Prezzo

I was coming home from a few days away. I was about to get a train back up to Manchester from London and needed some lunch before I came up. What is it to be? Onion rings from Burger King? No, I had had that on the way down. What about this posh looking little restaurant on the corner. That will do nicely. Prezzo look like they are quite a big chain but mostly limited to the South - which will be why I hadn't come across them before.



Clearly these guys are EXPERTS at extracting as much money as possible from those who haplessly wander in off a train - they were on to me in seconds offering drinks and nibbles. The pretty waitress asks me if I want olives and I say yes please. Then in a way that sounds like it is mandatory says "and bread" and I say "yes, ok". The bread is not mandatory, it does not "just come" with the olives and it is certainly not free. It was also quite filling and I didn't really need it. While that might seem a bit pushy the service was actually very good - for speed and efficiency you simply can't fault them. I even managed to extract a smile or two.


The main course, now it was a while ago but I think I had some kind of baked pasta chicken carbonara affair and as I remember it was nice. Could have had a bit more creamyness in the sauce perhaps. I was so stuffed from the bread and the pasta though that I just couldn't manage a pudding - bit of a shame as I rather fancied one when I walked in there.

Soup Kitchen

Tucked away in the Northern Quarter (behind Oldham Street and just across the road from the infamous Koffee Pot) is the Soup Kitchen. I have had my eye on it for a couple of weeks and leapt at the excuse to go there. This morning it was totally dead. Admittedly I was in there at a bit of a funny time, too late for breakfast and too early for lunch but it did seem a bit silly being the only soul in there apart from the staff. Still there has to be someone first through the door.



The staff were still working on the day's soup preparations but had got four varieties ready. I chose mushroom, some bread and butter and a cup of coffee and sat down. Now first things first, it was tasty soup and nice bread and good coffee. The soup was clearly packed with herbs, thyme and coriander and I suspect quite a bit of salt and pepper. Texture wise it dunked well, and drank well though the exuberance with thyme meant there were a few woody sprigs involved, one of which I nearly choked on. The bloke behind the counter looked at me worriedly to make sure everything was all right and then peered closely at his soup pot.



The place reeks of cool - down to the big red curtains and trendy antique magazines on the bookcases - but still it remains quite good value and they clearly care about what they are doing. My soup, bread and coffee came in at under a fiver. I'd like to come back when the place has some more people in it.

Zinc

I was particularly pissed off - and instead of heading into work thought I'd go mooch around Manchester for a bit and perhaps have a bit of food. I trundled through Picadilly Gardens, bought some small bits and bobs for my camera at the shop under the Royal Exchange and then spotted the Zinc Bar and Grill in the Triangle building near Victoria.



They had a nice looking lunch menu but were rather unwilling to give me anything on it until it officially became lunch time at 12 - I think it was about 11:15 when I walked in and they were still serving "brunch". I wasn't being moved and stubbornly sat, drank coffee and waited until they would serve me my chosen item, some kind of fried squid with thai noodle salad. Everyone overcooks squid. Everyone overcooks seafood in general to my mind. This example was nearly worth the wait with about the right texture and had a tasty bit of liquid/noodles/green stuff surrounding it. I gobbled it down but I was still hungry and wanted pudding.



Chocolate sponge pudding - with a sponge outside and a gooey liquid centre - never fails to delight me and they were making a very good effort with it. They didn't have any vanilla icecream so I ended up having it topped off with chocolate ice cream making the whole thing a bit heafty, vanilla would have been a good bouncer for all the chocolate - but perhaps they had seen me coming and realised that I required my food dirtily indulgent.