The New Moon Pub Company have been on my radar for some time. A group of ‘gastro pubs’ in Cheshire owned by David Mooney and Paul Newman, I’ve been desperate to visit for some time but their location has meant I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. That is where Beef and Pudding comes in and the buzz around Manchester for this new restaurant is like nothing I have witnessed since starting this blog.
Beef and Pudding is located on Booth Street just off Fountain Street with unmissable red neon signage. I’m told this is an impressive renovation from the pub that was previously housed here with a lovely bar area separated from the restaurant. Never ones to like to miss out Charlie and I popped along during their soft launch to see if they could live up to the hype.
The first area to impress was the cocktail menu. It is quirky, different and a great mix of fizz, sweet and savoury to suit most palates. I went for the beef and pu off the fizz menu. The house champagne Taittinger (and one of my personal favourites) is joined by locally grown beetroot syrup to give a slightly earthy edge to your regular glass of fizz. And it is a lovely colour obviously! My date went for the mojito diablo following a recommendation from David Mooney himself and it didn’t disappoint. Fresh limes topped with chilli, mint and sugar is muddled before topping with copious amounts of Patron tequila, crème de cassis and a splash of soda. This certainly packed a punch and is not for the faint hearted, the heat of the chilli pairing really well with the spicy flavours of the tequila.
The olives are beautifully presented in a tall can with olive topped cocktail sticks that were quickly turned into hair accessories. The cheese topped garlic bread beats any other I have had so far in the city with a smokey flavour cheese on top of sweet brioche. Just beautiful.
For starters we decided to try a few of the plank sharers with Charlie and Mr GFB going for the coastal and my date and I opting for the Manc plank. Head chef Nic had recommended the tripe dish to us before Beef and Pudding opened so we ordered some of that too. It would be rude not to.
The coastal features the most beautiful potted shrimp cake with the saltiness to leave you begging for more. The ‘gunpowder’ smoked salmon was also fabulous with a melting texture that a vodka spiked rub works with so well. The Dublin bay prawns were so juicy and just cooked giving them the perfect texture and fresh flavour. A mini beer battered fish with mushy peas finished it off and just left us wanting more. If I hadn’t already ordered my main course I would have been ordered the regular size of this.
The Manc plank is a thing of beauty and something that will have me coming back here time and time again. Now I don’t ‘do’ pate. I’m just not a fan of the gamey, rich flavours and would never order it in a restaurant. I was dubious of this duck variety and I should have been… because I am now a convert. This pate is made using Gressingham duck, my favourite Hunters gin and macerated apricots, the latter flavours giving this a fruity yet spicy punch to take the edge of the game flavours just enough for me to become obsessed. Charlie had to wrestle the pot off me to get a look in. I was gutted that she loved it too. Cheshire cheese bon bons are similar to the goats cheese ones I tried at Rosylee but with a more salty and citrus taste thanks to the gorgeous change of cheese. Pig and Co sausages (who won the sausage test at Manchester Food and Drink Festival I judged last year) are also welcomed with a beautiful chutney as well as a mini cottage pie and buttered black peas. Delicious and all pretty filling to say the least.
The recommended tripe I was worried about. It’s offal and I don’t like offal. Many people have tried to change my mind in the past six months and haven’t succeeded. But Nic? Yep she did it. Soft tripe is given a crispy coating and served on top of a wedge of crumbly Lancashire cheese with spicy pickled onions. The flavours work so well together that the creamy flavours of the tripe are complimented in a way I never thought possible.
Onto mains and my date had long before made his mind up that he was going for the pudding. One of us had to after all, it is the namesake of the restaurant. I thought I’d go slightly lighter after such a heavy start to the evening with the pork belly and chorizo pappardelle.
The pudding is immense. A huge and towering suet pudding filled with softly melting beef and venison chunks, slight heat from a horseradish paste, rich gravy and more of those lovely black peas we had enjoyed on our starter plank. This dish was an instant hit with the whole table and most of Manchester, it would appear, With Paul having to rush out on the opening night to find more suet following a sellout!
The pappardelle was served all dente with just a brushing of sauce and beautifully soft pork belly. The manchego (my favourite cheese ever) gave the saltiness the sherry needed to finish off the dish but unfortunately the chorizo had been missed. This was a soft launch and the whole point is to test the kitchen and wait staff before opening for real, I wasn’t at all bothered. I’ll have this dish again because the chorizo would finish it off perfectly.
How we managed dessert is beyond me. We also opted for a pudding plank as many others have by the looks of other blogs I have read so far this weekend. Well the menu looked fabulous and this is a great way to try more than one! The hit for me was the Eccles cake topped with Lancashire cheese. My mum always used to eat her Eccles cakes with cheese and I always thought it odd. I had to ring her and apologise because the sweet currants against the sharp cheese is a perfect match. The ‘most chocolate’ tart was also a hit with me. Rich and sweet chocolate in a perfectly crispy pastry case topped with peanut brittle, it has me written all over it right? I wasn’t a huge fan of the banoffee cheesecake as I wanted more banana flavour but I know Charlie absolutely loved it. See how this wonderful dessert satisfies the whole table?
Suitably stuffed we went on our merry way… and then remembered that we had a business meeting the following day. Guess where we ended up…I have no photos. It was a business meeting after all, but the Beefham tower was declared ‘the shit’ (from a Stoke male this means pretty damn good) and another member of the party said the pudding was the best he had ever tasted. And this guy has lived all over the world.
Something I did photograph was my cocktails. Well I am a cocktail bar reviewer, I was just doing my job. I went back to my childhood with a naughty twist on the drumstick and umbongo.
Both served with sweets that bring out the flavours of the drinks so well they are fairly sweet but taste just like their namesakes. Drumstick mixes Absolut vanilla, blackberry and strawberry liquor that, when drank with the lolly, brings out the flavours of the vodka really well. The umbongo is simply Absolut mango, grapefruit and pineapple. Simple yet genius.
I think it is safe to say we have converted some of the business clientele of Manchester to the ways of Beef and Pudding and you know what? I’m glad… now when can I go back.
I was invited to this event as a guest of the restaurant. The second visit was discounted to 50% but all drinks were paid for in full. This is an honest review of my experience.
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