Sunday Lunch at The Vine Brasserie

Bury New Road, Whitefield

Twelve months ago, The Vine Brasserie opened its doors for the first time, bringing a unique blend of fine dining and Mediterranean cuisine to Whitefield.

I wrote favourably about this gorgeous place last November, before the official launch had even taken place. I loved everything about The Vine, its atmosphere and its food. I don’t know why it took me so long to return. Life, as they say, simply got in the way.

Since I made my dining debut at The Vine last year, they’ve undergone several menu changes, as is often the case with high-end fine dining. They cook with fresh, local, seasonal produce and the periodic menu changes reflect that. However, it seems the website hasn’t been updated for quite some time, so we were aghast to be presented with a Sunday Lunch menu upon arrival; a wide-ranging set menu which offers up one course for £13, two £18 or three for £23.

The choices change each week. As the very helpful waiting staff explained to us, a handful of starters, main courses and desserts are selected from the larger, a la carte menu and expertly crafted into this sensational Sunday special. The main course includes the option of a roast dinner, with a choice of meats.

To start, I had King Prawns nestled on a bed of orzo pasta in a tomato ragu. The prawns, complete with all their shells, tails and tentacles, were a little intimidating but I didn’t let that put me off. There were three giant, juicy prawns and a generous portion of pasta. For a starter, it was mightily impressive. Doubled in size, it would easily have been satisfying enough to pass for a main course.

King Prawns on Orzo Pasta with Tomato Ragu

For the main event, it had to be a roast. Despite preferring white meat to red, chicken is generally the run-of-the-mill meat we eat at home on a weekly basis, so instead I opted for beef. I was presented with five thinly sliced pieces of beef, layered over all the trimmings. The beef was perfectly cooked, still slightly pink and topped with a gargantuan Yorkshire pudding, crispy to the touch but light and fluffy inside.

Excited to get stuck in, I peeled back the layers of beef to reveal three roast crisp, golden roast potatoes, creamy, herb-infused mashed potatoes, Chantenay carrots and buttered greens, all drizzled in red wine gravy. It was, frankly, sensational; one of the finest roast dinners I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating.

Roast Beef Dinner

The stars of the show are always the meat and potatoes. In this production, they deserve their own curtain call. It was lacking on the gravy – I personally like my plate to be drowning – but I asked for some more and they were happy to oblige.

Unless you’re a vegetarian, please do yourself a favour and don’t go for anything other than the roast dinner for your main course.

I’m a firm believer in cleaning my plate, forever failing to understand people who leave so much of a scrap of potato or a drizzle of gravy. However, these humongous roast dinners are not for the faint hearted and will satisfy those with the biggest of appetites.  

Desserts often let down a set menu: ice cream and tiramisu are generally the two staples. That’s not the case here. There was fine selection of proper puddings, including crumble, sticky toffee pudding, chocolate brownie and lemon posset.

I had the apple and cinnamon crumble. It was a bowlful of chunky apples topped with an abundant layer of crunchy crumble and wasn’t so hot that it tore a strip of the roof of your mouth. Topped with vanilla ice cream, which softened the biscuits and oats as it melted over the top, it was the perfect end to a perfect meal.

Apple and Cinnamon Crumble

Admittedly, I couldn’t help but get a little bit of food envy over my friend’s sticky toffee pudding: a hefty cube of toffee sponge topped with salted caramel ice cream.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I was so thoroughly impressed with The Vine’s Sunday offering that I rushed back the following week to enjoy another spectacular Sunday Roast. My starter this time was the orzo pasta again, but this topped with two beef croquettes and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Delicious but very filling and, sadly, it meant that by the time I’d finished my main, I couldn’t quite muster up the strength to face the sticky toffee pudding.

Round two: Beef Croquettes with Orzo Pasta

So here’s to the next time.