REVIEW | Urban Cookhouse | Princess Street

Confidentials 15 June 2015

GORDO couldn’t quite work out what the place was trying to be when he first read the sales blurb. Let's take a look at the all important front page blag; you only get one chance to make a good first impression, and this is Urban Cookhouse’s elevator pitch. Yes, yes, Gordo knows; 'New York speak' but bear with him.

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s a Flavour of Downtown New York

"Always out of the ordinary, designed never to be forgotten; our menus are developed by chefs who believe in mixing up the finest, fresh ingredients from around the world to create a truly unique dining experience. Check out our menu and join us for lunch or dinner seven days a week, and experience a taste of something different.”

So says the website. Blimey.

Now, dear reader, when you see words on an A board outside a shoddy looking pub like ‘delicious’, ‘tasty’ and ‘home-made’ in the same sentence as food, we all know well enough to keep walking. Obviously, we’re not talking beardster, made-to-measure shoddy here folks, but a properly shit pub. We’ve all learnt by our mistakes, although those two-ounce Birds Eye ‘flame-grilled’ burgers, packet gravy, cardboard chips and peas in The Red Bull at the top of Hillgate in Stockport were heaven. Nursing a pint of Unicorn aged 16 whilst wagging a day off from the toilet that was Mile End Grammar School. It did taste bloody ‘delicious’.

But the point is we grow up. We learn to beware the blag. And lets be honest, that blag on the front page of Urban Cookhouse does look like an awful lot of billy.

It’s a long time since a band changed the fifties hangover of perceived indecency and made Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols, that is the term 'bollocks', acceptable for what it meant to Gordo’s generation; that is, nonsense.

So, whoever wrote that bollocks, what are you on about?

Urban Cookhouse

Urban Cookhouse (UC) is a large square space, semi-urban, on the first floor of one of Manchester’s original nineteenth century cotton salesrooms on Princess Street. Visible only by a purple neon sign, with a clever walk-in see-through hall to stop draughts, it’s split in two by the bar, well stocked and curated by a couple of good-looking fellas who seem to know what they are doing.

It’s minimalist and semi-brutal, with a well-polished wooden floor, an industrial ceiling and a lot of cream wooden chairs. Shaker style. All designed to set off good-looking plates of food, women in black and mojitos. It’s very Cube. Indeed it’s very New York.

Blimey indeed.

The menu is short but not brutal. The place follows the New York feel through with some interesting looking dishes. On visits to the Big Apple, Gordo has noticed how good they have become at taking cooking from around the world and making it their own. The Russian Salad (actually a French creation), for example, was picked up and turned into a Waldorf salad. Gordo decided to try the one on UC’s menu (£5.25) and it arrived as a small, whole green apple, lightly poached, with blushing rose coloured flesh; hollowed out and filled with the rest of the constituent parts of a Waldorf. It was deeply refreshing; with red and green grape puree sittin’ pretty on the other side of a small, but well-dressed green salad.

Waldorf salad

Tea-smoked salmon

Previously, Gordo had eaten a starter portion of tea-smoked salmon (£6.95 as a starter), which was subtly beautiful. It’s this purity of flavours that New York has been famous for over the past twenty years or so. Not so simple, mind you, were the chilli and ginger pork scratchings (£3.00). A splash of oil on the finished article ruined them.

Whisky Chicken, smoked with sweet potato scallops or seasoned fries (£13.00) was a humdinger; pan-fried it was (dare Gordo use the term?) JUICY. Yes folks. Good sweet saucing and a nice touch of sour reminiscent of the whisky barrel itself. The coleslaw (£2.75) is the best in Manchester.

Whisky chicken

The first pudding Gordo had here over four weeks ago was a take on a crème brulée. It was, in Gordo’s opinion, the best he’s had since one of his first at the Connaught in London. It can’t be scored here as, inexplicably, it has since been dropped off the menu. But, looking back through the notes, it was an unprecedented 10 out of 10 in a non-fine dining restaurant.

The pudding chosen on the final meal, a ‘Cup of Joe' (£5.95) was a New York-style cappuccino baked cheese cake was good, but a long way off the previous tasting.

Crème brulée

Cup of Joe

The price points here are good value, lower than any of its competitors. Next time Gordo goes though, he’ll be trying a sirloin steak. However, he will probably need two of the six-ouncers on offer. Don’t be afraid of bigger sizes here guys, 6oz just makes for a good butty. And Gordo for one isn’t afraid of paying for a great steak, as are most New Yorkers.

Service is good and honest. They haven’t been taught a script, which works. It’s a true independent, the brainchild of Tim Coulston, and he's got it right.

All in all, this is a good addition to the City’s stock. Off centre, it isn’t in any quarter, but no more than a ten-minute walk from any of them. It’s across the road from Tinsel Town and well worth the trip folks.

My advice to Mr Tim is to take that A-board down from the front page of the web site, and replace it with this:

“Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s a Flavour of Downtown New York”.

Follow Gordo on twitter @GordoManchester

Urban Cookhouse, 54 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6HS. 0161 235 8768.

Rating: 15.5/20 (remember venues are rated against the best examples of their type - see yellow box below)

Food: 7.5/10 (salmon 8, whisky chicken 8, Waldorf 7.5, New York 7, Cup of Joe 6.5)
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5

Recommended: Architect's meetings, business lunches, after works drinks and pre-Tinsel Town shenanigans. In other words, some good clean NY fun.

Give a miss: The evil looking set of ‘decks’ in the corner of the bar…

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.