Showing posts with label grill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grill. Show all posts

Lincoln's American Bar & Grill is the new kid on the block in Bolton Town Centre. It's literally only just opened (as of August 2017), and promises a classic American style menu with gourmet burgers. How could anyone resist that? It seems rare that Bolton town centre gets any new restaurants these days, and so when a new one opens up, it's exciting!



Lincoln's is downstairs in St Andrew's Court, and only upon writing this review did I actually remember that it's downstairs, in a basement space. It's decorated with great lighting and décor that I forgot about the lack of windows. The décor is modern and simple, with music inspired touches, LP sleeves and guitars on shelves, and some truly excellent music playing.





I was seated by a friendly member of staff, and given the relevant menu information, as well as my drinks order being taken. The menu is true to the claim of American in style, starting with "appetizers" and including steaks, gourmet burgers, speciality pasta etc, as well as milkshakes and desserts, and daily special offers, as well as Chef's Specials. The only thing that stopped it fully pulling away from its location and immersing in American style is that they offer a full English Sunday roast dinner too!


I ordered an appetizer of panko crumbed chicken fingers, and a main of the Texan burger, taking advantage of one of their special offers where two courses were a set price. As I was dining alone, I was helpfully asked whether I'd like my starter and main at the same time, to which I said yes.

The food arrived in good time, and although the burger was presented on a chopping board as is the fashion these days, the food looked very good!




The panko chicken was perfectly crunchy and juicy, and I really enjoyed it. The burger looked good, but for reasons unknown I think I was expecting it to be a dry "generic" burger, but it was juicy and pink in the middle as a good burger should be! Perfect! Do you know how hard it is to find a good burger done properly in Bolton?! Well it's hard let me assure you! Well done, Lincoln's!

At this point I started to get quite full, realising that I perhaps shouldn't have had both starter and main course at the same time, and had the heartbreaking realisation that... I WAS NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO MANAGE A DESSERT! Even worse... upon curiously reading the dessert menu as I left, I realised the two courses for one price offer included some of the desserts... noooooo!! Next time that key lime pie WILL BE MINE!! (Also I unashamedly took some of the chicken panko fingers home in a doggy bag!)

So in conclusion, the food was excellent, the service was friendly, professional and attentive, which I really appreciated, and the value was superb, and would be great value even without the special offers.

I had sceptical expectations, but was left thoroughly impressed and happy, and will most definitely be back! Go and give them a try!



Lincoln's American Bar & Grill
18 St Andrew's Court
Mawdsley Street
Bolton 
BL1 1LD
(01204) 774 321
www.lincolnsbarandgrill.com
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As the name suggests, Portland Grill is on Portland Street in Manchester City Centre, but despite being a popular and busy street, it's easy to miss, nestled behind a small shop front.

As you walk in, you start at a stairwell with "Welcome" written in a variety of languages, and a date stone with the year 1910 carved into it, giving a nod to the heritage of this building, and an explanation as to the small entrance and downward staircase, because once you get downstairs it opens into a very large cellar space.






The space is very surprising, and furnished with tables, chairs and booths but not cramped in, taking advantage of the space. It was also a very curious thing to sit looking at your menu but see up through cellar windows onto the streets above, and people walking past.

We are greeted and taken to our table. We note that it's quite quiet for an early Saturday evening, but our waiter informs us that it gets busier as the night progresses.

We are given a wonderful meat-centric menu, which has some great choices of burgers, steaks and chicken, all for very reasonable prices for the city centre, and even offering an Early Bird special. Our party chooses to start by ordering buffalo wings, nachos, and onion rings. American classics.

The food arrives in good time and is both fresh and tasty. The onion rings are crisp, the buffalo wings are succulent, tasty, and wonderfully messy to eat, and the nachos are crunchy, but could possibly have done with some more cheese, or a melted cheese sauce rather than melted grated cheese, but they are accompanied by a really tasty fresh salsa, which our entire party shared.



Our waiter is friendly and attentive, making sure we're enjoying each course. For our mains we all decided we were very much in a burger mood, and two of us ordered the mushroom burger, whilst I ordered a classic American cheeseburger, all of which again arrived in good time.

The burgers were excellently presented with no messing around, no wooden serving planks, just good food as it should be, and were tasty, well seasoned, and used fresh ingredients. They also came with lovely hot crispy chips, which is always good... too many places are let down by lukewarm soft chips.


As we enjoyed our meals, we saw another table had some huge stacked burgers turn up, which must be The Portland Tower burger. They looked great, definitely one for next time!

We really enjoyed our visit here, as we only decided to pop in on a whim, and weren't expecting anything special, but ended up leaving having had good food and good service in a pleasant and spacious environment for a really good price. We'll definitely return.





Portland Grill
103 Portland Street
Manchester
M1 6NF
(0161) 236 3453
http://www.portlandgrill.co.uk

Portland Grill

by on 18:03
As the name suggests, Portland Grill is on Portland Street in Manchester City Centre, but despite being a popular and busy street, it...
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Red's True BBQ already exists in Leeds, and is well loved. But now it has landed right in the centre of Manchester, just off Albert Square, and is immediately identifiable by its big red neon sign, a style of which you will find continued inside.


I'm a sucker for a good theme in a restaurant, and Red's has a theme I've never seen before... religion! Or rather, it's own religion, where the subject of worship is meat, and instead of God, the creator is "Red" (you can guess!), and the exclamation "let there be meat!". Frankly this is a vegetarian's nightmare, and a meat lover's wet dream.

The venue itself is interestingly decoratred. It's very industrial, like being in some sort of inner-city meat packing district, complete with corrugated iron cladding and chain-link fencing, occasionally splashed with colour from some very vibrant neon signs. The nice part is that the theming is consistent, but as a restaurant it still feels very clean and functional.























We had no wait when we arrived on a late weekday afternoon, and were promptly seated, and given a copy of 'the good book', which as well as the menu, also explains Red's 'ten commandments', mantra, and general information on the cooking techniques, meat, and food welfare. It's a pretty tongue-in-cheek affair, and reminds me of The Bird in Berlin, both in terms of menu style, and décor. On your table, there is a caddy containing four of Red's home-made sauces, three of which are barbecue variants, one is a ketchup variant, and one is a hotsauce, as well as salt, pepper, and toothpicks. All of the sauces were good, but for me it was the North Carolina BBQ Sauce which came out as the winner.

For appetisers we ordered the rib sampler and some cracklings. Until this point, I always thought that I dislike crackling, but it just seems I hadn't had it done properly, as Red's cracklings were great, and came in a paper bag, like a sweetshop. The rib sampler was good too, all the ribs covered in 'unholy BBQ sauce', and stacked up in a tin pie dish. The first rib we tried was excellent, full of flavour, and so tender that we were able to leave shiny bones. The other ribs were good too, but with some chewy parts leaving us uncertain at times if we were eating some chewy meat, or bits of bone. This dish was served alongside some napkins and large wet-wipes, and god knows we would need them by the end of that starter! Before long, you realise that this is a 'cutlery optional' place, and nobody has any qualms if you just pick up your food and gnaw at it, getting delicious sauce all over your face, like a toddler with an ice cream! One nice 'American' style touch is that a great quality root beer is available on the soft drinks menu, and was a delicious frosty accompaniment for that authentic taste of American barbecue, although at £3.50 for a bottle, it was one of the pricier drinks on the soft drinks menu.

For our mains, my dining partner ordered the pulled meat nachos, (pulled pork, chicken, and brisket) which he said were delicious, whilst I chose to go for the half-chicken, and when given the choice of two "humble sides" or one "divine side", chose to go for a divine side of sweet potato fries, but the options for humble sides were very tempting too! My half-chicken was seasoned and sauced deliciously, but it was so well cooked that the chicken pretty much slid straight out of the skin when I attempted to eat it, giving you the choice of either eating the skin separately, or smothering the fresh chicken with various sauces and devouring it that way. I did both. SHUT UP, DON'T JUDGE ME!! ... and very tasty it was too! Although the half-chicken was monumentally filling, and so I'd probably go for something else next time (I have my eye on the burgers!), the sweet potato fries were perfectly done, and it was great fun to try all the different sauces with them!

The service itself was friendly and casual, We were never given anyone's name when we sat down, but we ended up having at least four different servers throughout our meal, which was good and attentive, but a little less personal as we didn't feel like we were being taken of by someone in particular, even though the rest of the staff were superb. That said, there were a lot of staff, who when not attending tables, seemed quite often to be stood around without very much to do, even occasionally getting in the way of customers trying to get past, or find the toilets etc. The kitchen is made to look quite rough-and-ready, and although the kitchen staff are in baseball caps and the such, when I walked past, I heard a clear, "yes, chef!" showing that it is still very much a quality kitchen, no matter the décor or stylings.

Speaking of which, I was pleasantly surprised that the religious theme even carried on into the toilets! The hallway to them kept the Crystal Maze "Industrial Zone" style, but the toilets were a cross between industrial and religious, even using mock 'confessional booths' as the cubicals, which made me smile as soon as I went in. And don't worry, the slidy-panels work, but the grating is panelled up!





Back at the table, I was FAR too stuffed for dessert, as delicious as they sounded, but my partner had his eye on Red's Banana Pudding, so while I was pondering which emergency service could roll me out of the restaurant, he was devouring a dish which at first sight looked a bit mediocre, but which upon tasting, he declared the best dessert he's ever had! Go Red's!





I'm pleased to say that for two starters, two mains, a dessert, and three drinks, the bill came to just over £45.00, which I consider good value, especially given the quality of the food, and that you would spend about that if you chose to go to somewhere like TGI Fridays, but which I guarantee would leave you feeling less satisfied! I will be back here again make no mistake!

Praise Be!

Oh one last thing! Be sure to ask your server (after your meal...) what these interesting lampshades actually are.


Red's True Barbecue
22 Lloyd Street
Albert Square
Manchester City Centre
M2 5WA
(0161) 820 9140
http://www.truebarbecue.com




Red's True BBQ on Urbanspoon

Red's True Barbecue

by on 15:01
Red's True BBQ already exists in Leeds, and is well loved. But now it has landed right in the centre of Manchester, just off Albert...
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The Rivington Pub & Grill (formerly The Ridgeway Arms) in Blackrod is a warm, cosy, and comfortable traditional English pub, with a large focus on dining.

If you enter the Rivington from the car park, you would firstly think that you've walked into a the bar of a pleasant restaurant, complete with leather winged armchairs, candles, and historical photos of the area. If you walked into the Rivington from the other entrance, you would think that you've walked into a traditional and friendly pub, complete with a roaring fireplace, wood panelling, and comfortable chairs. Fortunately, both are true. Whether you're there for a pint, or there for your dinner, the warm and pleasantly decorated and furnished surroundings automatically make you feel relaxed and comfortable.


BBQ Saddleback Ribs
The main dining area for the restaurant side of the pub is in a horseshoe shape, with open fireplaces on each end, and a raised seating area in the centre. The food offered has something for everyone, ranging from the traditional to the modern, but done superbly well, and in good portions. The head waiter told us how nothing is ever frozen, and everything is bought and created freshly, hence sometimes there can be a wait for your food, but frankly if you want good food created fresh, you should anticipate a bit of a wait. It only makes sense
Camembert cheese in filo pastry
Bruschetta, with home-made bread 


Of the above starters, I had the Saddleback Ribs, which were in a delicious BBQ sauce, which was very much a home made sauce, rather than the thick ketchup-like BBQ sauce you seem to find everywhere today. The meat was so tender, that I was able to simply lift it up, and the bone fell out! Very tasty indeed!


The serving staff here are friendly and helpful, but for many of them it seems English is not their first language. This isn't a criticism as much as an observation, and a note that a few times we had to say things a couple of times before they understood, as we were often asked "sorry, what was that?". My only criticism might be a one off, as we asked the head waiter for our bill, but it didn't arrive, and after 15 minutes we asked another waiter about it, but as we did so, we saw the head waiter walk in, see us, and have a moment of realisation, before he dashed off to the bar to collect our bill. Everyone forgets something now and then, but as soon as he realised, he was on it!

Although there are many vegetarian dishes available, I do have to say that the Rivington's forté is their meat! All of their steaks are dry aged for 32 days hung on the bone, and all of their beef is from traditional breed cattle. My personal favourite dish here is the rare breed minute flash-steak, which is tender, juicy, and full of flavour (as were my dining companions' above dishes too!). My flash steak came a specific way, but for other meats you are asked how you want it cooked, and obviously which sauces and accompaniments you would like. Steaks cooked without a sauce get lightly drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. I personally love their chips! Big, chunky, old fashioned chips. Proper comfort food!

Herdwick lamb chops
You see the photo of the Herdwick lamb chops here on the left? I feel I must point out that when asked what he thought of them, my father-in-law, who is a very difficult man to impress, declared them "excellent!", which frankly blew the rest of us away (my mother-in-law dropped her fork!). This is an old fashioned man who would usually say something was "not bad" or at most "not bad at all!", but to declare a food 'excellent' is something we've not heard before... so that's saying something!



They offer a nice selection of after-dinner goodies, from teas and coffees to after-dinner tipples, but as beautiful as their desserts sound, I have yet only ever had their sticky toffee pudding, which is home-made and very light (not stodgy and heavy like you'd imagine) and served with vanilla icecream and butterscotch sauce (my favourite!). It's not that I don't want to try their other desserts, but I can't resist their sticky toffee pudding whenever I'm given the choice!! Frankly I should go there one day and JUST have a couple of desserts!



The Rivington Pub and Grill is superb basically, and if you've only ever been there when it was The Ridgeway, I emplore you to go along and give it a try! Maybe have one of their amazing sunday roast dinners. It's the sort of place you could go as a couple, with friends, your parents, or even the whole family. It's a good example of a traditional English dining pub done right! I look forward to my next visit.



The Rivington Pub & Grill
Station Road
Blackrod
Bolton
BL6 5JF
(01204) 696 027
www.rivingtonpubandgrill.co.uk
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