tomato and grilled courgette. The haddock
fillet was beautifully cooked, falling apart between your knife and fork. It
was nestled on top of a bed of bright red gnocchi. Gnocchi can often be chewy
and slimy, but this was neither. On paper, it’s a combination that you wouldn’t
expect to work, but actually the fish and gnocchi complemented each other very
well.
The portions are small, but
there are a range of side dishes which can be added for between £3.50 and
£4.50, including chunky chips, sweet potato fries or baked potatoes. As we were
going for three courses, we decided not to bother.
 |
| Salad of Slow Cooked Chicken |
 |
| Fillet of Haddock with Beetroot Gnocchi |
As part of the ‘itison’ deal,
we could add a dessert onto our meal from the summer set menu for an additional
£4 – how could we possibly say no? It makes a change to have three good
desserts on a set menu; normally, you’re stuck with a choice of tiramisu or a
selection of ice cream. There was sticky toffee pudding, vanilla panna cotta
with biscoff or strawberry pavlova with white chocolate shavings. Out of
curiosity, I couldn’t help but sneak a peak at the a la carte dessert menu.
They have a fine selection of puddings encapsulating the best of British, and
they’re all £6.
The lure of one dessert in
particular proved too hard to resist, so I had to step off the set menu and go
for the raspberry cheesecake. Cheesecake is my all-time favourite dessert. I’ve
eaten so many of them that I often find myself being a little picky. This was
an exceptionally good cheesecake, made so by the thick, crunchy biscuit base.
The cheesecake itself was creamy but well set and topped with pistachios for
added crunch. It was served with a scoop of white chocolate ice cream.
Raspberry and white chocolate is the ultimate summer combination; the two
flavours are a match made in foodie heaven. I’m not a fan of normal chocolate
ice cream, but this white chocolate version, with shavings of frozen white
chocolate, was a real treat.
 |
| Sticky Toffee Pudding |
 |
| Raspberry Cheesecake |
I look forward to returning to
Princess Street Hotel for an afternoon tea later in the year.
The a la carte, seasonal menus
and cocktail menus are all available to view online: http://www.24barandgrill.net/
No comments:
Post a Comment