Food And Drink Round-Up 15/12/2011

Another Restaurant For MediaCityUK - another YAFI?

ITALIAN restaurant Prezzo is to open in MediaCityUK on Thursday December 22 - with the creation of 20 jobs. This neatly sums up the advance of Italian theme restaurants on all fronts - our legendary YAFI (Yet Another F***ing Italian) expression still applies it appears. The company has spent £650,000 developing the restaurant. It will specialise in popular Italian food, including pizza, pasta, grills and light options, as well as a choice of pizzas created by Aldo Zilli. It also has a childrens' menu. It will be open from noon until 11pm throughout the week. Prezzo will offer seating for 100 customers plus an additional 38 overlooking a piazza and landscaped area. It is wheelchair accessible and has a specially adapted toilet for people with disabilities.

Pertutti Opens - Another YAFI?

LIVERPOOL Road is getting busy on the food and drink front with two new opens. First we have Pertutti which means ‘for everybody’. Pertutti boasts of having a genuine Italian chef, reallys boasts, as though it’s odd that this should be the case. The food is all pastas and pizza with the odd rissole dish thrown in. There are no rustic and substantial mains though; nothing that seems to set it apart. We’ll review in the New Year and try to be optimistic. Pertutti is close to the Liverpool Road and Deansgate junction.

Bollywood Swings Into Town

A FEW doors down Bollywood is due to open. This will be a restaurant specialising in Nepalese and Indian food. It has a conference room for weddings and other such events where guests will be entertained Bollywood style. There will be live entertainment in the dining room too, with a  three or four piece band playing music, perhaps accompanied by belly dancers on special nights. 

Confidential's Dumpling of the Week

JUST west of San Carlo on King Street West you'll find the Koreana restaurant. This is the oldest Korean restaurant in the UK and provides one of the best lunchtime treats with its rice and noodle boxes - £4.50 with extra dumplings (£3.70 without). Alex Fisher, Manchester Confidential's Official Dumpling Correspondent, said, "The dumplings are easily the star of the show. Chopped veg in a tasty, deep fried, chewy batter. They're like the opening scene in Jackie Brown where you see Pam Grier waltz through the airport to the smooth sound of Bobby Womack. I'm in love." Calm down lad.

Trof Opens Bourbon Bar 

TROF's Northern Quarter Bourbon Bar opens on December 15. The place now claims to have one of the UK’s largest selections of small batch Bourbons.  The hours of research left all the researchers horizontal and slurring with the effort. Trof has been busy creating its own Bourbon infusions to form the basis of a new cocktail menu too, which includes a 30-day Mint Julep, as well as an oak barrel aged Manhattan.

Browns Gets Better And Becomes Enjoyable

CONFIDENTIAL popped into Brown's Bar and Brasserie at the top end of King Street/Spring Gardens -  technically York Street. We went prepared to be as disappointed and flummoxed by this massive missed opportunity as we had been earlier in the year when it opened. But everything was ten times better than previously on offer. There's a new kitchen brigade that can do finesse, as well as wholesome and hearty. The sea bass and lentils dish pictured here was the perfect winter fish dish and reasonably priced at £14.95. An excellent Three By Knappstein at £20.95, a Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris from Australia (13.5%), matched it very well. 

63 Degrees Maintains The Standard

WE loved 63 Degrees when it first opened on Church Street for the quality of the cooking, the direct unflowery menu and the simple, straightforward design of the restaurant (click here). A recent visit with a tuna main and a baked eggs starter (main picture top) was wonderful but slightly clouded by a waiter who in an attempt to be charming and fun was slapstick and casual. But the food...wow, this place remains a fabulous addition to the city dining scene.