The most popular dishes are still there but the kitchen team has introduced a few new characters
The Northern Quarter venue, inspired by the infamous mid-20th Century bar on East 45th Street in New York’s ‘Steak Row’, popular with journalists and ‘Mad Men’, is now in its second year. The last 18 months have established its reputation for fantastic cocktails and one of the best brunches in town, with queues forming outside the door at opening time on weekends.
Now Pen and Pencil know what they’re good at and they know what their customers want, Chef Danny Broadbent (ex-Living Ventures) has tweaked the menu to introduce even more brunch dishes and large plates sprinkled with a bit of Manhattan magic.
Working our way through the new menu in chronological order, Confidential got fully involved in some of the new brunch dishes. These are available from 10am-4pm every day for a late breakfast or a late, late breakfast for those who need some TLC after TMC (too many cocktails) the night before – although the rest of the menu is available well into the evening.
We loved the new comforting bowls of ‘baked eggs’; struggling to choose which we preferred between spicy njuja with pepper ragu and feta, or the decadently rich chestnut mushrooms with Monterey Jack cheese, spinach and bourbon cream (hair of the dog?) With a basket or two of sourdough, we reckon either of these dishes would be hangover-proof.
But it’s not all carbs and comforting stodge - Spring clean food is also on the new menu. Try the comparatively virtuous avocado wraps with pomegranate and feta cheese piled onto little gem lettuce leaves from the ‘small plates’ section. From ‘larger plates’, we piled into a beetroot salad where wedges of roasted golden beetroot had been mixed with purple cubes of home pickled beetroot, rocket leaves, goat’s cheese, black sesame seeds and a balsamic dressing.
Pen and Pencil boast that they serve eggs a million ways and they’re not far off – we tried a lot of them; poached on sourdough with avocado salsa and spicy sriracha; glazed with miso and served on 8-hour beer braised brisket; with grilled asparagus and hollandaise sauce and in the signature ‘Eggs Pen and Pencil’ with sausage patty, bacon, hollandaise and pancetta crisps.
Back to small plates and ham croquettes were packed with shredded hock and pickles, bound in a smoked cheese sauce with truffle mayo for a bit of a luxurious touch. Beef skewers marinated in BBQ sauce were served on top of fresh crunchy coleslaw and a pile of delicious slow cooked and pressed pork belly with a slightly sweet soy glaze appeared on top of some punchy kimchi.
The fabulously soft pork belly is also available as part of a larger plate served in a brioche bun with fries, as is the slow-braised brisket, topped with a little crunchy pickled carrot to help add contrasting textures. Although we worked our way gallantly through quite a few of the new dishes, we couldn’t go without giving a special mention to Pen and Pencil’s Philly cheese steak packed full of strips of tender pink rump, or their huge steak frites, marinated in jalapeno and smoked garlic oil.
Non-meat eaters might want to dive into a grilled aubergine steak sandwich with red pepper pesto, avocado salsa and pomegranate on caraway rye bread, or a grilled halloumi burger with pepper and almond pesto.
But brunch, lunch, dinner and everything in between need not just focus on savoury food – there’s plenty at Pen and Pencil to satisfy those with a sweet tooth. Anyway, what’s an American-style menu without pancakes and maple syrup? We chose to have our short-stack pancakes with blueberries and maple glazed pecans – but they also serve a savoury version with bacon.
Liquid nutrition is important to Pen and Pencil – illustrated by the level of detail they afford to their cocktail menu, so the new menu features half a dozen smoothies ranging from the virtuous ‘triple berry cleanser’ to the downright decadent ‘welcome to Americana’ with peanut butter, chilli and banana.
They’re an enthusiastic bunch at Pen and Pencil, keen to make absolutely sure that all their customers are happy, but in the end, we had to beg them to stop bringing over new dishes for us to try. Instead we’ve decided to join the queue every morning for the next few weeks, to work our way through the new dishes and drinks at a slightly more leisurely pace. See you there.
The Pen & Pencil, Fourways House, 57 Hilton Street, Manchester. Tel; 0161 660 3303
Food service 10am-9pm Mon-Thursday, 10am-8pm Friday, 10am-5pm Saturday and Sunday. Brunch served every day 10am-4pm
