Common, Northern Quarter: Never Mind the Refurb - the New Menu ROCKS

For a generally innovative and forward-thinking sort of bunch, the good people of Manchester are often strangely, stubbornly resistant to change. For many of my friends and acquaintances there have been two key talking points in our fair city over the last couple of months - the closure of the Cornerhouse and the subsequent opening of Home (verdict: suspicion), and the refurb at Common (verdict: suspicion, with a hint of grumble). I think it's fair to say that the new look decor in this Northern Quarter stalwart has not gone down well with everyone, with many finding it a bit too "faux-Scandi" and that in losing some of its endearing scruffiness it's also lost a little of its charm and atmosphere.

To be fair though, if the food on the new menu remains as good as it was last week then I'm more than happy to overlook the decor. We tried the dinner menu, which basically takes a "small plates" approach by offering a range of dishes that allow the greedy diner to eat both widely and substantially - we were expecting tapas-sized dishes but most of what we ordered was more generously portioned than that (so essentially it's NOT OUR FAULT that we over-ordered slightly). Top picks were the Goats Curd served with honey and rye bread, the Korean Fried Chicken with satisfyingly spicy Gochujang sauce and dangerously moreish kimchi slaw, and the enormous Cauliflower Cheese Croquettes (although my tip would be to eat these last, as my final one was tepid by the time I got round to it and the cheese sauce had solidified in a most pleasingly thick and sticky manner). We also had a very generous plate of bread (provided by the legendary Trove and served with both butter and oil/vinegar), some well-cooked and well-flavoured Salt & Pepper Squid, and some super-sweet Popcorn Cockles, which might just be my new favourite snack.

We left a gap before our next course - I'd seen a number of burgers go past our table and felt reluctant to leave without having one. This was a wise move - the Reuben burger, served with salt beef, emmental and sauerkraut pickle, was a big, pink, meaty, cheesy stack of unadulterated joy and I loved it. It's maybe on the pricey side at £9.50 without fries - I ordered these as an extra but probably wouldn't bother next time as the burger is so hefty on its own. My friend fancied another couple of the small plates in lieu of a main, and went for the Cured Mackerel with gooseberry sambal and the Quinoa with courgette and tofu served with walnut vinaigrette - he found this latter dish a little one dimensional and felt it could have benefitted from an extra kick of flavour. The mackerel he thought had the opposite problem, finding it over-cured and rather rich and slightly at odds with the sambal; I disagreed though, and thought this was a well-balanced and interesting dish (and would have eaten the lot had my own selection not been the size of China).

The only minor irritant of the evening was that they'd run out of doughnuts - I'd been eyeing these up on Twitter all week and almost had a small, sulky cry when there were none to be had. Apparently they sell out pretty early each day, so I'll just have to make a return trip at some point - no great hardship really, and to be honest we were both too full for pudding anyway. We had a couple of glasses each of a decent Malbec from what we felt was a slightly limited and pricey wine list; service was helpful and prompt and tap water was replenished throughout the night.

Overall? No, I'm not keen on the refit, finding it a little soulless at the moment, although as with anything I'm sure we'll get used to it. The food is great though - interesting, imaginative, varied and generally not shy on flavour, and the small plates in particular offer good value at £12 for three. I'd like to pretend that next time I go back it will be purely a doughnut mission - but surely it wouldn't hurt to have a small plate or three (or six) while I'm there...

- Common is at 39-41 Edge St, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1HW. We were invited in to review the new menu and were not asked to pay for our food; we did pay for some additional drinks.

Sunday Roast at Beef and Pudding: Lovely Meat but WHERE HAVE ALL THE DECENT ROASTIES GONE?

One of my very favourite things about British people is their absolute commitment to the roast dinner. Yes, we like to flirt with fire by having an impromptu barbecue or two at the first sign of sun (or indeed, the first break in the black clouds), but ultimately we remain prepared to sit down to a good, sturdy plate of animal, vegetable, potato product and gravy at pretty much any time, whatever the weather. I am certainly no exception, and thus found myself in one of the leather booths at Beef and Pudding on Sunday - a thoroughly beautiful, sunny day - eschewing the normal menu in favour of a big fat roast dinner in the company of many others who had seemingly chosen to do the same.

Beef and Pudding has had its ups and downs during its time in Manchester - I've had some very good meals there but some slightly less impressive ones too, with the general consensus seeming to be that there is an air of inconsistency that could do with being stamped out. I remain inherently fond of the place though - it's a great venue with lovely, knowledgeable staff and a menu full of things I want to eat, and thus I was willing Sunday's roast to be bang back on form. And mostly, it was - with one important, carbohydrate-based caveat which I will come back to later. The set menu (which changes slightly from week to week) certainly offers good value, with two courses for £14.95 or three for £16.95, and the restaurant also has an excellent wine list that does its best to avoid unreasonable mark-ups - we loved the Granfort French Merlot at £16.95 a bottle. We also enjoyed the boar pâté that we both chose for our starter - good coarse texture, strong punchy flavour, decent chutney and a sensibly-sized portion. So far, so good.

The meat was also excellent. I went for the lamb option while my friend chose the beef; this latter offers the option of well done or rare, and did indeed arrive pleasingly pink - something of a rarity in pub and restaurant roast dinners. In both cases, the meat was generously portioned, thickly sliced, tender and full of flavour - we liked, very much. The veg and gravy were also good, as was the large homemade Yorkshire pudding that came with the beef. BUT. One of the greatest joys of a roast should be the potatoes, particularly at a restaurant that proudly tweets every Sunday that Aunt Bessie isn't welcome here - hers might, in all truth, have been preferable. These were floury and a little flacid and had none of the crispy joy one gets with roasties done at home; I appreciate that it must be difficult to keep such items in prime condition during an all-day service and indeed, now I think about it, I can't remember the last time I had really great roast potatoes in a restaurant. I had also been very excited to see that roasts came with Bubble and Squeak, one of my all-time favourite dishes and a proper Boxing Day treat; what arrived though, was slightly lumpy, slightly tepid mash with a couple of flecks of carrot in. We didn't send it back as we had plenty of other nice stuff to eat, but still a shame.

There were no issues with desserts - the Sticky Toffee Sundae was an enjoyable combination of cake, cream, ice cream and marshmallows (although I could have handled a bit more sticky), whilst across the table the accompanying pipette of mimosa shot perfectly cut through the richness of my companion's chocolate mousse. Overall, we enjoyed our visit very much, and felt that apart from Potatogate the roast had been very good - still, it has made me think I need to go on the hunt for the best roast potatoes in Manchester. Any suggestions, please let me know via the comments box below and I will nobly check them out, whatever the weather...

- Beef and Pudding is at 37 Booth Street, off Fountain Street, M2 4AA. We were invited in to try the roast and were not asked to pay for our food or drinks, but we took two other friends and paid for everything they had - I have left them out of the review in the interests of not making things too complicated, but the opinions here do reflect the consensus of the whole table.

New Menu Launch at Rosylee, Northern Quarter, Manchester

It's pretty hard to keep up with the Northern Quarter these days. Whilst it is of course a pleasure to see a previously unloved section of the city centre totally rejuvenated, there seems to be a new bar or restaurant opening every ten minutes or so - which means that it's all too easy to lose track of what's going on and miss nice places that really you would like to go to very much indeed. I can think of no other reason why I hadn't been to Rosylee until the new menu launch a couple of weeks ago; I'd heard lots of good things, and frequently walked past remarking how cute it was, and had even had cocktails upstairs at the lovely Fitzgerald - but never actually got round to calling in. In fact, it's taken me so long to call in that it's already changed its identity, dropping its original "tea room" tag and evolving into a pretty grown-up bar and restaurant without me even knowing.

That's all rectified now of course. The new menu launch took place on one of those glorious evenings that mark the start of summer, and the outside seating (unusually plentiful and spectacularly sunny for the Northern Quarter, whose nod to al fresco drinking often extends only as far as a shady bench popped outside the front door) was packed with cheery drinkers enjoying the sun. We were HUNGRY so went straight inside to our table; there were some complimentary cocktails available but we elected to order from the full menu and very much enjoyed our choices of Rhubarb and Gin-ger Sour and a Rosylee Cobbler - both refreshing and striking the right balance between sweet and sharp (plus, LOOK AT THE SUPER CUTE HEARTS ON THE TOP OF MINE). We had some disgracefully moreish Inka Roasted Nuts with these - for yes, Rosylee now has an Inka grill, and is keen to impart its fabulously smoky flavour to everything they can (more of this later). For our starter proper, we shared the Fisherman's Board, a jaunty combination of seaside goodies including smoked salmon and scampi. All very tasty, although we felt the quantities were slightly out of balance thanks to the large pieces of battered fish that, whilst lovely, dominated proceedings a little; we also thought this maybe a little expensive at £15.50 when so many other restaurants in Manchester do something equivalent for less money, particularly as there was a lot of bread here too.

On to the mains then, and clearly - as it was easily the hottest day of the year so far - we went for some nice, hearty, wintery dishes. My charming companion can never resist a pie and tonight was no exception - his beef and mushroom pie was notable for its excellent peppery gravy and winning presentation in its cast iron pan; generous quantities too, even if it did make him complain about being too hot. I went for the duck breast cooked on the Inka grill - a happy combination indeed, producing pink meat with a thick layer of crispy, sweetly smoky fat. This chargoal grill is one of only three in Manchester city centre and new head chef Chris Byron has clearly had fun designing the menu around this prized new toy, with a whole range of meats, cuts and skewers available from the grill. You get to choose two sides with the Inka grill dishes - I went for chips (obviously), which were very good, and cauliflower cheese, which was a mistake. This was a very small portion indeed, and next time I would choose a sauce instead as the overall dish ended up a little on the dry side and would definitely have welcomed a little moisture.

We didn't really need desserts but had them anyway. My sticky toffee pudding was perfect in every way apart form being totally unsuitable for the weather, whilst my too-hot friend cooled down with a Strawberry Daiquiri Eton Mess which he felt was a little heavy on the cream and a little light on meringue (something which is actually often the case with the restaurant version of this dessert). We had a glass of house wine each and excellent service throughout the night, particularly from the lovely Chloe who was helpful and friendly whilst also remaining professional. All in all, it added up to a very enjoyable evening and despite a couple of minor isses with the food we would be inclined to go back - although definitely on a weekend so we can take advantage of the Fitzgerald's smouldering presence upstairs afterwards.

- Rosylee is at 11 Stevenson Sq, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M1 1DB. We paid for our cocktails but not our food.

Secret Film Society - SE.01 EP.01 Whistle Down the Wind, Downham

I'm not actually a person who likes surprises. I like to know what I'm doing, and where and when I'm doing it - facts which I carefully record in an old-school diary, using my very best writing. So on the face of it, Manchester's new Secret Film Society isn't really for me, packed as it is full of the unknown; essentially, you pay for your ticket knowing only that you're going somewhere to watch a film and get fed. My friends are nothing if not persuasive, however, and thus I found myself loitering in central Manchester at 10.30am last Sunday, waiting for a coach to a mystery location and clutching a slip of paper instructing me (under pains of confiscation and - presumably - public shaming) to turn my phone to airplane mode. Scary days indeed.

Actually, it was all pretty exciting. The coach - full of excitable people with the air of a class released from lessons to go on a school trip - travelled north and it soon became clear that we were heading for Pendle Hill, famous in Lancashire and beyond for its witchy associations (and, hopefully, an ability to screen a film and provide a jolly good tea). More specifically, we were heading for the pretty village of Downham and its cute, bunting-clad village hall, where we parked up before being whisked off for a walk by a man wearing a top hat and cravat. This being England in June, it was quite cold and a bit rainy, but if anything this added to the atmosphere as we trailed after our extravagantly attired guide and listened to tales of witchcraft and persecution, all the while secretly wondering what we'd be having for lunch.

Lunch turned out to be splendid, all the more so as we felt we'd earned it after an hour and a half of tramping through long, damp grass. The caterers were your friends and mine, Bangers and Bacon, always ones to be relied on when one is is hungry and thus a very welcome sight indeed. The starter (bacon and chicken liver pate, ham hock terrine and bread) and main (giant Yorkshire pudding filled with Lancashire hotpot) were served before the film, at tables set up in convivial rows in front of the big screen, which meant that the only requirement to leave one's seat for the entire afternoon was to visit the bar where - astonishingly - wine was £2 a glass. The film, if you hadn't guessed by now, was the 60s classic Whistle Down the Wind, filmed in Downham and starring a dodgy-fringed Hayley Mills as a little girl who thinks Jesus is living in the family barn. This was enjoyable fare, with a pause partway through for apple crumble and custard - to be honest, I think most people were so full and tired and content by this point that it hardly mattered what the film was (that's what you get with a £2 bar).

Any downsides? Well, it sounds petty but the coach was quite spectacularly uncomfortable - I understand that it's tricky to fit 50-ish people on one vehicle but the seats were child-sized at best and necessitated some uncomfortable bottom overhanging that was neither dignified nor attractive. This can no doubt be addressed for next time though, and ultimately I don't think you can be too critical of a day that includes a coach trip, a walk in the rain, a film, a high quality three course lunch, a load of wine, and the opportunity for your best friend to repeatedly call you a witch. I'm still not a fan of surprises...but don't be too surprised if you see me again at Secret Film Society.

- Find out more about the Secret Film Society (although they're quite mean, and won't tell you everything, no matter how many times you ask them) via their Facebook page here. I was invited along as a guest but only asked to provide honest feedback.

The Grill on the Alley, Manchester: Superb Steak and Surprisingly Fabulous Fish

When you're booked in for dinner at The Grill on the Alley and your friend suddenly announces they've given up meat for two months, it's hard not to feel somewhat annoyed. After all, Grill on the Alley is known for its steaks - some of the finest in the city - and was surely crying out for a meaty re-visit in the face of stiff new competition from an array of newcomers (including the mighty Hawksmoor). Despite an initial urge to ditch the original plus-one and take a more carnivorous alternative, The Awkward One assured me he was still eating fish and that this would be a good opportunity to see what the place could offer besides steak - and thus kept his place by the skin of his teeth.

Turned out to be a good move. After a quick round of emergency bread (with chorizo butter, which was every bit as exciting as it sounds), we shared two fish starters: the Torched Mackerel with gem salad and pickled vegetables, and the Prawn and Avocado Salad with Marie Rose sauce (as a true 70s child, the latter choice was quite obviously mine). These turned out to be good sharers - mine (which I'd rather laughably ordered as I'd seen the word "salad" and thought it might not fill me up too much before my steak) was essentially half an avocado filled with prawns and a thick, creamy sauce, and though delicious would have been very rich had one eaten it in its entirety. The perky mackerel dish with its grilled gem and nicely acerbic pickled vegetables was just the job to cut through the comforting blandness of the avocado dish and was also very beautiful to look at (until we divided it down the middle). I reckon some will question whether these dishes are cutting edge enough for 2015, but as far as I'm concerned, when food looks and tastes this good I have no problem with tradition.

For mains, I went for the Limousin fillet steak from the Best of British menu. This was not a cheap option at £35, but the restaurant are very proud of this grass-fed, 100% pure breed French option, and seem keen to promote it - no doubt aware that steak provision in the city centre has stepped up a notch in the last twelve months. And yes it's expensive, and yes it's not local, but this was one of the best steaks I've eaten in a good long while - a generally lean cut with a slight marbling of fat that meant that even the fillet cut (sometimes so perfect in texture but so lacking in taste) was packed with flavour. Meanwhile, the non-meaty one was enjoying his Sea Trout with asparagus, roasted cherry tomatoes and bearnaise sauce (£16.75) - a beautiful dish offering a substantial piece of fish, perfectly cooked and very much complemented by the well-rounded flavours of the rich yellow sauce surrounding it. The waiter had recommended he order a side to supplement the dish but in the end the extra chips we ordered weren't really necessary - he found the fish substantial and "meaty" enough in its own right (and enough to keep him away from my steak - a fairly remarkable feat all considered). We also ordered a side of Summer Green Vegetables (I'm all about the health) which were nicely varied and cooked al dente, and a jug of Chimichurri sauce to go with my steak - this latter was exceptional, and at £2 a go I'm tempted to order its fresh, garlicky goodness to go alongside every course next time I eat here.

The only moment of uncertainty with our meal came with desserts. No issue with my cheeseboard, which I had initally considered a little expensive at £9.75 but which turned out to be a shining example of its ilk - three excellent specimens (Butlers cheddar, Lancashire Blue and Crottin goat’s cheese) simply presented in generous portions with crackers and a chutney and made short work of. The one we were less sure of was the Champagne Sorbet - another simple dish (and good value at £4) but one which initially seemed full of discord - a saucer of fizz containing a scoop of slightly acerbic sorbet which appeared at odds with each other, distracting from each other's flavour rather than enhancing. We ignored it for a while while we ate the cheese and then went back to it - finding it much improved once the sorbet had melted a little into the fizz and essentially turned it into the world's poshest coke float. To wash all of this down we had a bottle of Cuma Argentine Malbec from a wine list to which I am very partial, offering as it does lots of very good options around the £20-25 mark. This wine coped perfectly with both the fish and the steak, and was also organic and therefore good for us.

On last week's performance then, Grill on the Alley is very much on form. Service was helpful and non-intrusive, and the fact that the place was pretty much full on a Wednesday night speaks volumes about how well regarded it is amongst Mancunians. It remains one of my favourites despite the wealth of choices now available, and although some options on the menu are not cheap, you get what you pay for - my Limousin steak was every bit as good as the spectacular one I had at Hawksmoor not long ago. And before certain people say "of course you liked it - it was FREE" I'll point out that a/ I've eaten here as a paying customer many many times and b/ we bumped into a friend who had ordered and loved every mouthful of her (paid-for) Limousin fillet. A little competition, it seems, is a glorious thing - and as for the brave pescetarian? Already counting down the days (and hours, and minutes) until Limousin Day.

- The Grill on the Alley is at 5 Ridgefield, Manchester M2 6EG; tel. 0161 833 3465. We were invited by the restaurant and were not asked to pay for our meal or our drinks.

Cuban Mojitos with Havana Club Rum: Where To Get 'Em and the Perfect Recipe

As confessed in my last post, I am really quite wary when it comes to cocktails. But one that I do like is a mojito - a long, sharp, simple drink traditionally made with only five ingredients (white rum, sugar, lime juice, sparkling water and mint) and therefore (in theory) easy enough even for a cocktail duffer like me to make. All too often though, the mojito is presented in some kind of adulterated form, with all sorts of unnecessary nonsense thrown in - presumably in the name of "innovation" or to appeal to sweeter palates. Now Havana Club - one of the world's best-selling rum brands - are on a mission to teach us how to make the perfect mojito without any of that frippery, and have been travelling the country looking for bars that make the real deal, the kind of mojitos people actually drink in Cuba (although I'll have to take their word for this). Surprisingly, there are only four Manchester bars that have made it on to the Havana Club Certified list - Gorilla, Cloud 23, Neighbourhood and Guilty by Association.

As I was unable to attend a recent mojito masterclass at Gorilla due to being at a glamorous and glittering event elsewhere*, Havana Club kindly sent me my own mojito-making kit to try at home, complete with recipe card, two jaunty tins and a bottle of Havana Club Anejo 3-year-old. Here's their recipe, along with what I hope are helpful additions.

*waiting in at home for a plasterer

Step 1: Squeeze the juice of half a fresh lime into a glass and add two teaspoons of white sugar. Stir with a spoon or swirl the glass around until the sugar is dissolved. I thought I knew better here and used only one spoon of sugar, but I then had to go back and add some more so that just shows you how much I know.

Step 2: Tap two whole fresh mint sprigs on the back of your hand to release the fragrant aromas. I grow mint in my garden all year round for the sole purpose of making emergency mojitos, and can confirm that the tapping motion is also very useful for dislodging small, slumbering insects who have hitherto resided on your mint leaves. Gently muddle (press) the mint a few times with the end of a wooden spoon.

Step 3: Fill the glass with ice. As you can see, I fell down a bit here and didn't have quite enough ice to reach the top. Use the bottle cap to pour four caps of rum over the ice (I must confess to doing this bit freehand), then top up with sparkling water.

The result was lovely (once I'd gone back and added the sugar that should have been there in the first place) and although I've done it in a normal glass here for viewing purposes, I shall be using my Havana Club tins next time. As drinking a mojito in the garden is almost certainly the nearest I'll get to being in Cuba for the forseeable future, it's nice to know I'm doing it right (although I consider further practice is the very least I can do).

For rather better instructions than I've given you here, visit the Havana Club website - if you sign up to their newsletter there's a chance to win your own mojito-making kit as well. Havana Club sent me the kit free of charge but asked only for honest feedback - I can confirm that the three-year-aged rum goes perfectly in a mojito and that the recipe is so foolproof even I can successfully recreate it.

Cocktails in the City, Manchester 2015: Something for Everyone, Even Me

I've mentioned before that I'm not a massive fan of the cocktail in its most general terms. There are some that I like very much - the heady, smoky bourbon affairs that I had recently at The Smithfield Social; the sharp, nicely acidic Mojitos that I whipped up at home last night (more of this another time) - but on the whole, I've had too many bad ones to fully trust the cocktail, being all too familiar with the crushing experience of handing over £8.95 for a sickly sweet concoction that does nothing other than give me a headache and make me feel a bit sick.

All of this perhaps explains why I hadn't been to Cocktails in the City before, a drinks showcase that hits Manchester on an annual basis and brings a number of bars and brands together under one roof. What lured me in this time was the presence of some of my favourite bars coupled with some of my preferred spirits - if you're going to trust anyone to make you a decent cocktail, it might as well be the likes of Harvey Nichols, Hawksmoor and Smithfield Social. This year's venue was in The Great Northern, a cavernous upstairs space that normally hosts events such as Beat Street; we went on the Friday night, and it was utterly, totally packed (a little too packed for me at first - I did feel a little like a confused, 95-year-old interloper until I found my bearings i.e. first drink). Easy to see why though - it's only a tenner in (which also gets you your first cocktail and a booklet of all the recipes) and then additional drinks or food tokens are an extra £6, which seems reasonable for the kind of bars and brands that are here, and there are all sorts of demos and competitions going on as well. The event was a sell-out, with 1,600 people through the doors over both nights and - apparently - a total of 5,203 cocktails consumed (I like how pleasingly precise this figure is, and that it would have been under 5,200 had I not gone).

Our visit was something of a flying one as we were on our way somewhere else, but we sensibly found time for a "Runnin' Wild in Florence" with Wild Turkey at Smithfield Social, a "Botanical Garden" with Botanist Gin at the Second Floor Bar at Harvey Nichols (the addition of thyme was a masterstroke), the scarily blue but surprisingly palatable "Rum 'n' Ginger Sherbert" with El Dorado Rum from Mojo and - my personal favourite - the "Appleton Estate Mai Tai" at Hawksmoor. I genuinely enjoyed ALL of these, so there is perhaps hope for me yet. I did, however, rather ineptly manage to avoid trying any of the winners (apart from one second place), which were later announced as follows:

Best Cocktail (selected by The Drinks Enthusiast Dave Marsland and World Best Bars editor Sasha Filiminov) was Cane and Grain with Old Forester for the "Old and Wild Spiced Smash". The Fitzgerald came second with the Chambord "Smoked French Manhattan" and third was Cloud 23 with Tanqueray No.TEN for "Up, Up and Away". The best Best Stand (voted for by the exhibitors) was won by Mr Coopers with Portobello Road Gin, and the Consumer Vote (voted for over the two nights by handing over a token) saw Elixir & Tonics being the people's favourite with Harvey Nichols and Under New Management coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. It seems clear that next year, I will simply have to try them all.

- apologies for the appalling quality of the photos, which look like I was in some kind of disco - we can perhaps charitably call them "atmospheric". We were given free tickets for the event but paid for our additional drinks.