The Mark Addy is an award-winning restaurant in Manchester that I walk past every day on the way to work. I’ve been wanting to check it out for ages, to me any restaurant on the riverside has an immediate appeal. The sign also has very nice lettering.
I had the chance to try it the other week, and while I was impressed, I also have a few issues with the place.
The decor is stunning, and the arches on the ceiling, and of course the view, makes it stand out. The food was also very good, albeit slightly more pretentious than I was expecting. I had the duck, and it was very tasty. The service was excellent.
However, the menu was quite hard to decipher, with the meal descriptions written complete with very old-fashioned Northern terms that meant we needed the waitress to help translate before we could choose what to have. It did give the place more atmosphere, and is line with the traditional atmosphere, yet in my opinion if you can only recognise one dish on the menu (and that’s fish and chips!) something’s not right.
The other thing was the bone. When my meal arrived, there was duck, mashed potato formed into a circle, topped with a scotch egg. Sticking out of the scotch egg was a bone. A duck bone (I presume!). I couldn’t understand why anyone would consider this to be an attractive addition to a meal, so I consulted the waitress about it. She told me it was meant to look like a drumstick, with the meat still on. Maybe I’m over-reacting because I’m too squeamish. I have no problem with bones with meat attached, but a bare bone stuck into a scotch egg definitely unsettles me.
Anyway, apart from that I had a very nice time, and would recommend it to anyone, especially if you like something different!
The Mark Addy have also been nominated by The Restaurant Magazine as one of the top 100 venues to dine out in Great Britain.
The Mark Addy
Stanley Street, Salford, Manchester M3 5EJ.
Tel: 0161 832 4080
Email: info@markaddy.co.uk
What do you think?
