[Heaton Moor, Stockport] The Moor

There was much to like about The Moor, although not everything. But certainly enough that we’ll want to come back and give it another try. This was our first visit to the restaurant, although we’ve been to the premises twice before over the years when different restaurants occupied the space. We never felt the need to go back to either of them. It’s a modern layout, on two levels (with steep stairs down to the toilets in the cellar). And it was quite busy for a midweek night, so a good buzz.

It’s a shortish menu - half a dozen or so choices for starters and mains with just three desserts. It’s very Modern British, very seasonal – the sort of food that’s right up our street. And there’s a cracking sourdough bread to nibble on while we waited for starters. They came quickly enough.

There was white crab meat mixed with a fine dice of kohlrabi. A thin circle of the vegetable sits on top, providing a bit of decoration as well as crunch. The brown meat was advertised as being mixed with mayo but its contribution was very minimal, which did leave the plate tasting a little flat. Orkney scallops come at a £4 supplement to the fixed price menu (£35 for two courses, £40 for three). Served on a shell, they came with butter mixed with a vadouvan spice mix. I had to Google “vadouvan” to find what it was – a French interpretation of a sort of curry powder. It brings a nice bit of background spice and there’s a little sweetness from dates and raisins. Scallops need careful cooking and no-one wants to eat them over-cooked but these needed a little longer. As they were, there were patches of them cold and uncooked – not sufficiently so that they needed to be sent back but not right.

There were more background curry flavourings in the sauce going with a perfectly cooked piece of halibut. The fish are farmed off the Scottish island of Gigha and are a fine product that, increasingly, you see in restaurants. Colcannon came with seaweed mixed through it instead of the usual cabbage and a couple of mussels added a different flavour. It all works. Red leg partridge was bang-on for seasonality. It comes with spelt which had been flavoured with something very savoury – maybe bacon. For the five a day contribution, there’s a small slice of onion squash and a little wilted chard. Good sauce, as well. We shared a dish of runner beans which were one of three sides available.

At this point, the otherwise exemplary service deserted them. Dessert menus were handed out but no-one came to take an order for ages, by which time we’d lost interest so just got the bill

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The restaurant has now closed, citing increased costs as the main reason.

I think maybe the location is cursed - this is at least the third restaurant in these premises that I recall going under in about the last decade.

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