Where The Light Gets In

* From November 2024, the restaurant will be popping up in Manchester city centre for a five-month residency while the original site undergoes extensive maintenance work.*

Trickily located on the top floor of a former coffee warehouse down a Dickensian alley (beware the steep stone steps outside), WTLGI looks the part with its brick walls, bare boards and wooden beams. It’s loft living, Stockport-style. Large windows with rooftop views actually do let in the light, while round tables and Shaker-style chairs are arranged so that the latter face the open kitchen at the far end of the room, where you can sit at a counter even closer to the action. The layout signals culinary theatricality; the design suggests commitment to transparency.

Sam Buckley (ex-L’Enclume) has stuck to his principled guns since hitting Greater Manchester with a bang in 2016. Since then, his restaurant has stayed in the vanguard of ethical, sustainable, seasonal and local food sourcing, with a lovely kitchen garden on top of a shopping centre, a spin-off artisan bakery, and a 'whole animal, nose-to-tail' policy. As a model of urban sustainability, democratic operation and worthy social intent, it's hard to fault. The vibe is laid-back but the staff have been well drilled when it comes to the details of dishes, ingredients and provenance.

The blind tasting menu (non-refundable, paid in advance) brooks no alterations other than advance requests regarding allergies, and is a three-and-a-half-hour marathon. A wine flight from the eclectic, low-intervention list cost an extra £75 when we visited, although there is also a good choice by the glass. All the modish, Nordic-style techniques are present and correct: fermentation, pickling, brining, dehydration and the rest. The compositions are skilled and complex – a standout being the beetroot and black garlic tart with pickled and smoked beetroot, black garlic and puffed pearl barley that opened our meal – although portions are tiny. Size also impacts the identity of individual ingredients: sea buckthorn berries ‘foraged on Formby beach’ were too sparse to cut through a piece of rich Cornish monkfish liver. Despite some clever presentational tricks, execution was also less than faultless – under-cooked potato risotto, a stodgy sponge pudding of Tarocco blood oranges.

While this restaurant is idiosyncratic and brave, it also polarises diners: too little food, too expensive, too self-important when it should be innovative, exacting and exceptional. WTLGI commands a loyal following but does a reboot beckon, lest it become WTLRS, Where The Light Rarely Shines?