When you first walk into Tariff & Dale, between Tariff and Dale Street, you just feel like you are at any Northern Quarter foodie bar. The stripped back walls, the industrial look, the dangly lights. But it’s only when you spend a bit of time here that you realise that Tariff & Dale is actually more about the Deansgate set than the Northern Quarter set. Its nod towards art deco and spacious bar and restaurant are the first hints that you are going to have a different experience than you would have in other NQ establishments, says Dennis Keighron-Foster…
When you get sat down in one of your booths or at one of the rustic stainless steel tables, the feeling that you are in something a bit more grown up continues.
“Everything we
had was made
with the best
quality ingredients
and upheld their
‘good food done
simply’ attitude”
You notice the music. Not indie music, or new disco, or that obscure Finnish band that T & D’s hipster neighbouring coffee shop is playing, but lounge–like jazz that you hear in the likes of bigger bistros. Quite a statement to make in the Northern Quarter, but one that really tells you that they aren’t doing anything just for the sake of it, or to follow the de rigueur.
The minimalist look ‘has a feel of a Shoreditch bar, right here in Manchester’ says owner Nick de Sousa. It’s ‘an informal urban eatery, a place where you can grab a few drinks and have something simple and well cooked when you get hungry, with an evening offering of something a little more complicated’ – which I think sums the place up pretty well.
The lunch menu is dominated by their sourdough pizzas which, for those of you who have been living under a rock, is the new pizza base craze sweeping the nation – a lighter dough that’s easier to digest and personally very welcome if I’ve had a few drinks, as a carb overload can bring an evening of fun to a standstill!
They also offer sandwiches, share boards and salads, pretty much everything you’d want to accompany a few cocktails. Everything we had was made with the best quality ingredients and upheld their ‘good food done simply’ attitude.
They also offer a brunch menu that you can order until 5pm and every Monday is 50% off of all food day, again until 5pm – a good cure for the weekend overspend, I think you’ll agree. Also on the offer front, at the weekend you can get brunch and a Bloody Mary for £12.
But it’s not all just pizzas and cocktails at Tariff & Dale. Come 5pm they add a slightly more sophisticated layer to a promising evening menu, with everything from scallops and their very own terrine to start with to beef short rib and seasonal fish and game for the main course.
And I’d say that with nothing on the menu breaching the £12 mark, Tariff & Dale’s food and relaxed, funky atmosphere will disappoint neither the pocket nor the palate.
2 Tariff St, Manchester M1 2FN
0161 710 2233