What? La Piazza’s plaice fillet with sauté potatoes and salsa Napoli £4.90
The blame: Lunchtimes in the Spinningfields area of Manchester can become a see-saw between Pret A Manger and Eat. Both may make fresh food, but considering their prices they’re often uninspiring and disappointing.
Having undergone a long-awaited refurb triggered by a change of ownership, La Piazza has been pulling in hopeful lunchtime wanderers to their Little Quay Street site next to The Old Grapes pub.
The circumstance: As much as we may try and make effort to be healthy at lunchtime, unfortunately most quick lunch options contain bread followed by more bread with a side of bread. Even the majority of salads come layered with creamy dressings in most food retail chains.
La Piazza however, is on a mission to not only make lunchtimes healthier, but keep them interesting too. As well as some off the beaten track sandwich fillers such as tuna with spicy Moroccan sharmoula (£3.30) and feta cheese with roast vegetables and Greek salsa (£2.80), their main menu also features a daily paella, jacket potatoes, soups and quiches. The specials board is where they really go to town though, with their ‘Eat. Fresh. Healthy. Original.’ Mediterranean theme. The plaice fillet immediately caught our eye.
La Piazza Plaice Fillet
The appearance: It may look battered, but it’s actually baked. You can also choose what you’d like on the side. La Piazza always has a couple of potato dishes on the hot plate; one day we tried the fish with the recommended sauté potatoes with salad, and another we tried the potato Catalan with tomato. Both were exceptional accompaniments.
The experience: It's La Piazza, but not as you might remember it. The joint is now run by an all-male team who have pretty much rebuilt the former rundown sandwich shop from scratch. It’s now all shiny and new with staff who can’t do enough for you. You want your fish fresh out the oven? Then that’s what you’ll get, even if there’s plenty waiting in the counter.
The fish: This is a piece of fish that’s just waiting for someone to eat it, hence it just falls apart at the slightest touch of a fork. And you’ll fall apart too. As one of my colleagues confessed, having taken her last mouthful: “I do feel like crying over the fact that the fish is finished.”
Those La Piazza boys know a thing or two about seasoning and while it may look battered, it doesn’t sit in the pit of your stomach like a chip shop fish does. It’s a healthy yet filling alternative with a taste you'll still be savouring in your mouth hours later.
The consequences: I can’t stop tweeting about it. So much so, each time I visit La Piazza, there appears to be more and more customers. Not to say that’s my doing but hopefully after this review it will be. The La Piazza team certainly deserve it.
Verdict: Break the chain. Visit this independent.
Follow La Piazza on Twitter @_lapiazza to be the first to know their daily lunchtime specials.
Follow Lynda on Twitter @lyndamoyo
La Piazza
