THERE'S no other corner of Manchester that screams 'GENTRIFICATION' quite like the area around Tariff Street.

'All is not what it seems' on Vernazza's Mod-British pubby menu, says our server, ominously

Where there was once only Lammars, a hairdressers, a caf' and a 'No Ladies' sauna, you'll now find six cocktail bars (another on the way), two underground restaurants (another on the way), an Icelandic coffee house full of speccy Mac-warriors, BooHoo.com HQ and a 'WobbleYou' workout studio - where people too lazy to exercise can quite literally have the lard shaken off their arse.

Architects, designers and PRs scurry in and out of glass-fronted, modular offices at no.3; at one end twenty new +£200k hi-spec apartments have just sold out in ten minutes; at the other there's Brownsfield Mill - a Grade II-listed former aviation factory which last year played host to a series of summer street food parties.

What else? Oh yeah, around the corner they've just closed down Roadhouse - a Manchester music institution for 22 years - to open a new £2m fine-dine restaurant from a TV Chef. A friend in the bar game tells me Kosmonaut (who can be credited for starting the Tariff Street charge) opened here in 2012 for £15k a year rental, the subject of this review now pays something closer to £35k. I imagine the landlords of old Ralph Waller's textile warehouse can't believe their bloody luck.

.Tariff & Dale

Tariff & Dale is a city centre foray by Nick De Sousa, the keen bean behind long-standing Chorlton institution, Lead Station. During our visit, Nick came over to give us the full chapter and verse on his new venture and the 'what we're about' speech. Problem was, as we watched from the next booth, he picked the wrong lanky young buck in glasses.

"That's great," said the puzzled bloke, "but I just popped in for a pint."

How we laughed.

I'll admit I expected nothing radical from Tariff & Dale, assuming it'd possess the exact same moody brick-n-dust belly common up and down this drag. And in many ways it does. The floors are wooden, the walls bricky, the booths leather, the lights dangly. However, De Sousa and his team, including gaffa Nikki Beckley (who scored big points for giving me a recent and thorough bollocking) have retained enough genuine relics of industry to make the place feel legit. The light that floods into this saintly white building through a dozen ample windows is quite brilliant. 

Down in the bowels of the building - which by all accounts was blown-to-buggery by the Jerrys during the Second World War - there's a nimble hand at work too, demonstrated by the expertly filleted lemon pulp sat on the broccoli and chilli side. Chef Vernazza, trained in the kitchen of Tom 'Isn't Everything Lush' Kerridge's Hand and Flowers in Marlow (recently awarded a fistful of Michelin stars), clearly has a keen eye, a sharp knife and the patience of Job.

 
.Tariff & Dale

We started on the 'Bar Bites', a mini-menu for boozers featuring 'Pizzatta', 'Fresh' crisps (I prefer mine sweaty) and anchovies. The anchovies (£3) were a little lacking in flavour and disappointing, but having had the dreamy anchovies at Iberica a few weeks back, most food is disappointing. The sausage roll (£5.50, main image) though was genius. Properly flaky, quality moist and fatty pork speckled with pistachio and served with a jammy ketchup (ask for wholegrain mustard too). Extraordinary, for a sausage roll. Honey-glazed feta bon bons (£5) were equally moreish but a touch too sickly sweet. Fried aubergine nuggets (£4) were bland, pile on the mustard.

'All is not what it seems' on Vernazza's Mod-British pubby menu, says our server, ominously. The scampi isn't really scampi (it rarely is), there's glass in my pie and the sourdough pizzas (again?) are actually soup served in a frisbee and delivered to your table by Paul Daniels on rollerblades.

.Steak & An Ale Pie
&nbsp:
.Not scampi

Steak & An Ale Pie (£14.50) comes as a small glass of ale plonked inside a bowl of turnip, carrot, onion and gravy with a pie lid alongside a beef bavette, more carrots and spring onion. It's a curious thing, very photogenic, mind. The bavette, to the chef's credit, was beautifully cooked for what can be a relatively tough bit of moo. Pink, tender, meaty. The pie was cheating. A pie without sides and a thick bottom ain't a pie, it's a broth with a hat on. The turnip, carrot and onion in a delicious porter gravy (pour the ale in) was a touch undercooked for me. Too hard. Still, a fine dish.

The scampi but not scampi (£7 or £11) was a collection of cod, mussels and calamari, a much more appealing proposition than regular scampi - which is usually a gray bogey of pollock and Vietnamese pangasius catfish. The breadcrumbed cod was the most delicious fishy finger you could hope for, crispy with angelic flesh. The lightly battered mussels and calamari were a little underseasoned, but caked in a fantastic homemade tartar did the job.

We swerved desserts for cocktails by former Liars Club maestro Olly Foster, who's menu of nine classic cocktails done three ways is refreshing in a city oft' too quick to sprinkle pink fairy dust and fire up the blowtorch. The Bitter and Twisted Daiquiri, with campari, rum, grapefruit and lime is a marvel. The bar's beer (from £3.60) and wine (from £17 btl) game is strong too.

Tariff & Dale can seem a bit too clever for its clogs at times, with it's trickery, 'pizzetta' and Paul Daniels on rollerblades. But who cares, life's great, I'm in love with a sausage roll... 

Follow @David8Blake on twitter

Tariff & Dale, 2 Tariff Street, Northern Quarter, M1 2FN. 0161 710 2233.

Rating: 15/20 (remember venues are rated against the best examples of their type - see yellow box below)

Food: 7/10 (anchovies 5, sausage roll 10, feta bon bons 6, aubergine nuggets 5, pie 7, scampi 7)
Service: 4/5 quick and polite
Ambience: 4/5 industrial

Recommended: Sausages. Rolled.

Give a miss: if you're a pie traditionalist.

PLEASE NOTE: Venues are rated against the best examples of their kind: fine dining against the best fine dining, cafes against the best cafes. Following on from this the scores represent: 1-5 saw your leg off and eat it, 6-9 get a DVD, 10-11 if you must, 12-13 if you’re passing,14-15 worth a trip,16-17 very good, 17-18 exceptional, 19 pure quality, 20 perfect. More than 20, we get carried away.