REVIEW | Leaf, Portland Street

WHICH kind of buildings are at the very heart of intellectual development? Is it universities, schools, art galleries, laboratories or libraries? Well a big yes of course to all of the above, but I’d also like to submit a plea for the humble café to get a smidge of recognition. It’s where people can sit and dream and make notes on splendid ideas all day for the price of a cup of coffee. Where would existentialism be without Les Deux Magots or the Cafe de Flore? And many Nobels would remain undistributed without the calming influence of the Grand Café.

It comes as absolutely no surprise it used to be a gallery, and a gallery for architects at that

This all comes to mind because I think I’ve found the spot in which the next Booker prize winner should be written. Leaf on Portland Street is the newest outpost of a Liverpudlian favourite (it’s won awards and all that). When they came to Manchester they decided to occupy the former CUBE (or Centre for the Urban and Built Environment) Gallery, and you can tell that lots of deep thinking has gone on here over the past few years. Luckily, the owners of Leaf aren’t just into hawking coffee ‘n’ cake, but have big ideas for book clubs and art happenings so the intellectual crackle in the air continues to have an appropriate outlet.

Crab and prawn fettuccine

Let’s get the prosaic stuff out of the way first – the food. The salt and pepper fried squid (£8.50, main image) was prepared well – no chewy cephalopods here – and the bed of wild rice was a nice contrast to the crisp rings, but the soy and chilli dressing was unbelievably sweet and jammy. The crab and prawn fettuccine (£11.95) was similarly fine but nothing to write home about. The crab meat was insubstantial, while the token massive prawns where there to bulk it out, but the basis of the sauce was an extremely oily pesto that was fine while the dish was hot, but as it cooled congealed slightly unpleasantly.

Just in case it was the cooked mains of the menu that where underwhelming, I popped back another day to try one of the flatbreads, filled with falafel and halloumi (£8.50), which again was perfectly ok but sadly underfilled. I had to stuff it with the side salad to achieve any kind of bulk (though now at least I’ve found a use for side salad). The fried new potatoes it came with were rather good though.

It's a wrap... just

But let’s talk about what Leaf does best, which is, in no particular order, tea and space. Tea is Leaf’s ‘thing’; there is a ‘where there’s tea there’s hope’ logo emblazoned on the exterior and it sells over 60 flavours of the loose leaf stuff. I had a pot of the Exotic Garden green tea (£2.45/pot), which was full of punchy, gaudy flavours such as papaya and mango – kind of the 80s cocktail version of green tea. Not one for the purists maybe, but I liked it all the same. My friend had peppermint (£2.20/pot) and that was fresh, bright and grassy.

Tea and cake is a bit of a difficult one. All these beautiful teas don’t actually benefit from being consumed with the sugary stuff as it impedes the complex flavours from unfurling. Builder’s is best in this situation, but in the name of research I went ahead anyway. First up was an enormous wodge of marmalade cake (£3.50); a bitter, dense cake that wasn’t completely inedible, but I can’t say I recommend it to anyone else. The next cake, a Bakewell slice (£3.50) ought to have been perfection but they forgot one important thing – the taste of almonds.

Marmalade cake

As for the space, a friend says it reminds her of those grand mittel European cafes but filtered through a Scandi lens. The interior is fresh without being overly hipster, with oddball touches such as magnified chintzes, wicker light fittings and mismatched chairs. It’s an extremely pleasant place to while away an afternoon lost in deep philosophical thought, or if not actually contributing anything original to the intellectual canon, then at least dreaming of becoming the next Stefan Zweig or Elena Ferrante. It’s a place that calls for books of all kinds – notebooks, journals, dusty old tomes and even macbooks, if you insist. It comes as absolutely no surprise it used to be a gallery, and a gallery for architects at that.

So, Leaf has achieved what it set out to do – be a great space for creativity and sell some lovely tea. I’d recommend all those agile workers or moody twenty-something would-be novelists get down there with their laptops and order a pot of tea. It probably works out cheaper than renting an office space and it would be more stimulating too, both visually and from all that caffeine. You can thank me in your acceptance speech.

Leaf, 113-115 Portland Street, Manchester - website

Rating: 12/20

Food: 4.5/10 (chilli squid 6, crab pasta 5, wrap 4, marmalade cake 4, Bakewell slice 4)

Ambience: 4.5/5 - great space for creativity

Service 3 – perfectly friendly, but the order and pay at the bar system can be a bit of a pain