PUT Damson at The Quays on your list of top ten North West restaurants to visit this year.
This is what the first floor venue delivers, excellent food, one of the best wine lists in the region, well-trained staff who know how to be efficient while carrying a smile, a sharp interior and perhaps the best view from a Manchester or Salford restaurant.
The light quality you get down at the Quays sat, as it is, in a natural bowl filled with water is quite extraordinary. It complements the limpid food and drink perfectly.
The team at Damson is led by a former winner of the Manchester Food and Drink Festival's Outstanding Contribution Award Steve Pilling, and Simon Stanley, a chef who knows how to combine exciting flavours with handsome presentation. The new place is the Salford sister of the award-winning Heaton Moor, Damson, and the cousin of the equally award-winning Red Lion in High Lane.
Steve Pilling and a wine recommendation
There are a number of menus. These are to entice the BBC hordes that work on the MediaCityUK estate, the pre-theatre crowd on their way to the Lowry shows, and the serious foodies on a grub-chasing night out.
I've been to Damson on at least three occasions and tried both the a la carte and the working lunch menus. It's been a real pleasure.
A starter of veloute of white beans and potato with mushroom crisps and truffle cream (£3.95 - working lunch menu) was refined but still rugged with the earthy notes of the robust tubers, legumes and funghi - maybe a touch more truffle oil would have lifted it further.
Veloute
The main courses have all been outstanding.
The roasted rump of lamb (with creamed Jersey Royals, new season asparagus, roasted garlic puree and salsa verde, £19.95 - a la carte menu) was special. The juicy lamb lay medium rare on the plate and said come and get me big boy. The creamed Jersey Royals were so creamy and yet spuddy I almost wanted to forgive the Channel Islands for being grasping tax-havens. Superb.
The lamb
The confit Gressingham duck leg (with saute potatoes, spinach, green beans, garlic shallot and port wine sauce, £12.95 - working lunch menu) was an absolute picture. The duck cut and fell succulently onto the fork and bundled with the beans, shallot, sauce and greens was an effortless essay in elegant strength.
Devine duck
The cep and rosemary lasagne (with toasted hazelnuts and balsamic and baby spinach, roquette and Parmesan salad, £9.95 - working lunch menu) will delight vegetarians because it certainly delighted the meat eaters trying it. The key was the balance between the ingredients - the hazelnuts and balsamic were a presence but not overwhelmingly so. Rush here to try this veggie people.
Lasagne
Meanwhile a grilled fillet of hake (with ragout of cockles, fennel, and cherry tomatoes, chorizo and red pepper vinaigrette, £9.95 - working lunch menu) was again a picture, enlivening the tastebuds with a carefully constructed ragout. As a little caveat here, Damson have to take care that the collation isn't too watery at the base.
Hake
Desserts after the fandango of the previous courses were slightly disappointing.
The tart in the lemon tart, rhubarb and raspberry sorbet (£4.95 - working lunch menu) was nigh perfect as were the filo and sponge in the iced lemon chiboust, almond filo crisp, warm citrus sponge and raspberry foam (£6.95 - a la carte menu), but both desserts were lacking in an essential element in puddings of this nature.
The chiboust
They both lacked sufficient sweetness and occasionally the bitter characteristics were too prominent. Bit of tweaking needs to be done here.
There isn't room to mention the exceptional wines at Damson, that needs another article. Look at the picture below, but remember there are wines for every wallet size; Steve Pilling found me a joyous Brouilly Beaujolais that jigged happily with the lamb.
Part of the wine list
And then there's a view which takes in the Imperial War Museum North, the Lowry, the sweet foreground landscaping and trams sliding in and out of the station like child's toys. You can watch the view for hours.
That gorgeous view
The only downside to Damson is finding it.
Located in something called the Orange Building which isn't Orange, it has an external door that seems reluctant to open and an underwhelming sign above - let's give that a neon blast boys.
The best way to dig Damson out is find Prezzo, a mid-range 'Italian' chain and then look up, Damson is on the first floor, and the entrance is down the side.
Another problem and not just for Damson but also the fabulous Booths store, Wagamamas, Holiday Inn and any other business down at MediaCityUK is there's no taxi rank. Despite the BBC presence, the whole estate is owned by Peel Group, née Manchester Ship Canal Company, and they have an idiotic policy about not allowing a taxi rank on site. Ridiculous. Why?
View from the landscaped area of the Imperial War Museum North
Law unto themselves Peel, although we have to be grateful they've delivered MediaCityUK for us with the right the landscaping. And also inviting a team as talented as Pilling and Stanley to open up Damson.
It always surprises me how few Greater Mancunians have been for a walk around The Quays and through MediaCityUK.
For me, doing the bridges is the perfect Sunday morning stroll.
Start on the Trafford side at Imperial War Museum North, walk over the MediaCity swing footbridge, through the BBC buildings, maybe purchase a tasty snack at Booths, take a break in the gardens, then return via the crazy wet-suited swimmers in Dock Nine, the shiny Lowry, and over the lift footbridge to the start point.
The light quality you get down at the Quays sat, as it is, in a natural bowl filled with water is quite extraordinary.
We can now add another attraction to the walk.
I might set off a little later and take in a lazy vinous lunch at Damson.
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here@JonathSchofield or connect via Google+
ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE.
Damson, Orange Building, MediaCityUK, Salford, Manchester. 0161 751 7020
Rating: 15.75/20
Food: 7.75/10 (lasagne 8, duck 8.5, tart 6.5, veloute 7.5, lamb 8.5, hake 7.5, bread 8.5, chiboust 7.5)
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5 (Bonus points for the best view from a Manchester restaurant. Kaleido on top of Urbis and the National Football Museum should clearly run away with this accolade but it's hard to see out of the striated windows if you sit in the wrong place).)
View from inside Damson
Inside Damson
Lemon tart
Greens for the lasagne
Tourists on the footbridge from the Imperial War Museum North leading to Damson
Landscaping outside Damson
Sunrise over the Quays
