HERE'S another fine addition to Manchester's stampeding hotel industry.
The views across to arts centre HOME should make this a good place to relax pre or post show
INNSIDE by Meliá - one of Spain's leading hotel groups - has launched its first UK hotel in Manchester today.
Manchester will be the group's 35th hotel worldwide, with INNSIDE Glasgow and Birmingham soon to follow. The INNSIDE concept was pioneered in Germany where there are almost forty examples.
The new 208-room Manchester hotel, including eight studio suites, is located within the city's new £500m First Street development, overlooking HOME, Manchester's new £25m international centre for contemporary visual art, theatre and film.
Inside INNSIDE, the ground floor, with the restaurant, bar and reception areas are the showpiece. These spaces are generous in the extreme and the light coming through the windows is enormous. There are lovely details all around with excellent light fittings and plenty of room to spread out in with comfortably spaced tables and chairs.
The new hotel, designed by SimpsonHaugh Partners, is also home to 'Street on First', a restaurant and bar offering an international menu of both traditional and contemporary sharing dishes. The menu is Spanish influenced but also offers a number of surprises from across the Pacific. The chef is the clever, if slightly insane, David Spanner (formerly of Livebait, RBG and Australasia).
The food looks as lovely as the venue with tapas options, salads, paella, pasta, mains, sharing plates and no pizzas (hurrah). The beef shitake mushroom skewers (£5.50) were saturated with flavour and despite their modest size were great fillers. The whitebait (£5), were crispy but unclogged with heavy batter, retaining a distinct fishiness and came with an excellent smoked paprika aioli. A salman pastram salad (£9) was a deconstructed delight, as light as a feather, with edge delivered by shaved fennel and 'mahamara' aka a gently hot pepper dip. The bread, homemade and warm, was a force for good too.
The views across to arts centre HOME should make this a good place to relax pre or post show. A stroke of genius here is keeping the bar and bar menu open until 2am for non-residents too.
Confidential stayed over in rooms that on first look, appear very minimal. The original INNSIDE Hotel's were German as described above and the aesthetic in the rooms is Teutonic, more Bauhaus than Baroque in their stern plainness. But this simplicity grows on you, as your own belongings start to decorate the place. Located adjacent to the main rail line to Liverpool and Scotland the windows have to be very well insulated and they are. Sleep is that of a log.
One curiosity from Germany is the way the bathroom, the shower and the washbasin are effectively in the room with the bed. You can watch your bedroom partner's ablutions in detail if that's your thing. At least the toilet is in separate space with a good solid door providing privacy. The beds are superb and vast.
Breakfast is also very Northern European with a long line of yoghurts, fruit and various mueslis stretching as far as teh eye can see. Fortunately there's also good bacon, mushrooms, cooked tomatoes, sausages and so forth. INNSIDE only needs black pudding and they've cracked it. Reading the paper on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday whilst making repeat visits to the breakfast bar was an unmitigated joy.
Then it was a stroll into town, a visit to Manchester Art Galley, a coffee and cake. Everybody should make the effort to be tourists in their own town, take it in slowly without the rusharound of work. We were thinking of taking in a film in HOME next door to the hotel but time was against us. Having the arts complex of theatre, galleries and cinemas so close should give INNSIDE a boost. The food is a happy and clever counterpoint to the hearty wholesomeness of that at HOME (click here), it will definitely appeal to those luvvie audiences.
Two things I'd change at INNSIDE: get those black puddings in for breakfast; remove the ugly transfer from the window over the terrace which stops people seeing into the lovely restaurant.
Meliá Hotels International's chief executive and Vice-Chairman, Gabriel Escarrer, said: "The new cultural outlook for Manchester is an ideal framework for the growth of INNSIDE by Meliá, a brand which originated in Germany and which enjoys a fantastic reputation among our customers. We aim to bring INNSIDE to a number of key cities in Europe and across the world in the next few years.”
General Manager, Adam Munday, also comments: “We’re very happy to launch INNSIDE Manchester. The hotel is looking great. The First Street Development is the perfect location for the brand’s first UK hotel and we’re looking forward to working alongside HOME to create memorable experiences for our guests.”
Confidential thinks this is a fine addition to the city's hotel scene. INNSIDE is very professional, very tranquil and as sharp as a pin. Staff training standards have been very high, Marcos, our waiter in the restaurant was excellent. The vodka martini's are very good as well and shows the bar is on form too.
Room prices start from £99.00.
INNSIDE Hotel | First Street | Manchester | M15 4FN
