Slattery

Bury New Road, Whitefield, Manchester

Hello. My name is Matthew and I’m a chocoholic. Not only that, but I’m a proud chocoholic.

I’m lucky enough to live within walking distance of a chocoholic’s paradise. Slattery’s, ‘that wicked shop in Whitefield’, is one of the North West’s most popular chocolate and cake shops. It’s a real life Willy Wonka chocolate factory, a saccharine emporium full of coco creations as well as cakes and bread, all freshly baked on the premises.

Upstairs is The Masons Dining Room, named after the public house which frequented the building before Slattery’s moved in, relocating from its former home across the road in 2004.  

The ‘world famous’ Masons Dining Room has become my second home. It’s hands-down my favourite local lunch haunt. Reservations are absolutely essential, with Saturdays booked up months in advance. Generally, I book four to six months in advance. Yes, really! Never fear, though, if you do happen to fancy dropping in, they promise that you are guaranteed a table…eventually. They reserve a certain number specifically for walk-ins, so it’s a case of turn up and hope you get lucky. Only on one occasion have I called in without booking. It was a Saturday lunch time, there were two of us and we had to wait 40 minutes. You can easily pass the time wandering around the shop downstairs, so it could have been far worse.

So what is it about Slattery’s and The Masons that makes it so special? Well, a good magician never reveals his secrets and that’s certainly the case for John Slattery et al. They have that hidden quality, that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ which sets them apart from the rest.

When you ascend the staircase from the shop to the dining room, you’re greeted by the dulcet tones of a grand piano, which takes centre stage in the centre of the opulent restaurant. The ivories tinkle themselves. As a kid, I remember being fascinated, watching the keys dancing. The walls and chairs are all adorned in Slattery’s signature milk chocolate brown colour: simple but sophisticated décor.

The menu is really rather simple. Breakfast is served until 11:30am, with everything from a Full English to cheesy crumpets. For lunch, there are hot and cold sandwiches, soups, salads and jacket potatoes.

On my last visit, I had the BBQ Chicken Ciabatta: delicious southern fried chicken with lettuce, beef tomatoes, cheese and smothered in tangy BBQ sauce. The chicken was succulent and tender and their homemade ciabatta was soft. Beautifully presented, it was accompanied by a colourful side salad and a little bowl of homemade spiced potato wedges. I would strongly recommend requesting some mayonnaise for your wedges. Their homemade mayo has a hint of lemon and is absolutely delicious. 

BBQ Chicken Ciabatta

I also sampled my friend’s Hot Beef Dip: a ciabatta with beef, melted gruyere cheese and onions, with a pot of gravy for dipping.

Hot Beef Dip

Make sure you judge your own appetite accordingly, because saving room for dessert is absolutely necessary, nay, essential. I have, in the past, witnessed people having their lunch and then leaving, which, frankly, should be illegal. For Slattery’s is all about the sweet stuff.

There’s a dessert menu as well as a selection of freshly made cakes. At this point, allow me to dispense some advice. The majority of the cakes found in the cake dome – a magnificent display in the corner of the dining room with a rising glass case – can be purchased downstairs in the shop at a cheaper price, so grab a couple to take home with you and use your opportunity in the dining room to indulge a little further.

Far and away, the best desserts on the menu are the Wicked Chocolate Sampler and Mrs Slattery’s Cake Sampler. Think of these as a show reel of Slattery’s greatest hits. They each consist of four bite-sized treats. Order them both, divide everything in half and you’ve got the best of all worlds. It’s sheer perfection.

The Wicked Chocolate Sampler consists of a chocolate orange brownie, a millionaire’s slice, a miniature chocolate sponge coated in Slattery’s signature milk chocolate and a white chocolate chip shortbread, half-dipped in white chocolate. These are accompanied by two edible chocolate pots: one filled with molten chocolate, in your choice of milk, white or dark, the other with fresh whipped cream. Another little tip: if you don’t like cream, or just want more chocolate, ask for it without, and they’ll happily double up on the chocolate instead.

Mrs Slattery’s Cake Sampler is my favourite thing in the entire world. There’s a square of fruit cake, Bakewell tart topped with almonds, lemon drizzle cake with lemon icing and carrot cake. You don’t get a choice as to the cakes you’re given, but luckily for me this will never be a problem, as these are four of my favourites! There’s no molten chocolate on this one, as standard. You get a larger chocolate pot filled with lashings of whipped cream, topped with strawberries. Generally, I ask for chocolate instead of cream and they’re always happy to oblige. 

Mrs Slattery's Cake Sampler and the Wicked Chocolate Sampler

Polish them off and you’ll be in sugar heaven, the happiest place on Earth. At £6.95 each, they’re superb value for money, as a slice of cake will set you back £3.95. Any you can’t quite manage, they’ll bring boxes for you to take them home. If you’ve got any liquid chocolate left, it’s worth letting it solidify to eat later in the day. Make a brew and let the chocolate pots melt in your mouth.

I have to say, I’ve never quite reached this stage. When there’s a plate of cakes and chocolate in front of me, I’ve simply got to hoover up the whole lot.

Make sure you finish off your Slattery’s experience with a wander round the shop. I can guarantee you won’t be able to leave without picking up one or two chocolatey treats to see you on your own way. The only problem is you won’t be able to choose.

Whether it’s breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea or simple coffee and cake, Slattery’s is a dining experience not to be missed. Get checking your diary though, as you’ll need to book way ahead to avoid disappointment.

Sunday Lunch at Nutter's Restaurant

Edenfield Road, Norden, Rochdale, OL12 7TT

Nutter’s Restaurant, the family-run business with a huge local reputation, pride themselves on creating a unique, fine-dining experience. We visited the old manor house, tucked away in its own six-and-a-half acres of countryside, for Sunday Lunch this weekend. It was certainly unique and it was certainly an experience. 

Nutter's Restaurant

Back in December 2016, my Mum arranged a surprise meal for my 21^st birthday at Nutter’s. We had the Gourmet Menu – six courses of pure decadence. It was a foodie’s dream. I returned the following year, when I treated my Mum to afternoon tea. This was another stunning treat. Pure sophistication, as traditional as an afternoon tea could be.

Their Sunday Lunch came highly recommended. After our two previous experiences, I had no reason to believe it would be anything other than spectacular. As a family, we’d been looking forward to our Sunday Lunch trip since we first began planning it several months ago.  Sadly, it didn’t live up to our expectations. 

 The set-price Sunday menu is £28 per person for three courses plus coffee and petit fours, with the menu changing weekly. There are four options for each course, so there’s an adequate choice, although on this particular Sunday, both lamb and beef were on offer, meaning there was no white meat alternative, and the choice of desserts was rather poor.

Upon arrival, as a party of five, we were squashed onto a table for four, with an additional chair shoved on the end. After twenty five minutes, I had to leave the table and go to the bar to ask somebody to come and take our order. The manager came over and we finally ordered, before embarking on the first of several long waits.

Before the starters, we were served some bread: a white bread roll and caramelised onion sourdough. Both were warm and freshly baked. Deliciously enjoyable, but they could have arrived a lot sooner so we could have been nibbling whilst we were perusing the menu and waiting for our order to be taken. There aren’t very many places where you’re given bread rolls before the meal these days, so this is a welcome and traditional touch. With so much stigma attached to consuming bread, you forget just how enjoyable bread and butter can be. 

To start, I had wild mushroom and buffalo mozzarella arancini with vine tomato chutney. It was beautifully presented and deliciously tasty. The wild mushrooms and tomato chutney made a bed for the arancini to be nestle on. The tomato chutney was tangy and extremely flavoursome. It was beautifully presented and generously portioned, which was just as well, as I was absolutely starving, having waited over half an hour for it to arrive. 

Wild Mushroom and Buffalo Mozzarella Arancini

For main course, I opted for the traditional roast sirloin of limousine beef. I’m not a massive red meat eater, so I was disappointed that there was no white meat alternative. Two thick slices of nicely cooked meat, slightly pink but exactly the right texture, came served with two large Yorkshire puddings, goose fat roast potatoes, vegetables and red wine gravy. The Yorkshire puddings were excellent: crispy on the outside but very light and fluffy inside. The roast potatoes were tasty but small and no nicer than we cook at home ourselves. The vegetables, mainly carrots and green beans, were crunchy, which is how I like my veg cooked, but they were very stingy with the portion. There was barely even a spoonful on the plate, hidden away under the meat. 

Roast Sirloin of Limousine Beef

I had to ask for some additional gravy, as the Yorkshire puddings were barely drizzled. I made a point of telling the waitress that nobody had bothered to ask us if we’d like any horseradish or the like to accompany our roast beef. She simply smiled and said, ‘okay’, clearly not understanding the problem. Nobody bothered to ask us if the food was okay, either.

By the time we started eating our main courses, we’d been seated for nearly two hours.

By the time we got to dessert, it was going dark, and they weren’t even worth waiting for. The choice was pretty naff. There was a chocolate mousse with mint cream, rum and raisin bread and butter pudding, blood orange panna cotta or a cheese board. I opted for the bread and butter pudding, but only because it was the best of a bad bunch.

I enjoyed it more than I expected. It wasn’t overly stodgy and much more moist than I expected, packed full of dried fruit. Topped with whisky ice cream and swimming in crème anglais, it was enjoyable but I think the pudding itself could have done with being warmer. 

Rum and Raisin Bread and Butter Pudding

One of the desserts appeared to go missing, with only four of them turning up. I had to chase up the fifth one on behalf of my Grandma. By the time it eventually arrived, with no apology, the rest of us had almost finished ours.

We didn’t bother hanging around for the coffee and petit fours, as we didn’t have the time nor the inclination. I returned to the bar (as there were still no sign of any interested staff) to ask for the bill and request our petit fours to take away.

The bill arrived with half a dozen additional drinks on it which we hadn’t had. By this point, I was convinced they were having a laugh at our expense. When I queried this, trying my best to remain calm, the lady behind the bar smiled and said, ‘Oh don’t worry, I’ll remove them for you’, as though she was doing me a favour in removing drinks that weren’t mine. They then had the audacity to add a 10% service charge onto the bill, despite the fact that we’d spent the whole afternoon complaining about the poor quality of the service.

What should have been a very special Sunday treat was completely ruined by the slow service and the complete lack of attentiveness from the staff. When I summarised our disappointments to the manager before we left, he couldn’t have appeared less interested.

‘We’ve never had any complaints before’, he proclaimed. Clearly, they’ve become rather complacent. If you’ve got a problem, it seems, you’re the problem. Whatever happened to the old adage ‘the customer is always right’?

I won’t be returning to Nutter’s again. What should have been a very special Sunday treat was completely ruined by the appalling service.