Feature
An early review of Blacklock Manchester: a taste of top chops
London chophouse group Blacklock touches down in the basement of a converted textile mill in the heart of Manchester. We take a first look.
London chophouse group Blacklock touches down in the basement of a converted textile mill in the heart of Manchester. We take a first look.
This new venture by Robin Read is the best news for Tunbridge Wells. Having spent his early years working for some of the UK’s most electrifying chefs (and the last sixteen as executive chef of the luxury Firmdale Hotel Group), The Counter is the result of Read’s long-held dream to have his own restaurant. It has the makings of a destination – a relaxing neighbourhood restaurant with a big-city attitude.
Cambridge, small as it is, isn’t without good restaurants. Fame has likely helped. But a prestigious institution does not guarantee food worth eating, and even if the pubs are old and crooked in their charm, elsewhere dining rooms well dressed, there are duds aplenty in the city, just as there are in Oxford. And so let us be guided. Local Alex Rushmer, the owner of the restaurant Vanderlyle, offers his expertise.
And so to Bath, with its ancient Roman pools, its sweeping Georgian architecture of crescentic gold. It is testament to Somerset’s largest city, historic as it is, that it would surge toward modern dining, all the while retaining its vintage charm. Here you will find one of the finest bakeries in the country, fine cheeses abound, and excellent Sicilian food uncommon in the West Country. Mark Taylor has the low-down.
Manchester is a multicultural melting pot of cuisines, from the Curry Mile to Chinatown and everything in between. The newest member of The Good Food Guide team and Manchester local, Phoebe Patrick, takes us on her tour of the places not to miss.