The Dinner Detective Dines at: Marmalade, Chorlton

The Dinner Detective Dines at: Marmalade, Chorlton

The Dinner Detective
7/ 7/2005

Unlike restaurant reviewers on some newspapers, The Dinner Detective eats out incognito and always pays for the meal. That way The Dinner Detective gets the same treatment as the readers, giving you an honest review of the service you might receive.

IT HAS always been an ambition of mine to be able to sit in a posh restaurant eating pie, chips and mushy peas. An establishment in Chorlton has now made all that possible.

Marmalade is eager to let you know as soon as you enter that it is a bit quirky.

The walls are decorated with unusual bits and pieces, while their logo cheekily declares they are "purveyors of fine foods and wine since 2005" and that it is "reet tasty".

A quick look down the menu reveals a few more pepperings of this distinctive cheekiness. Notes alongside the North West vegetarian pie (£9.50) read it is made with "our special puff pastry that your mum probably wouldn't have been able to manage. Sorry mum."

Meanwhile, the light dark chocolate mousse is described as: "An orgasm in a pot. Just as delightful, less of the complications."

While this made me smile, I can imagine others might have found it more irritating than endearing, and could have required some convincing.

Luckily, they would probably have needed to wait only until the starter arrived.

Marmalade, which also doubles as a reasonably-sized bar, prides itself on selling delicious simple dishes using British ingredients.

I started with the poached egg and mushrooms on toast. It doesn't get much simpler than that, but this was wholly unlike anything I'd ever found in front of me at breakfast.

My dining companion had what the menu described as poor man's pâté (£4.95) with some of the eponymous marmalade - very different to anything you've ever spread on a piece of toast.

I decided to go for the aforementioned pie - the only vegetarian main on the menu but there was a good selection of specials.

Alongside the mushrooms, onion and artichoke, it was packed full of cheese, and served with oven baked chips and "traditional" mushy peas.

Weightwatchers this was not, and they may have been stretching the British food tag somewhat by including Parmesan and crème fraiche, but the meal was so delicious I was prepared to overlook this.

My companion had corn-fed chicken (£10.95) described in the menu's inimitable style as "a bit of leg and a bit of breast". Again, no complaints, but the food was so rich it might not have been to everyone's taste.

Despite all this, the puddings (all £4.50) were just too intriguing to resist.

The marmalade brûlée - as the title suggests, a crème brûlée containing marmalade - has to be tried to be believed, while the light dark chocolate mousse thoroughly lived up to that earlier description.

As Marmalade describes itself as a bar, it is no surprise there is a healthy selection of wines on offer, and sensibly they do not stick with the British-produced ideology in this department.

Marmalade is a unique dining experience. The self-conscious quirkiness could be too much for some, but fortunately they clearly have the talent on both sides of the kitchen doors to pull it off. There aren't too many restaurants around attempting exclusively British fare, so it's a relief that when one pops up, they do a good job of it.

At a glance

STARTERS: Most expensive: Potted shrimp (£6.95), cheapest: Cauliflower and cheese soup (£3.75)
MAINS: Most expensive: Sea bass with dandelion and burdock reduction (£14.95), cheapest: Poached salmon salad (£8.95)
PARKING: On street nearby
DISABLED ACCESS: Good but the toilets are upstairs
No separate children's menu

Telephone: 0161 862 9665
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