The steps leading up to the famous and iconic hotel set expectations and anticipation from the moment that you arrive. The newly embellished foyer adds to said anticipation, and then you arrive at The French itself. Palatial ceilings, steeped in history, brought up to date with some grey paintwork, modern furniture, impressive lighting, and a soft rock driven soundtrack.

You just know that you’re in a special place that’s clearly stunning.

The side tables are perhaps a bit small, leading to the requirement of tray stands sitting next to them.

£125 for a high-end tasting menu in an iconic hotel that’s bang in the middle of the city centre; it’s the kind of price point that you can’t complain about unless you have no understanding or appreciation for the work which has led to said menu landing on your table.

Also, no service charge is added either; a rarity even in lower mid-rangers these days.

Wine markups run high in places.  I’ve said it 100 times so don’t need to over-elaborate but will.  Would you really expect to pay the same cash for the exact same product if one was purchased in Harrods and the other in Asda?  It just is what it is, in all honesty.  Something has to cover the bills for that grand hotel.

Pollen Sourdough and Beef Butter has become a true staple. A bespoke recipe baked to spec, with the new addition of a lovely onion broth carrying bags of flavour. A great start to the party.

Next up; the all-important snacks; ‘Fish pie’ croustade was as good as ever. I could eat half a dozen of these. Some of the best croustades in the country so high praise, since everybody’s doing a version of them at the moment.

‘Henrys Cracker Sandwich’, in a nod to Adam’s son, was exceptional in execution and flavour. One sweet and one savoury cracker, sandwiching a lovely cheese, allium, and nut filling. It’s a single (perhaps 2) bite which has everything in terms of balance and big flavour.

And a new snack course was an eel and tongue lettuce wrap. I still recall eating tongue regularly as a kid when my Mum put it into butties. At the time I didn’t equate it as being actual tongue, from a cow’s mouth. Until on one occasion I saw the butcher slicing it freshly to order for us. I refused to eat it for years afterwards, but fortunately have gotten over the shock. Absolutely delicious and most of the best food resonates with childhood memories, in my opinion, and much of Adam's food does just that for any northerner.

The transition between snacks and proper courses arrived in the form of Smoked Salmon and Ham. Sliced at the table with some lovely fresh pickles and mustard. Smoking and pickling are two of my favourite things in the world. Very few foodstuffs can’t benefit from the processes.

Scallops with Peas and Gooseberry was a rendition of an off-menu dish which we had the pleasure of trying around a year ago, and has moved on since. Daisy fresh, super sweet scallop with great acid from the berry, and freshness of peas in a lovely sauce pulling it all together. Plus it looked stunning which always helps.

Cornish catch of the day was Turbot, which is always a good place to start any fish dish. Superb quality flat fish, garnished with a BBQed asparagus spear, sauced/foamed with an espuma gun at the tableside for some added theatre.

Roasted Welsh Chicken, I assume from the top class Rhug Estate, was served with local Cinderwood turnips and a barley stew, crowned with bags of Microplaned truffle for that unmistakable scent and opulence. A handsome dumpling sat on a side plate for some sauce-dipping carb. For those who remember Adam's time on Great British Menu, this was a tasting menu sized version of his winning Chicken main course, and still just as tasty and comforting in said compact form.

The cheese course was next assembled at the tableside; St James cheese blowtorched, topped with a stewed prune, a textural element via some cracker, finished with honeycomb. Another simple yet super-tasty plate, with great produce acting as the keystone.

The main after course was Baked Custard and Strawberry, topped with a glass-like strawberry shard. It just screamed seasonality and we loved this dish. Again, it had everything. Savoury, sweet, soft, crispy, cold, room temperature. Fantastic.

We ended with the Tipsy Cake, which has become another staple Adam Reid course that can surely never come off the menu. A simple dish which is far from high end patisserie, containing just 3 elements yet always manages to satisfy. You start looking forward to it 2 courses before it lands, which is a testament to its formative place on the menu.

Coffee and Sweet Treats ended things off, as should be the case on any menu. It’s also included in the menu here, so you don’t need to worry about dropping an extra £7 per head, as in most high-end places.

The chicken dumpling was a bit gluey and heavy, rather than being cloudy and Chinese bao-like, which would have felt a bit more refined. One half of the table disagreed with this point.

The jelly on the sweet treats section was challenging, with a bitter, almost metallic finish. No amount of sticky wine could balance it. Bring back the sea buckthorn ones Chef! All of the table agreed with this one.

The French has continually delivered the very best service, not only in Manchester city centre but in the immediate region. The front of house team, headed up by the always fantastic Eleanor, deliver accurate, seemingly informal yet still sharp, detailed and accurate work, with a continual smile and charm. You’ll feel right at home and at ease, whilst the team work tirelessly and seamlessly around you. Wine service is promptly undertaken ahead of food landing, course intros are entertaining and informative, clear downs done with minimal fuss, and everything runs like a clock. Pinpoint.

Our wine service was expertly handled on the night by new team member Jen, who was previously based at Grape to Grain Wine Merchants, and also led the wine list consultancy for the launch of the now Michelin Assiette awarded District, up in the NQ. Jen is a star, and you can expect to see a lot more from her in the future, we suspect.

It was also great to see a continuation of the kitchen team serving the dishes which they prepped, and we truly hope that it continues even once staffing shortages pass. As much as we all assumed that they would have already done so what with it being mid-2022. Anyway….

Nothing at all, as much as Im trying to nit-pick just to make myself somehow sound credible and clued up.

After so many visits and fantastic experiences over the years, there’s still no complete restaurant experience in Manchester which can truly compete with Adam Reid at The French.  The food is driven by flavours which you could happily eat every day, and no other dining room in the country delivers this high end North West driven experience, all presented in a modern and accessible way.  You could go at least once a month and not get bored with the everyday yet elevated flavours, either just as happily popping in for a casual yet swish dinner wearing jeans and t-shirt, or arriving to make a special occasion of it with a posh frock on.

Very little as per usual.  Maybe bring back the table bag hooks.

It doesn’t take long after you enter the hotel’s impressive and iconic foyer, which is now adorned with a new look following some huge investment and currently dressed in festive splendour, to see that The French is a very special dining space indeed.  The room’s history and the presence of those high ceilings are just things which no new build can replicate in terms of sheer class.  You can just feel that you’re in a room with masses of lineage, stories, and historical importance.  It’s a stunning space for sure.

Does this grand space from 1903 really match the food ethos and service style? 

The tasting menu is now priced at £115, or £125 on a Saturday, so totally in line with current pricing bumps across the entire hospo industry.  And as we’ve ranted about over the last 18 months, such price rises are here to stay and rightly so.  The days of being able to eat a basic meal out for the price of a posh ready meal need to disappear for good.  And with another lockdown of some form highly likely due on or around New Year, it’s just yet another reminder of how bad your social life is when you had to cook for yourself or live via Just Eat.  Hospitality gives us a social life, and we should never forget or lose respect for that as much as many ignorant people clearly will and already have.  So we say that such a quality dinner is good value, and absolutely justified in terms of price.  It’s not an everyday occasion either to be fair.

Also, it’s great to see a tasting menu with a fully inclusive price point, so no extra for items such as coffee, filtered water, added service charge etc.  Quite often you come away from such places and the bill ends up being a fair wad more than initially ballparked.  More places need to be fully up front and just charge you for the whole experience in one transparent hit.

Clearly at this level there’s things which you pay more for than you would elsewhere for the exact same product.  The wine list is an easy example of this. Whilst expertly put together by the always excellent Vlad, it contains mark ups which are also in line with the hefty quality on display.  You’ll pay more for a pint of Peroni in a posh city sky-bar than you will for the exact same pint in ‘Spoons, for example. That’s just how it is, because in reality you’re not just paying for the beer. You’re paying for the nice room and the top end service too.  Such is life.

Now that I’ve bored you with how pretty the place looks and how much out of pocket you’re going to be after visiting, we come onto the thing which arguably matters the most; the food and drink.

In a change to the running order from our last visit, the now expected bespoke Pollen bakery bread and beef butter course was first up, which worked well in terms of schedule.  This simply can’t come off the menu, ever.  It’s become a staple of any Adam Reid menu, so it was great to see a more than generous slab being included.  Almost half a loaf, cut into 4 pieces to be exact.  The beef butter, whipped to smooth perfection, was as impressive as ever.  It lasted long enough for us to graze on during a few subsequent courses.

Three snack courses followed, and with any restaurant the snacks are often a gauge of what’s to come in terms of quality.

First off the pass was ‘A Little Fish Pie’; a perfectly formed and flavoursome potato croustade shell filled with potato emulsion, fluorescent orange roe garnish, all put together with perfect acid balance.  Eaten in one bite, this was a huge flavour hit to start thigs off.  Fish and Chips in a bite.  We’ve eaten a ton of croustades/similar tarts this year as they’ve become super trendy.  This was genuinely the best which we’ve had all year, including at the mighty L’Enclume/Aulis Chef’s table just last month.  I usually hate name dropping in reviews because it’s often just a writer’s way of covertly telling you where else they’ve eaten, just to make themselves sound more clued up than they probably are.  But the comparison is relevant to this write up and 100% warranted here.

A Mrs Kirkham’s cheese ‘sandwich’ was next.  A lovely cheese filling with sharply sliced chive which brought an allium hit to the party, with one savoury cracker on the bottom topped and a more delicate and translucent/sweetened cracker.  Punchy flavours with pinpoint contrast.

The final snack was ‘Surf & Turf Sausage Roll’; a crispy shell loaded with diced goodies then topped with a horseradish cream and grated horseradish.  Ticking all the overused food terms of texture, balance, and pure flavour, this was the favourite of half our table.

The next array of snacks was served at the table in the form of some amazing smoked ham, salmon, cheese, and crackers and pickles.  It was like a first-class Boxing Day smorgasbord, only a week early!

So onto the proper courses we marched, starting with Scallops and Turnips.  Sliced disks of Cornish shellfish, super fresh and top quality, with dressed with refreshing Cheshire turnip, with a leaf garnish covering the plate.

Warm Cheese on Celery Root was indulgent, rich and a perfect in course order.  Melted Tunworth cheese was then scooped from its whole wheel at the table-side, and seductively bathed over the celery root and truffle.  Mushrooms and giblet gravy completed the flavour orchestra.

Cornish Catch, in this case monkfish, with brown shrimp and American sauce, was the unanimous table favourite.  A stripped back simple plate of just 2 components which over-delivered on flavour.  Meaty fish tail, cooked to perfection, dressed with an absolutely exceptional sauce which was more an upscale, spiced fish stew than sauce.

Fallow Deer with garlic juices and beetroot brought more seasonality to the carte.  Gamey, rich and super-meaty Rhug Estate deer, blushing in the centre, paired with butter-basted kale and beets.  A plate of contrasts, compliments and ultimately balance.  I could reel off food adjectives all day long on this one.

Baked custard and English Pear felt homely, yet elevated to the relevant heights. Soft pear was the main component, sat on a cooked custard with some tuile for texture, and a creamy rocher to finish. Flavour wise, think of a custard tart embellished with poached pear.

‘Tipsy cake’ has become another Adam Reid staple.  Perfect in its simplicity and full on flavour, doused in rum at the tableside for more of that customer interaction.

A final flourish came via coffee and the all-important petit fours; a tart jelly with lovely texture from a granulated sugar coating, and some super rich truffles, dusted with cocoa powder.  A meal simply isn’t complete without a coffee and sweets, as you ponder what’s just been devoured.

Cooking wise; the leaf garnish on the scallops was a little clunky, unrefined in feel, and dominated the plate. That’s all.

As on previous visits this year, the bulk of service was carried out by the Chefs themselves, directed by the always charming and outstanding Restaurant Manager; Eleanor.  I’d love to think that this form of service is solely because it’s a brilliant touch which needs to be a staple in top level venues these days.  In truth, it’s also partially driven by on-going staff shortages which still plague many venues across the whole industry. Staff were also wearing masks, despite it not being a requirement (at least at the time of writing), because it’s just the sensible and proactive thing to do at the moment.  And perhaps venues wouldn’t have struggled to garner customer confidence during the crucial money-spinning run up to Xmas, and hence could perhaps have put more bums on seats, had they been equally as professional and diligent?  But that’s another argument entirely.

Head Chef Freddie was on great form this evening; working at the pass and also out in the dining room, serving tables and having a chat as he went, flanked by his brigade.  The team had a more engaging tableside manner than the majority of Chefs who you come across, who generally prefer to stay away from customers, hidden away in their comfort zone at a stove.

Napkins were folded during loo visits, my left handedness was catered for without any prompting as cutlery was set out, and service was generally packed with the kind of detail which elevates standards from the good to the exceptional.

Absolutely nothing; genuinely.

Fish and chips, sausage rolls, cheese and onion sandwiches, bread with beef butter. 

Probably not what you think of when visualising a high-end menu. But it’s the humble, accessible, every-day, recognisable flavours, robed with truly high-end delivery which are now Adam Reid’s hallmark.  There’s simply nowhere else in the land which delivers this ‘Haute Northern’ experience.  I just made that term up whilst sipping my espresso, to be fair. For the record, I wouldn’t mind Adam ripping it off.  But that’s their USP and is the highest possible praise which you can adorn any operator with. 

A unique identity is something which most restaurants lack, regardless of the level on which they operate in terms of accolade, usually falling back onto that old chestnut of being ‘Modern British’.  In truth, that’s usually a generic term which means very little these days, other than the fish is sourced from Cornwall and the pale sauces are split with green herb oil.  We’ve eaten at dozens of premium venues (but won’t name drop) which to be blunt, whilst being spot on and broadly flawless on an objective, impartial and emotionless scorecard, have in the real world been boring, sterile, tick-boxy, samey, and ultimately uninspiring.  The kind of meal you could eat in many Starred venues from Mayfair to Edinburgh, whilst the contents of your plate hold little clue as to where you are. 

‘Modern Manchester’ however, is something which you simply can’t find in any other dining room, anywhere at all. And so, Adam Reid at The French is still peerless in any educated debate over who offers the best complete and unique dining experience in the city. Manchester’s food scene would be left with a gaping hole without these guys.

Barely anything really. Still not keen on that carpet.

Menu Box By AR Preview

I don’t know about you, but in our house it's been a solid 12 months of DIY food boxes, Netflix, online wine tastings, along with some daydreaming on Trivago.  The main social event of the week; getting dolled up to eat at a place that you've wanted to go for ages, has been superseded by waiting for a courier to knock after you've tracked their location on the app all morning, to be handed a cardboard box full of produce that you’ll cook and then eat whilst adorned in a set of PJs.  Possibly speaking for myself there? 

Now since spring 2020, everybody's been posting photos of said cook at home boxes on social media, and there's been a clear improvement in the nation's home crockery standards and plating skills.  A cheesy polka dotted affair with excessive herb oil garnish, has progressed to modern stonecast plates, hosting food that’s been presented with a bit more care and light-handedness.

One of the first decent level food boxes back in the day was from Manchester's very own Adam Reid, who started doing his Great British Menu, to finish cooking at home.  We loved it, and were over the moon to see him carrying on the DIY boxes after that, launching as Menu Box by AR.

Now we have a perhaps silly policy to not repeat Chefs' boxes, as to cram in as many different ones as possible in between now and us actually eating in dining rooms again.  So until now we've not returned for more of Adam's wares, although each week we excitedly wait for the menu to be released so we can at least enjoy it vicariously.  Sure, when this palaver is all over many places will carry on with their food boxes, but the places who do it properly will intrinsically stop and focus more on serving customers in person, not virtually. 

When I say 'properly' I mean the restaurants who actually produce the food boxes, in their own kitchen, by their own Chefs.  A large chunk of boxes out there are now produced in massive generic offsite prep kitchens, by staff who have nothing to do with the restaurant which the box is 'from'.  Crucially, they often don’t use the same produce that the named eatery uses, and bang out 1000's of boxes a week on behalf of tons of restaurants, just using that restaurant's recipes and then share the profits.  I'm not a fan of this because more often than not, you can usually tell that the contents of the box have next to nothing to do with the restaurant whose name is slapped on it.  But each to their own I guess.

No such issues here.  Adam's boxes are produced in the kitchen of The French by the man himself.  We were lucky enough to have a socially distanced Zoom chat with Adam and his restaurant manager Eleanor in said kitchen earlier this month, during which he was indeed prepping his own boxes.  So you can be sure that these are the real deal and you'll get a true taste of Adam Reid at The French ahead of the doors reopening one day soon.

Menu Box by AR is delivered on a Friday but don’t need to be consumed on the day of delivery.  Just remember to unpack the box on the day and follow the storage instructions. So the day after our courier drop off we got into our own kitchen to finish things off. 

The menu started as it often does in the restaurant, with some of the signature beef butter and bespoke Pollen Bakery sourdough.  Whack it on a plate.  No skill needed at all, but a nice plate can make you look semi talented.  There's little more you can say about this dish which hasn’t been said already.  It's as good as any sourdough you'll eat, and that butter is always tip top.

Next up was Brown Onion Soup, with 28 hour sourdough and truffled rarebit.  A spin on French Onion Soup, topped with a giant cheesy crouton, laced with super fragrant truffle. 

A fantastic broth with tons of layers and a real depth of flavour.  It was a cinch to prep too.  Heat the soup lightly, toast the back of the bread, top the other side with the rarebit mix, then grill until golden.  You're supposed to pop the toast into the soup to soak it up a bit, but when you're spending 2 minutes taking photos, you don’t want to be getting things too soggy.  Suffice to say, the bread was dunked about 3 seconds after these shots were taken.  Putting the critical head on; was bread needed on two back to back courses?  Possibly not, but when you're lounging about in those PJ's, bring on the carbs I say.  These things have elasticated waists for good reason.

Main course was Aged Cumbrian sirloin, caramelised cabbage with Garlic and Lovage Mayo.  High quality beef with stunningly rich fat, which came pre-seared, garnished with a slice of braised/charred cabbage, which was topped with a garlic/lovage infused mayo and the best finishing ingredient on the planet; crispy onions! 

I dress at least 50% of home cooked food with them, only I buy the big sacks from the supermarket because they are cheap and passable.  Like my cooking in general.  Clearly, Adam's were on a different level. Perfectly sweet and crunchy, with no sign of bitterness as you too often get when they've been fried for even a few seconds too long.

The sauce was stunning and again super flavoursome.  When a sauce turns up to your house as jelly, you know it's going to be riddled with boney goodness.

To finish it was Medjool date pudding, brown sugar and tamarind sauce, with clotted cream.  Basically, a Cheffy sticky toffee pudding, elevated to make it just that little bit more interesting.  The rich dates created an indulgent and moist pudding, with an even richer sauce carrying the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness from the sugar and tamarind.  A dollop of clotted cream gave it all some lightness and kept the sweetness in check, then the whole thing was finished with some citrus butter for that added lift and zing. 

In the cooking notes, Adam suggests eating this course with a brew.  No PX, no Tokaji or a fancy sticky wine pairing here. We ignored this guidance and opted to finish our meal with an Espresso and truffles to perfectly recreate the restaurant experience.

So another great box of DIY action from Manchester's main man.  As touched on earlier in the prefix blurb; you could taste Adam's cooking even though it was finished in a far less capable kitchen following the vac packing and courier trip.  For me, this authenticity is super essential with any high end food box. 

The only downside of me writing these dishes up for you is that they likely won't appear in the menu boxes again since the menu changes weekly.  So, perhaps not repeating menus from the same Chef was a stupid policy after all?  Not to worry, you can be pretty sure that every week your box of choice will be prepared with the same love and true to form quality. Due to some poor planning on our part we forgot to order the specially created Gusbourne wine selection, so on realising our mistake just paired the dishes with bottles from one of our favourite yards.

With the end of lockdown and normality apparently close to hand, do yourself a favour and get yourself one of Adam's DIY boxes. They are genuinely some of the very best out there, and we've had a lot, an awful lot, over the last 12 months.