Northern Soul is the UK's first gourmet grilled cheese restaurant, and sits in a shack of small shops near the Arndale, in the trendy Northern Quarter of Manchester City Centre.

The place genuinely makes you smile as soon as you approach and hear the music playing, and people inside chatting, laughing, and the staff themselves smiling and laughing too. They've embraced the casual rough-and-ready style, with chunky wooden furniture and exposed roofing, and bar seating giving full view into the kitchen, giving the place the feeling of a classic American diner, but with a modern twist.


The clever way this place is set up means that as well as bar seating and "booth" or table seating, there's also seating allowing you to sit outside and face inside, or inside and face out, to watch the world go by, and on a summer's day like today, the open feel of the place gives it a pleasant and happy vibe.



We took a seat at the bar, and were asked if we'd visited before, which we haven't. We were told to check out the main menu chalkboard, and when ready, simply order at the main till, give our name, and wait for our food to come out. The menu is hugely appealing, with simple "cheese toastie" style offerings such as "The Soul", to full meal sounding offerings such as Tandoori Chicken, as well as sides and soups, and nothing costing more than £6.50, which is very pleasant indeed. There was also a separate drinks prep area with a blackboard offering teas, coffees, and hand made loaded milkshakes.



We decided that we both fancied the Ham & Swiss, and ordered at the till, where it was nice to see that despite the place looking simple and rustic, we were able to pay by card. Drinks-wise I went for a pomegranate San Pellegrino, and my partner went for a Cookies and Cream milkshake, which at £5 seems a little pricey compared to the rest of the menu, but was very good quality, and thoroughly enjoyed.


It was satisfying to be able to sit at the bar and watch the kitchen team in their black and yellow aprons preparing our sandwiches, and using heavy presses to keep them pressed down onto the cooking surface to cook to perfection. This made me feel like watching an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network, and I really liked that; it made the place feel genuine and unique. I could imagine Guy Fiyeri watching the sandwiches being made, and tasting them with satisfaction.


Our name was called out, and our grilled cheeses arrived in front of us, presented on gingham paper wrap with a pickle spear and a side of freshly made coleslaw. Just from looks alone this was no simple toastie, this was a big grilled cheese sandwich that meant business, oozing the secret three-cheese blend, and packed with delicious ham. The toast itself was perfectly smooth and crunchy from the sandwich-press method on the cooking surface, and gave a hugely satisfying crunch to bite through, followed by the warm and gooey delicious filling.


We both thoroughly enjoyed the sandwiches, and agreed the quality was superb. Even whilst munching our way through, we looked up at the menu, deciding what we fancied next time. I definitely fancy The Classic, with caramelised red onion chutney!

Looks can also be deceptive. Sure this was a toasted sandwich, but by the time I was half-way through my second half, I was getting full! This was a FILLING sandwich... when has that ever happened for under seven quid?


Northern Soul isn't fine dining, but it's simple and good hearty comfort food which makes for the perfect freshly made lunch that won't break the bank, which for Manchester's Northern Quarter is pretty rare, and as they also have a loyalty card, it's very tempting to make it a regular thing instead of just bobbing into the local Tesco Metro for an overpriced plastic packaged sandwich, or a lukewarm sausage roll from Greggs.

Love you, Northern Soul. Back soon!



Northern Soul Grilled Cheese
Church Street
Manchester City Centre
M4 1PN
http://northernsoulmcr.com/
at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Tea Cosy is a quaint vintage style tea-room which has recently opened in St Andrew's Court in Bolton town centre, in the little building central in the courtyard, where it also has outdoor seating. It only opened last month, so this is the first chance I'd had to see it, but I can't resist a tea room, so here I was! 



Walking into the venue, it's decorated with cool grey painted walls, and traditional tables and chairs, covered plastic table cloths of different designs and colours, giving it the perfect eclectic look, which also matches the mis-matched vintage crockery. Nobody greeted us, so we sat down and read the menu a bit.

The menu lists classic simple breakfasts and lunches, but also mentions things such as high tea, eggs benedict, and other tea room staples. However it, and their Facebook feed seems a little mixed when it comes to their offerings. Their image is that of a vintage tea room, but they offer things such as pizza, and fish and chips, all served on very modern style serving boards and paddles, which doesn't really go with the theme. It was nice to see a sign in the window saying that they are breastfeeding welcome. It's nice to see somewhere embracing the modern world with a sense of decency.



The counter had a basket boasting some of the more exotic blends of tea offered, allowing you to smell their aromas etc, but it doesn't mention who provides their tea. The Pear Caramel caught my partner's eye, so he ordered that. The lady serving us told us that she actually didn't like any of the exotic teas offered except the Pear Caramel. I fancied something a little more simple like an Assam or Darjeeling, but surprisingly neither were on offer, which is quite odd for a tea room. The blackboard mentioned Organic Earl Grey though, so I went for that. We placed our orders; I went for the high-tea, which was a scone, jam and cream with a pot of tea, and my partner went for the eggs benedict, which is one of his favourites. We chose to sit upstairs where there is more seating. 


Linking to what I said earlier, upstairs doesn't seem very vintage tea room either, with bright modern art pieces on the walls, and a couple of lime green sofas with grey faux fur throws over them and some cushions. More coffee shop perhaps.

10 minutes after we sat down upstairs, a friendly if a little nervous waitress brought our rattling cups and saucers upstairs and placed them with us, telling us that our pots of tea would be up soon. As pretty as the 1960s style hand-painted teapots were, we sadly were still looking at them after another 10 minutes, as it took this long before our pots of tea were brought to us, the waitress explaining that they use a kettle, and it was a bit of a pain. But we had our tea. 

My partner's Pear Caramel tea was very tasty and unusual, but sadly my Earl Grey was very unpleasant! Personal taste I'm sure, but it tasted soapy, so much so that I was curious if my tea pot had only recently been washed out with washing up liquid and had some left in it. But again, I'm sure this is just personal preference. 

The problem is that even though it took 20 minutes for our tea to arrive, we still didn't have any food to go with it. 5 minutes later my scone arrived, but for reasons I can't contemplate, it had been cut for me, and buttered with margarine! Why?! They were lovely large looking scones in the display box downstairs, but I didn't need it cutting, and certainly didn't need it "buttering", especially if I was also provided with jam and cream to go with it. I scraped some of the margarine off and spread the cream on. The cream was nice, but the jam was cheap Hartley's jam straight from the jar, and so didn't spread very well. The scone was tasty though, I definitely can't fault that. Strangely, my scone also came with a pile of squirty cream and some strawberries in it. The strawberries were lovely and fresh and tart, but the cheap squirty cream came right out of a can, and promptly turned into a bubbling puddle on my plate. At this point the friendly and nervous waitress came up to apologise and explain to us that the eggs benedict would only be 5 minutes.



It was another 15 minutes until my partner's eggs benedict arrived, served on one of those wooden serving boards, meaning the frankly unpleasant looking hollandaise sauce simply dribbled over the edge onto the wipe-down tablecloth. There was only 1 egg despite two muffin halves, and there was no seasoning or anything on the egg, just the aforementioned hollandaise sauce. EGG benedict rather than EGGS benedict I suppose. The presentation basically left a lot to be desired considering we'd waited 30 minutes for it to arrive when there was only 1 other table of people in the entire building.

This was the worst eggs benedict either of us had experienced. The hollandaise sauce tasted very much of vinegar, and didn't sit well in the stomach. The egg was both overcooked, and frightening to look at the inside of. We didn't get any napkins at any point, but the cutlery with the eggs benedict came wrapped in a bit of kitchen roll. 



No. Just no.




I could see in my partner's face alone that he was deeply disappointed to receive this horrible version of one of his favourite foods on what was supposed to be a little treat of a visit. 

When we finished, we went back downstairs to pay. The waitress asked if everything was okay, but I simply replied that I'd brought the sweetener down with us. I didn't want to tell this perky friendly waitress the problem with everything, as she was only doing her best to serve. The woman who originally served us didn't say anything to us or ask how things were, as she was now busy explaining what an eggs benedict was to the single other table that were in the building, but going on to explain that she actually doesn't like it, as she doesn't like the hollandaise sauce. Frankly if that's the only hollandaise sauce she's tried, I'm not surprised she didn't like it!

We paid up and left. The friendly waitress saying goodbye, but the woman who took our order never so much as spoke to us again after we initially ordered. Shame really, I like it when the owner (or who seemed to be the one in charge at least) takes the time to interact with their customers and their experience. 

The perfect analogy for The Tea Cosy. Looks like the real deal, but with cracks appearing underneath.
In conclusion, I love a vintage tea room, but this wasn't one, it was a café pretending to be one. The tea was nice for one of us, and horrid for another, the drinks and food took an age to arrive, the scone was cut and spread with margarine, the eggs benedict was stingy, unpleasant, and overcooked, and my partner later that day ended up with severe stomach trouble.

The Tea Cosy needs to focus on what it wants to be. Their Facebook page quotes, "Bolton's got everything except a proper tea room", but it isn't one! It's in a strange limbo between café, quirky diner, tea room or modern coffee shop, and then focus on the quality of the product they provide, and the quality of their service. Bolton DOES have proper tea rooms. I've reviewed at least two of them, including The Oxford Tea Rooms within walking distance of The Tea Cosy, and which does a much better job as a tea room, and Poppins Tearooms in Horwich, which is one of my all-time favourites. 

We were looking forward to this visit, but left disappointed. 

The Tea Cosy
St Andrews Court
Bolton
Greater Manchester
(01204) 398 061

The Tea Cosy

by on 15:17
The Tea Cosy is a quaint vintage style tea-room which has recently opened in St Andrew's Court in Bolton town centre, in the littl...
at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


But Adam, dubTAP is a new tap room and bottle shop from the guys behind Drink Up Brewing, and you don't drink, so why are you doing a review on dubTAP?

Well I'll tell you why, you little scamp, you! Because I thought the same thing! I thought dubTAP were just a new drinking hole, and so despite the popularity and praises being sung, I didn't visit until recently, because I found out that they also do food, and also serve soft drinks and hot drinks. Hooray!

 

The venue itself is on Lee Lane in  Horwich, in a former small take-away unit, but despite their small size, they've used the space well, and I'm told have further plans to open the first floor for a more specific dining space, showing that they have every intent to keep the food coming, rather than it being an afterthought at a bar. 

As you walk in (mind your head, the doors are low in this place!), the first thing that strikes you is that with the wood cladding on the walls, lamp shades made from reclaimed metal containers, aspace saving seating, and long bar, it feels very much like somewhere you would find in Manchester's Northern Quarter, but slotted into Horwich.


The welcome is warm, and as we walk in we notice a family on the left hand side sharing a table with some parents and their little girl, everyone having breakfast. This is a good sign. At some bars which are just simple boozers, you expect to walk in at 10:30am to simply find middle aged blokes called Frank sat around on their third pint, but dubTAP have realised that you can have a drink based venue, but one that still appeals to families and the non-drinking crowd by offering things like food, Fentimans soft drinks, and tea and coffee.


As I mentioned, there's not a huge amount of seating in the downstairs space, but the best has been made of the space to allow people to sit without chairs and tables cramming all into the space. We sat on a side-bar with stools and read the food menu, which sounds very good, some really nice ideas for simple lunches, such as steak Canadian and black pudding scotch eggs, but today we fancied a bit of breakfast, and so opted for some toast, and the full breakfast, as well as a pot of tea for two.


The tea came promptly, in a funky teapot and Le Creuset mugs, which kept them hot for ages, very nice. Breakfast however on this instance for us was a bit of a miss. We found the food to be a bit greasy and not of the highest quality, and also the toast was burnt, both the toast with the breakfast and the toast I had myself. But this of course is just our opinion, for a lot of people this would be just fine, and a good price. It's certainly on a par with many of the other breakfast offerings in Horwich.


The reviews of the place for drink offerings are nothing short of stellar, and both the food reviews and photos of the general menu are also very complimenting, and look amazing to boot, but I think they've only just started doing breakfasts, and as the place has only been open a very short period, it stands to reason that they are still finding their footing in some regards, so I wouldn't judge the place on this one miss (for us). I think once they've been doing them for a while longer, and they turn the toaster down a bit, they'll be on to a winner.


The service was friendly and efficient, and it was nice to hear the plans for the future of the place, with a bigger focus on dining. And don't worry, dubTAP, even with the breakfast hiccup, I'll definitely be back again to try some of those other dishes on the menu! 

What's also nice is that as it's right in the middle of Horwich, there's plenty of free parking on streets and free parking all around the area making it easy to visit. 




But clearly, dubTAP is aimed first and foremost at drinking, rather than eating, and for those visiting to try out the alcoholic refreshments on offer, I think you're in for a treat, as there is a massive selection available, from the cans and bottles displayed in the large chiller units opposite the bar, to wine menu, and the blackboard boasting the daily offerings such as "Beelzebub's Tears" and "Big Bertha". How could you resist? Why not give this new local independent a try sometime whilst they're finding their feet instead of going to that chain pub and drinking that same old drink you always have?


dubTAP
179 Lee Lane
Horwich
Bolton
Greater Manchester
BL6 7JD
(01204) 397 440

dubTAP

by on 12:17
But Adam, dubTAP is a new tap room and bottle shop from the guys behind Drink Up Brewing , and you don't drink, so why are you doin...
at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,