Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
1
We were here in January and, in the usual course of events, I wouldnt write another review so soon. But we had a lovely evening last night. When we got home, Mrs H and I were chatting and reckoned this may possibly be our favourite restaurant. Not because the cooking is all bells and whistles. It isn’t. It’s often the sort of food that the competent home cook might claim they could do. But they can’t. At least they can’t make the variety of dishes on offer every night or make them consistently. BUt these are proper plates fo food - food that you really want to eat.
Anyway, here’s the review of last night’s dinner:
There was a shredded duck salad to start for one of us. It was sort of Chinese-ish, with a soy and ginger dressing and a scattering of sesame seeds. There’s thinly sliced spring onion, just as you’d get in a Chinese restaurant but, to remind you that this is Manchester not Macau, there’s also watercress. It was a lovely start. The other plate was a sort of east/west fusion. Black pudding wontons were crisp but the filling was a bit dense and not as peppery as you get with some Bury puddings. Also on the plate, some apple puree and grain mustard mayo.
We both went with the same main course. Whenever we travel to the southern states in America, we always look out for BBQ restaurants. And, whilst featherblade of beef isn’t American BBQ, the menu description just shouted BBQ at us. It just had to be tried and it was a little belter. Long cooked meat, so it shredded (just like the “pulled” pork shoulder you’ll find in the States) along with classic BBQ accompaniments – a tangy sauce, mac & cheese, sweetcorn relish and an excellent celeriac slaw. So often that we’ve eaten things like this “over there”. And, there’s chips of course. Not fries and not “fat chips”. These were proper chip sized chips, perfectly cooked.
For dessert, there was a classic crepes Suzette – a couple of pancakes in an orange and Cointreau sauce with ice cream. What’s not to like? And, on the other plate, their take on a Bakewell pudding – a tart filled with a raspberry and almond custard, topped with cream and surrounded by a quite sharp raspberry sauce. In some other dishes, the sauce might have been too sharp but, here, it contrasts well with the sweetness of the tart.
The meal sounded good, since you talked about your last visit in January, I did a search… Now I have a curious question, why you prefer different threads on the same restaurant than 1 thread? I found 8 on No. 4, I think. (It isn’t a criticism nor a suggestion, just curious of your perspective.)
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
3
I’m honestly not sure why. Although different forums have different conventions on this.
On the one hand, having a single thread allows contributors (and readers) to see a place develop over, probably, years. I think that may be helpful on an active board/thread. That used to be the position with egullet where moderators would actively merge threads. By co-incidence, it was only yesterday that I was looking at an egullet thread about a restaurant I havent been to in a couple of years - and there was what was a lengthy discussion about the place and speciific recommended dishes.
On the other hand, when a board is not very active (as here with the UK board), it may be tedious for folk who have a casual interest to read through what, in this case, may be eight reviews, before they get to the one I just posted. I doubt whether anyone here reading about my dinner last night would have much of an interest in my dinner there three years back.
All that said, I am happy to conform to whatever style is appropriate for HO, as and when HO determines that it wants a specific style. FWIW, my main purpose in writing any review is to send it to the Good Food Guide which is the UK’s main restaurant guide. Having written it, it’s the work of seconds to post it here and to Tripadvisor - in truth, my main reason for doing so is to reagrd those online posts as a backup copy should I have a disaster with my computer.
As far as I know, I’m not sure if there is a policy on it. I saw both ways here in HO.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
5
And, to make matters worse, I appear to have duplicated my “cut & paste” from my original Word document. Only just spotted this so it’s after the time when I can amend it. Apologies.
