Blacklock Preview

Manchester has been blessed with a score of new openings this year, and one which has gathered a huge amount of anticipation is Blacklock, the London based purveyor of all things steak and of course chops!

We headed down to the press launch, and arrived in the bustling dining room situated in a palatial basement unit, hidden below Peter Street.  It's a truly handsome space.

The meat fest started with Smoked Beef Ribs (£8), which were everything we'd hoped.  Sticky, bags of flavour and simply fell off the bone with minimal coercion.  A superb way to start things off.

Talking to colleagues, we'd heard great things about the Pig's Head on Toast (£8), which was a must order.  It wasn’t anywhere near as daunting or graphic as it sounds.! The heads up advice, no pun intended, wasn’t a let down.  A hefty slice of toast topped with a rich, fatty, super tasty pigs head terrine, garnished with copious amounts of red chilli and sauced with a whole boat of Blacklock Gravy.  A must order dish and one of the stars of the whole evening.

After a teaser we were ready for the meat, so started with and the 'All In' (£27 p/p); Blacklock's iconic sharing plate containing an array of pork chops, lamb chops, rump steak, and pork belly.  The goods are all sat atop strips of focaccia to soak up all those lovely resting juices.   A plate of this alone would make a hearty feast in itself.  Great quality produce, cooked really well

This also came with a series of 'Pre Chop Bites', which are  a trio of snacks topped with various goodies from Potted Meats and Kimchi, Egg and Anchovy, to the classic and table pleasing cheese and pickle.

Onto round two of the protein overload, and this time it was a beef rib steak to share (£10 per 100g).  Blacklock's own herd of Cornish cattle ensure superb provenance, and great quality, especially for the uber-reasonable price tags being charged here.  A whiteboard outlines the available sizes/prices, and we chose the 800g slab to allow our group of 4 to get a decent portion, but it would befit the place of a sturdy main for 2.  More superb quality produce cooked properly.

No steak would be complete without the addition of some sides, and Blacklock have you covered on all bases there too.  At the risk of sounding all M&S, the chips were not just chips, they were Beef Dripping Chips, so absolutely delicious.  A chophouse will intrinsically generate plenty of dripping, so using it in other dishes is not only business smart, but also sustainable.  Everyone wins.

Barbecued Baby Gems & Anchovy Dripping carried Caesar salad vibes, with some wonderful smoky scents from that BBQ char, plus it added some obligatory greenery to our plates.   Kale & Parmesan completed the trio and again made us feel virtuous and semi healthy.

It was lovely to see tap wine featured heavily on the wine carte too.  Not only is it superb quality these days, but it's also great in the sustainability stakes, plus is also superb value.  Ideal since when at such comped press events, we prefer not to take the mickey and start ordering the super spenny stuff.

Our vino of choice for the evening was the tapped Chateau Des Arras Bordeaux Blend (£54 a litre), which punched well above its weight and price tag.

Crumble (£7) is always a favourite, so seeing an apple version featuring on the menu was great to see.  Chunky rocks of crumble parted way to reveal a lovely apple filling with great texture.  No mushy apple here, and this was a quality version of a British classic.

Chocolate Ice Cream (£5) was a simple and delicious option, ideal for those who'd like to end with something sweet, but perhaps don’t have too much room left in which to cram said sweetness.

But to end, Blacklock's iconic cheesecake was a must order and the rumours are true.  The guys will serve you as big of a portion as you can handle.  In our case that wasn’t too much after 2 previous courses of indulgence, but still.  It was rich, tasty.

So with full bellies, our experience came to and end, but we knew before leaving that we'd be back.   It's hard not to argue about being fed so well for such a reasonable price point, in such a lovely room.  And whilst we test drove the a la carte offering, there's also A Sunday Roast available, along with some very well priced lunch courses including a steak sarnie and a burger.  Based on the quality of the full a la carte, you'd be tempted to assume that they are also superb.

Welcome to Manchester guys!

** Our experience was gratefully comped **