Charles Campion On Sam's Chop House

This article first appeared in Pub & Bar Magazine on 1 August 2016.

THERE are some powerful cosmic influences in play. Why is it that otherwise likeable, friendly cities all want a tram no matter what the disruption? Ask the folk who waited for years, or even decades, as the tram installation work clogs and ruins their city. 

Sam’s has real charm – it seems old-fashioned but not to the point of quaintness

There’s a tram proposed from West London to the centre – Ealing look out. Just mention ‘tram works’ to anyone in Edinburgh and they’ll flinch. There’s a successful tram running from Altrincham to Manchester city centre, but now the interminable road works of yet another new line is raising tempers. Currently, Cross Street Manchester shoulders a lot of the burden, with streets shut off and people staring over the high fences at the shops and bars they wish to get to. 

Sam’s Chop House was opened in 1872 by Samuel Studd and is the kind of pub you would end up with if you asked a designer of film sets for something very traditional. Walk down a short flight of stairs and you are in a world of dark wood and magnificent Victorian tiling. The horseshoe bar offers keg beers with half a dozen real ales on the hand pull, plus the house ale – Sam’s Special Best Bitter (4.2% ABV, light and crisp and made by Holts Brewery, a Manchester stalwart). The bar at Sam’s has always got one customer seated at it – a life-size bronze of Manchester’s most famous artist L. S. Lowry. The great man was a regular at Sam’s when he worked as a rent collector for a company just over the road. The statue by Peter Hodgkinson is uncanny – if you’re sitting at the bar and just glimpse the bronze Lowry in the peripheral vision it can look pretty life-like. Don’t hesitate to raise a glass to the ‘simple man’.

Sam's has one very loyal customer

After a chequered history and decline with various big pub chains, Sam’s closed down in 1996 and was left empty until 1999 when an ex-adman called Roger Ward took over. Now there are three properties in his Victorian Chop House Group: Sam’s Chop House; Tom’s Chop House; and the Albert Square Chop House. All with decent beer and resolutely British menus. 

We are in an age when local dishes, local ingredients and local beers are basking in the spotlight, and Sam’s Chop House ticks all those boxes. The dining room seats 60 and another 20 can eat in the bar. The décor is honest and dates back to the Victorian heyday. The menu is long and rambling with plenty of dishes that are Lancastrian through and through. To begin with, try the bread and dripping – soft bread and a small pot of melted dripping complete with the dark brown jollop scraped from the bottom of the roasting tin. A pinch of salt and you’ve reached nirvana. A rich, lasting flavour that boots your taste buds back a few decades. The starters are priced between £5.50 and £10.95 (the pricey dish being ‘King scallops with spring pea and mint purée’). Opt for ‘Roast bone marrow’ – a large portion, accompanied by sourdough and onion marmalade. Very rich. Then there’s a list of other substantial dishes – the ‘Corned beef hash cake’ is a great option – providing that you are not having the hash later as a main course. It’s topped with a poached egg and homemade brown sauce (they are very defensive about brown sauce in Manchester). Or there’s a crisp black pudding fritter. Or a special of duck hearts, which come on toast and with a rather fiery paprika sauce. 

Suffolk pork T-bone chop

Lancashire butter pie

The main courses all appeal and range in price from £10 to £13.50 (if you exclude the steaks, including grilled fillet £26; or 20oz rib on the bone £38). ‘Finnan haddie’ is served with new potato and leek hash, a soft poached egg and a grain mustard Hollandaise sauce (main image). Good flavours and good, pale smoked haddock. Then there’s a ‘Lancashire butter pie’ – a nifty veggie option with spring greens and lots of butter. It’s a cheese and potato pie by any other name. Good pastry. The ‘Steak and kidney pudding’ is a large one. Packed with steak and kidney and with a small sauce boat containing a rich gravy for lubrication (which it needs). The corned beef hash lurks on the main course list and is just as filling as when in its starter incarnation. There’s a good hand at the grill here and as well as the steaks there’s a 12oz Barnsley chop – a thick cut double chop accurately cooked. Plenty of flavour, pink in the middle. Or there’s a 12oz Suffolk pork T-bone chop – with a credit to Dingley Dell pork – served with champ and Bramley apple sauce. 

At Sam’s the dishes are all familiar and comfortingly old-fashioned, so you can count on the mushy peas and the whisper crisp chips. The wine list repays investigation. It is the work of George Bergier, who does the buying for all three of the Chop Houses. With a bravery that is almost folly, he points to the dozen different bins of English wine, as he insists Sam’s specialises in the best of British food and that should include the best of English wines. On a less exotic note this is a long and considered list with plenty of wines by the glass and a number of serious three-figure bottles should you be hell bent on pushing the boat out. Puddings are £6 – there’s a ‘Cambridge burnt cream’; a strawberry trifle; a Malteser ice cream sundae; or a rice pudding dedicated to Mr Lowry – a vanilla rice pudding with poached rhubarb and ginger bread.

Service is unfussy but effective and Bergier marshals the different wines, decanters and glasses adroitly. Sam’s has real charm – it seems old-fashioned but not to the point of quaintness. The food is honest, locally inspired and if you can dodge the tram excavations and get a seat next to Mr Lowry at the bar you will have a good time.

Sam's Chop House, Back Pool Fold, Manchester M2 1HN. Tel: 0161 834 3210.

Our new recruit, former Times, Independent and London Evening Standard food critic, author and Masterchef expert, Charles Campion, has so far reviewed Northcote, Australasia and Simon Radley at The Grosvenor for Confidential.