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WHAT to order at Hawksmoor? Steak, duh. It's what it's known for and it's where it excels. But if you go straight to steak every time you eat there, you're only getting half the picture. The same principles Hawksmoor applies to its beef – the best produce, cooked simply but cooked right – it applies to its non-beefy dishes too. We tried options from right across the menu, and found heart-racing, soul-lifting food throughout.

Never mind the best steak, this was the best sticky toffee pudding we've ever tasted. 

This was no surprise. You sense the quality here as soon as you're led inside by one of its casually-dressed staff (subliminal clothing message: we don't have to dress smart to look professional, we just are).

The dining room is styled with inky leather furnishings in deep blues and greens. There are glints of gold in the light fittings, jewel colours on the menu covers, and a painterly contrast between the dark walls and natural light from the expansive skylight. It's one of the best-looking spaces in the city centre.

And then the food arrives, and you know you're going to be reminiscing about this meal for months to come.

 

Starters

Roast scallops with tarragon and garlic

This was the first of several dishes we tried that's on the Hawksmoor Classics menu, thanks to its popularity and longevity. The scallop itself was fleshy and tender – you don't so much as eat it, as let it fall apart in your mouth. The garlic butter sauce and white pork breadcrumb crust had us scraping the shell for one last hit.

 

Smoked salmon with soda bread

This dish epitomised their cooking for us in its simplicity, confidence, and attention to detail. The Scottish salmon is smoked to their own recipe so you always get the same, rich flavour. The soda bread was from the head chef's family recipe – and was more like a delectable savoury cake than a mere slice of bread. The tartare sauce was made with cream cheese for a silkiness that added to the luxurious feel of this essentially very simple plate. Another 'Hawksmoor Classic' and rightly so.

 

Ginger pig belly ribs

You could just eat starters here and still feel like you've had a five-star dinner. These pork ribs were so soft you could feed them to a toothless baby and they'd have no problem. The sweet, smoky glaze added to, rather than overwhelmed, their flavour. The vinegar in the crunchy cabbage and fennel slaw cut through the fat, making for a beautifully balanced dish.

 

Classic fillet steak tartare

This French dish sneaked on to the largely British menu because it's a particularly good way of showing off the quality of the steak. You can't get much more 'honest' with your meat than serving it raw. And while logic tells you that eating raw meat (and raw egg) is just plain wrong, your taste buds tell you something very different. It was tender and velvety with a Tabasco and anchovy kick. We've never eaten steak with a spoon before.

 

Mains

Kimchi burger

A veggie burger at Hawksmoor? Get out. But no, the kimchi was just an accompaniment to a beef pattie. The combination of this strong Korean pickle, with beef burger, beef short rib, and cheddary Ogelshield cheese, was intense. A burger for people who are feeling a little bored with life. It was big, bold and dramatic.

 

Porterhouse steak

We could hardly eat here without trying a steak. So we went all out, with a porterhouse – which contained prime cuts of both sirloin and t-bone – and weighed in at 1.1kg. That's enough to feed two or three people. With a big cut like this, you get a great char on the meat without losing any of the juiciness inside. They brought it out intact for us to oggle, then returned it after carving – the bone laid out like a dagger across the slain meat. And yes, it was one of the best we've ever tasted.

The steak was served with a jug of their pungent anchovy hollandaise, and their sharp Stilton hollandaise. A jug of bone marrow gravy was another distilled hit of rich flavours.

 

Sides

Triple cooked chips

Soft-centred, crisp, and non-greasy. And they come with a bottle of Hawksmoor's home-made ketchup, which was good but a little overshadowed by the very dippable hollandaises.

Shortrib macaroni

A side that's not content to sit on the sidelines. This bold mix of short rib beef and macaroni, with a tangy crust of cheese, could have passed as a main if it had been bigger. The kind of dish that's probably got its own Twitter hashtag.

Butter lettuce salad

Very British and surprisingly flavoursome, this was a simple round lettuce transformed into a thing of beauty. Mint and spring onion brought it to life.

 

Desserts

'Ambassador’s Reception'

They can't call it a giant Ferrero Rocher for legal reasons (oops). It's a dark chocolate shell filled with hazelnut ice cream, dark chocolate granache and Nutella cream. Edible gold leaf made it into a very pretty dish. Get your photos done quick before the ice cream melts.

 

Sticky Toffee Pudding

It looked like the shy cousin of the showy Ambassador's Reception but this dessert had hidden depths. Never mind the best steak, this was the best sticky toffee pudding we've ever tasted (and we've tasted a lot). It's been on the menu for ten years, and has been tweaked to perfection.

 

The wine

Mas Coutelou, ‘Tête à Claques’, 2013

This is an exclusive to Hawksmoor. The name roughly translates as 'slap in the face' – it's a rousing, ruby coloured, aromatic red from Languedoc-Roussillon.

Hawksmoor Manchester is at 184-186 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3WB. Telephone: 0161 836 6980. 

Photo credit: @Georgie_Glass