[Manchester, city centre] Higher Ground

Regional Dining Discussions U.K., Ireland
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Truth be told, we’re not great fans of the trend for “small plates for sharing” restaurants. It’s not the small plates, as such, that’s our main issue with them. Rather, the fact that usually they are served “when they’re ready” rather than in the order you envisaged eating them when you ordered. It can make for a disjointed dinner. So, you might ask, why have we schlepped into the city centre for a meal at a small plates restaurant. Well, for a start, it’s impossible to avoid the hype for this place – they must have very good PR. But, mainly, there’s a dodge round our issue. Alongside the main menu, they offer a seasonal set menu which we correctly assumed would be served in sensible order and would, in effect, be a multi-course tasting menu. It features vegetables from their own market garden – Cinderwood near Nantwich. And, if you’re out that way, Cinderwood has a decent shop attached to the farm. So, on with the sharing.

First up were split pea fritters – crisp coating, flavoursome interior, sprinkled with grated cheese. Then a bright green courgette soup, dotted with salad ingredients, small chunks of radish and the like. Next up, a plate of salami made in the UK by Curing Rebels in Brighton. Served alongside that was a plate of earthy beetroot and soft, very tangy, goats curd and a wholemeal bread roll each.

There’s a lovely pasta dish next. And this is the problem with small plates – I could happily have eaten this on my own but, no, you have to share. So, pasta is house made, I think, and was properly “al dente”. There’s a really well flavoured beef ragu, mixed with slices of courgette. And there’s a savouriness from sheep’s cheese.

The final savoury course on the set menu features Dexter beef. This has minimal food miles coming from Jane’s Farm, near Nantwich. It’s served in very thin slices on a bed of lentils, with dressed lettuce leaves and potatoes. At this point, we took an extra cheese course – Quicke’s Cheddar, a blue and a soft one (can’t recall the names), with a rye cracker and carrot chutney. And, finally, to dessert. A not overly sweet take on trifle, featuring cake, strawberries and granita. We finished with coffee. They only do filter – and it was thin on flavour (the only flavour glitch of the evening).

We had a nice evening. Service had been bang on. Very friendly and efficient with everything happening just as it should. Food was really nice but we haven’t been convinced that a small plates experience beats a “proper” three course menu.

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At many of the small plates / sharing plates places we go to, the server will generally ask in which order we’d like to receive them. When they don’t, we let them know.

While that strategy may not be possible at this particular place, it might be something to keep in mind for future meals… if you ever have to go to another one of those darned sharing places :wink:

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Our local small plates places usually make a thing of them coming “when they are ready”.

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That’s rather inflexible on their end. Restaurants should cater to their guests, not vice versa.

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I love small plates, because I’d rather eat more of a variety than the standard appetizer + main course. Plus sharing small plates = even more variety.

That said, most small plates places actually do have the bent of lighter and heavier plates in the style of apps / snacks and mains, so the conceit of “whatever comes out whenever” is a convenience only to the kitchen, not the diner.

I always appreciate when a server suggests “staging” the meal by putting the order in not all at once but in 2 or 3 groupings, depending on how many plates. I wish I remembered to request it myself even when not proposed by the server, but I rarely do.

Food sounds lovely!

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Our recent experience of small plates at OMA in London was good. When we expressed apprehension at being encouraged to order everything at once, the server reassured us that she would pace the meal and have the plates come out in a certain order which she ran past us before confirming the order. She also wrote everything down on a pad of paper - something I was impressed by in this day and age! The plates worked well for sharing as we picked stuff that included plates where we knew I would be eating pretty much the whole plate with my husband only having a taste and vice versa.

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We have a place in Llandudno on our list to try for next time we have a night or so there. It’s small plates for sharing. But almost every small plate is available as a large plate. And large plates come with sides. So, like starter size and main course size. :grinning:

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Is this place called Wright’s by any chance? We went there several years ago and really enjoyed it

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No. It’s called Next Door. As it’s, erm, next door to the hotel that owns it.

We walked past it about a year ago and thought it worth a try. Llandudno town centre isnt well endowed with decent restaurants. Or even half decent ones.

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