When we arranged to see Mother Courage , my friend suggested that we also push the boat out and go to Mana a new, fine-dining restaurant in Ancoats, where the food is a work of art for the eye as well as the taste buds!
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| Open Kitchen |
There's no menu. There is a 14 course menu, and that is what you get, although when you book they ask about any allergies or dislikes, so you don' get served anything you hate.
And then you sit back and enjoy.
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| Winter Branch - Juniper and Thyme |
Each dish is brought to you not by the waiting staff, but by the chef or chefs who made it, who explain what it is.
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| Pork and Ceps |
Some courses were merely tasty, others were sublime. One or two were mildly disappointing - there was a carrot dish with gooseberry and chili, where the chili overwhelmed everything else, for instance.
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| Celeriac and spruce |
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| Milk curds, Lovage and Walnuts |
But most of it was amazing. There was a Yakitori style smoked eel dish, which was cooked over hot coals in the kitchen, and came with a roasted yeast marinade, and was the stuff of dreams.
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| Charred onions |
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| Barbecued Brassicas |
I particularly liked the barbecued brassicas with dehydrated scallops and beeswax. I don't know what dark magic they used, but they somehow took cabbage (and other brassica) leaves, and made them taste as though they were cooked with beef, or some other proper barbecued meat!
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| Sheep's Milk, Apple and Sorrel |
As the meal drew to a close, we were given Sheep's Milk (a little yogurty quenelle, plus some meringue-like discs of milk, still delightfully sharp and fresh tasting) with apple and sorrell ice - it was delicious and very refreshing.
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| Chocolate sprayed reindeer moss |
The second dessert was reindeer moss, from the isle of Skye, sprayed with dark chocolate and served with a whisky egg-nog dipping sauce. It makes for what may be the worlds most high-class cornflake cake, and did make me suspect that reindeer moss may not taste of much by itself, but offer it to me sprayed with chocolate and served with egg nog and I'll take it any time!
It's not cheap, but it is a very pleasant way to spend an evening, and as the menu changes with the seasons, it's very tempting to go back again.
The head chef, Simon Martin, was formerly a chef at Noma.
If you are in or near Manchester, I'd heartily recommend it. I think they do a shorter set menu at lunch time, too. I want to go back
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