Big flavours and vivid colours are coming to Manchester's Kampus development
Confidentials.com was in Liverpool earlier this week and we dived into some Mexican food at Madre in the Atlantic Pavilion at Albert Dock, Liverpool. This was useful as in a matter of days the vivid delights in design and dining will surface in the handsome surroundings of Kampus, Chorlton Street.
It was clear we were celebrating our own Day of the Dead (Pig)
This will be a ninety cover restaurant open from lunch until late in the evenings. In some respects the Manchester site will bear similarities to the sister site in Liverpool. It occupies a nineteenth century brick building that's been lovingly restored and it will have large outdoor terraces.
The impressive entrance arch on Chorlton Street lends dignity to the restaurant while at the rear there is the superb Kampus garden to peruse, in this instance not close to the mile-wide Mersey estuary but close to the Rochdale Canal. Madre will maintain the indie-ethos of the food and drink at Kampus such as Beeswing and Pollen.
In Liverpool the food is as bright as the day and people can expect more of the same in Manchester.
The best dish was the belly pork, the chicharron de puerco (£11), with more than satisfactory pork belly cubes smothered in a barbecue sauce glaze together with onions, crispy garlic and, best of all, wonderful pickled jalapenos. This dish is a visual and culinary winner. A bowl of puffed pork (£3) give good crunch with good heat and helped things along. It was clear we were celebrating our own Day of the Dead (Pig).
The whipped potato quesadilla (£8.50) which came in a pair looked very flat and two dimensional but finished strongly especially when treated with that hot salsa in its little container. The filling of the quesadilla was whipped potato and cheese, by the way and was excellent.
The Baja fish taco (£9) came in pairs too, the fish, pollock, in a tempura batter with a vivid topping of tomato-heavy Mexican salsa. It tasted as good as it looked.
There'll be mezcal, margaritas, Tequila and lots of cocktails in Madre, Manchester, plus drinks flights which will scoot you around Mexico. The Madre restaurants are the brainchild of the people behind Belzan, on Smithdown Road, Liverpool, and Breddos in London...and Oslo, obviously. In Manchester we've already had a taste of what they can deliver with a pop-up at Escape to Freight Island.
The co-founders are Nud Dudhia, Sam Grainger and Chris Edwards who travel regularly to Mexico for inspiration and to dive into 'street tacos, parrillas, and mariscos'.
Madre, Atlantic Pavilion, Liverpool, L3 4AE
Madre, The Churchill, Kampus, 41 Chorlton Street, Manchester, M1 3HN
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