'Lovely space and great meat': Blacklock, Peter Street, reviewed

As subterranean restaurant spaces go Blacklock’s cellar is up there with the best of them. It’s a proper handsome space of exposed brick, broad ceiling rafters, iron columns, blackboards and antique bits and bobs.

It looks exactly how an 1860s Manchester textile warehouse should, strong and somehow right. The architects were Clegg & Knowles, masters of this type of building based on Italian Renaissance palaces. There are loads of examples across the city centre from this energetic practice, especially on Princess Street.

This is a confident outfit completely clear about what it is offering and how to deliver it

The Manchester Blacklock joins the five existing London restaurants. As company it makes great play of its virtuousness. The website mentions ‘sustainability’ so frequently it’s hardly sustainable in writerly terms. The company is signed up to something I’ve never heard of, B Corps. These are ‘businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.’

To be fair the credentials look sound from the sourcing of the meat from the Warren family based in Cornwall to the perks staff can enjoy such as free meals for various reasons and even a ‘four week fully paid sabbatical or a round the world ticket’ on the fifth anniversary of employment. There’s ‘two paid days off when staff adopt or get their first puppy, ‘to help your little furry friend settle in at their new home’. That’s tweeness defined just there. Bless.

The T&Cs of employment might provide a clue as to why the staff all seemed so happy on our visit. They were also well-trained and very informed about the food and drink. Congratulations to Blacklock. The way staff perform is key to any really good restaurant experience.

The menu is straightforward and very meaty. Chops are a speciality but there are steaks and burgers, but bugger all veggie dishes, or rather three, unless you include sides and hors d'oeuvres. There’s only one, yes one, fish dish.

We had a couple of the ‘pre-chop bites’, the aforementioned hors d'oeuvres, at £2 each, the egg and anchovy and the cheese and pickle. Both were good but the egg and anchovy was truly delicious, all mushed up on a cracker with a distinctive fishy snap. Better again was the starter of mushrooms on toast (£7.50) with a rich earthy sauce and generous numbers of the glorious fungus slopped luxuriantly over bread.

I had the fish starter, the crayfish cocktail (£10.50) and wished I hadn’t. It looked the very image of an old-fashioned prawn cocktail but there was a seriously unpleasant taste with the sauce that almost made it inedible. Apparently vanilla pods are included in the preparation. Yuck. Doesn’t work. When I was asked by the staff for comments I told them and the manager took the dish off the bill. Good service again.

All was forgiven when the main sharing course appeared.

This was a glorious smoked bacon chop (£16) with some of the best chips (£4.80) in a Manchester restaurant plus really good barbequed baby gem lettuces and anchovy dripping (£4.80). The Blacklock gravy (again £4.80) is a thing of wonder, rich, so very rich and so very…er…beefy. Drizzled over the meat, the chips, the whole damn shooting match, it enhanced the whole experience by 25% minimum. Back to that chop which was exquisite with its just-so smokiness and its juicy flesh.

A bit stuffed we opted for the ice creams and sorbets (£7.50), vanilla with the former and chocolate and raspberry with the latter. These were standard but fine enough.

A Blacklock thing is wine on tap. One of the reasons, upon enquiry, was it's more ‘sustainable’. That word again. This might be the case but the Bordeaux Blend (£38) lacked character. It’ll be a bottle for me next time.

As I notionally bathed in the gravy I pondered the nearby meaty experiences. There’s Hawksmoor round the corner on Deansgate and there’s Flat Iron at the junction of Deansgate and Quay Street. Blacklock occupies a culinary position between the two, albeit much closer to the Hawksmoor end of the spectrum. The restaurant works well and is working well as a busy Monday lunchtime proved. This is a confident outfit completely clear about what it is offering and how to deliver it. Blacklock provided a thoroughly enjoyable hat-trick experience of food, service and room. I'll be back.

Blacklock, 37 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5GB