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I'VE been afraid of cheese pies for some years.
The goo in the middle reminds me of pus in a blackhead. The spurt of stark infected yellow as the knife sinks into the pie turns my stomach. I'll go as far to say I avoid cheese pies like the plague or even like cheese pies. They make me worry for the ugliness of so much vegetarian food, its clumpy blur.
Just saying 'roast spiced plums with yogurt and honey' slides me into Dicken's Christmas Carol and Fred's house, Scrooge's happy and generous nephew.
Then at the Lawn Club a cheese, cauliflower and potato pie was ordered and I realised I'd been hasty. If the mixture of cheese and veg is correct and the ingredients are of an elevated standard and brought together with skill under a crust that looks you in the eye and says, "Open me" and if, baby, it's cold outside, then happiness lies here.
The filling of this pie was no volcanic goo but a lovely blend of the three main components to produce weight and body. This was a pie with gravitas.
A nice cheesy pie
Then again, aside from a crumble which was lacking in any sweetness, I adored The Lawn Club's offering from David Gale's team of chefs. What you get here is the most cultured barbecue you'll ever have - with gourmet additions from a top class kitchen. At the same time this Winter Menu is the most colourful, jolly, robust, shiny Christmassy food I've had piled up in front of me for a long time.
Fred attacks the gooseJust saying 'roast spiced plums with yoghurt and honey' slides me into Dicken's Christmas Carol and Fred's house, Scrooge's happy and generous nephew.
These plums were beguiling too and rammed with flavour and gentle spice. They made me smile to see them gathered on their log.
They like logs at the Lawn Club. All the food seems mounted on wood, but this is ok because it suits the hunting lodge feel of this handsome and permanent looking 'pop-up'.
Lovely spiced plums
Back to savoury courses and just as lovely and just as seasonal and gorgeously flavour-filled as the plums is the roast butternut salad with blue cheese and tasted pumpkin seeds. Part of the secret behind the Lawn Club's superb food is the care with which ingredients are brought together and spark off each other.
Rich colours and flavours
Those exact qualities are part of this trinity too: grilled chipolatas with a Worcestershire sauce glaze, mustard and maple bacon crisps; slow cooked chicken with garlic roast potatoes and garlic mayo; pork and apricot meatballs with rosemary mayo.
The glaze on these dishes was immacutely executed, the flesh on the chicken was timed to perfection, the mix of pork and apricot was just so, flesh and the tart apricot working as a team.
Chicken and pork
Cold collations such as the turkey and ham pie with locally cured ham, soft boiled egg, pickles and crusty bread are of course, as stated, cold, but they again deliver solid flavours and flair. The piccalilli is exquisite, the pie full-on and the addition of a 'soft' boiled egg the key, the hub around which it all spins.
Pie and egg
You get the message, the Lawn Club is very, very good. The warm platters and the plaice all maintained the standard while the warm Eccles cakes with a mountain of cream and strawberries are the best assembled Eccles cakes I can remember.
Warm Eccles cakes
The Lawn Club food hits the winter mood bullseye. The artfully rustic surroundings complete with fake furs, heaters, candles and so on fits the food just fine. The drinks selection joins in.
Nothing wrong with this place.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter @JonathSchofield or connect via Google+
ALL OUR SCORED FOOD REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY MANCHESTER CONFIDENTIAL. REVIEW VISITS ARE UNANNOUNCED AND COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF ANY COMMERICAL RELATIONSHIP.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter @JonathSchofield or connect via Google+
Rating: 16/20
Food: 8/10 (pie 8, chipolatas 8, pork and apricot 8, plaice 8, turkey and ham 8, butternut salad 8.5, slow-cooked chicken 8.5, plums 8, Eccles cake 8.5, crumble 7)
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5
Inside the Lawn Club
Platter chatter
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Wooden platters are naff!
Really,how adult of you. anonymous
Could you explain what the benefit of wooden platters are then please?
Plates are so 2009.
Wooden platters are so Hoxton 2000....
People who are simply negative bore me senseless. I mentioned the wooden platters but the article was about the food. THE food I repeat is really bloody good and wouldn't have been less good if served on leather aprons, chainmail or ceramic.
Mmmm...chainmail. That'd be great for a Game of Thrones themed evening. Perhaps that's the next big thing.
I bloody hate slate an' all.
Slates are gonna be big.. cheaper than ceramic, more fire resistant than wood.
bugger to pick up though
Not the one's with handles.
Poached plums stuck to a wooden platter with a dollop of cream served on fake grass! Pretentious? I think so...
Wooden platters are so unhygienic. Let's have proper plates please.
A nice looking menu, but i'm a bit dubious about some of those platters being 'bigger boards to share'. One bit of turkey and ham pie, a slice of ham, half an egg and a couple of bits of bread each for £12.50 seems rather steep.
Well my experience would tell me thats incorrect the food is excellent and good value.
I have to say that I have eaten most of this stuff and it's bloody good and refreshing change.
I would rather pay a bit more, for better quality, and yes you might get a bit less on your plate but looking at the pictures at least I would want to eat it all. I have tried similar types of food in other places and yes you can get cheaper but I end up leaving most of it because it is so bad.
Do you think it fair to make disparaging remarks about the quality of the food without ever having sampled it anonymous.I have actually eaten at the lawn club many times & can assure you the food is excellent quality,& I have eaten in top restaurants all over the world.shame on you.
Errrm, I don't believe he/she said anything disparaging about the food. Interesting that you choose to be so defensive though...
Tracy really likes this place; she even attacks people who 'want to eat it all'!
What is also interesting is people who post Anonymously......
Because they're too dim to even think up a silly name for themselves
Or ManCon might have deleted their account because they didn't tow the Mancon party line.
My only reservation about wooden platters is the hygiene element - what method of cleaning between uses? But it's a sufficient concern to stop me eating from them.
wooden chopping/serving boards are actually very hygenic. wood is naturally anti-bacterial, and whilst it does draw in bacteria it kills it rather than gives it a place to multiply.
And I agree with Tracy - why the anonymity from posters? The comments are hardly incendiary.
Many reasons: Because people comment from work and don't want their employers to see them goofing off. Or they've been raised to never give out personal details online. Or they don't want to be immortalised forever as That Person Who Hates Wooden Chopping Boards. Or they're comfortable in anon spaces where you don't have to deal with Personalities, as it levels the playing fields. Or they couldn't think of a good username. Etc.
Make a name up, it's not difficult. I am named after a club night that used to run a while ago. At least people can then identify you from other posts and distinguish you from a sea of Anonymouses
Or ManCon might have deleted their account because they didn't tow the Mancon party line.
Or because they don't want to be sent loads of spam by email.
Some people have acquired trolls by using a name. It's safer to post as anonymous.
I went into the Lawn Club recently for the first time, only I have to say for a coffee (was feeling a tad unwell, hence no food). Decor etc was great, but having to wait for 15 mins for a coffee was a bit much, the reason.... they'd run out of milk! Seriously! They came to tell us that they'd just sent someone 'to the shop' to get some! Wasn't great coffee when it eventually came either!
Whilst I have eaten here many times and found the food very good, have to agree with you about the coffee. Took ages to come and was absolutely disgusting when it did.
Hate those wooden platters...NOT CLEAN...
*sigh*
And they look silly...something Wilma Flintstone used to serve Fred his dinosaur ribs on...
I think you mean didn't TOE the party line.
I dislike wooden boards, too. They don't retain heat, and any sauce is soaked into the board: why? And slate isn't much better.
Pork is burnt
Burnt as charcoal
Maybe replace wooden board with charcoal board
Will be great with the pork
Sounds good, will give the food a go. Still a very twatty place though ain't it.