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Masons Summer Menu Preview

Mason’s is now a long standing name on Manchester’s mid-range food portfolio, and with good reason.  Located in the stunning Manchester Hall, featuring one of the prettiest and most intimate dining rooms in the city, it’s hard not to fall in love with the space as soon as you enter.  We try to call in a couple of times per year to keep ourselves abreast with what’s new. 

Last Autumn we spoke to new Head Chef Michael Longdin about his vision for the restaurant and it’s food offering.  He revealed plans to make the menu more accessible whilst including well-loved bistro classics in the menu, playing on his classical French training and strong love of all things pastry. Michael’s plans have now been put fully in to practice as was evident in the new Summer 24 menu which we recently sampled.

On this visit we started with a couple of great quality Colchester oysters (£3.50 each), which came garnished with a yuzu based dressing and herbs.  They were also fully shucked/released from their shells to avoid any awkward devouring.  It’s a prep which so many places neglect, but no such issues here.

Our oysters were accompanied by a couple of quality cocktails, in this case a superb Mango Daiquiri (£10), and the Raspberry Peach Bourbon Smash (£9.50).  These are some of the best value cocktails in the city centre!

The proper courses began with Mason’s own 100% in-house made Sausage Roll (£7).  An offset slice of buttery, flaky pastry, encasing a superbly juicy, mirepoix-laden pork sausage meat.  Absolutely delicious.  Mason’s piccalilli was the perfect accompaniment,  acting as an acidic counterweight to balance off all the richness.  We could have eaten 2 of these and taken a jar of the piccalilli home.

Next up was Chicken Liver Parfait (£8), which was prepped to pink perfection without even a fleck of overcooked greyness, evenly coated in a decadent truffle butter.  Silky smooth, as rich as you could hope for, seasoned really well, and was a strong reflection of Chef’s classical background.  Textbook execution and absolutely delicious, along with being fantastic value to boot.

Seafood Linguine (£20) was a bountiful plate of joy.  A super-generous portion of pasta, bejewelled with plenty of good-sized mussels, squid and prawns.  The zippy tomato and chilli sauce coated both the pasta and seafood, finished with whole cherry tomatoes, fresh basil and pea shoots.  Fresh, filling, and above all; absolutely delicious.

Pan-Fried Chicken Supreme (£18.50) was our other main course, and it followed suit from the pasta dish.  A supreme of chicken, bone in as the name suggests, sliced down the middle and cooked exactly how I prefer poultry to be.  The plate’s carb element was a lovely gnocchi, dressed with fine beans, black olives, courgette and tomatoes along with dots of amazingly creamy goat’s cheese.  Filling and very hearty.

Mango and Passionfruit Cake (£9) was a multi layered delight, containing various textures and flavours, topped with finely diced mango.   The passionfruit sorbet shone brightly though.  A perfect balance of sweet and tart.  Devine.

Chocolate Crème Caramel (£8) was a modern spin on that bistro classic which we all love.  A perfectly wobbly set crème, adored with an indulgently thick caramel rather than the runny and often bitter affair which us middle-agers all grew up with.  The chocolate ice cream was again delightful, studded with shards of dark chocolate to give the whole plate some crunch and varied mouth feel.

And with that, we were done, and ready to head off, feeling well and truly satisfied.  All in all, whilst we’ve been fans of Mason’s for many years now, this experience was the most enjoyable of any of our previous visits, of which there’s been an awful lot over the years

The food is generous, hearty, packed full of flavour and is also great value.  That new improved Summer menu is 100% a winner, offering something for all tastes and budgets.  All we need now is actual Summer to complement it!

*** Our experience was gratefully comped ***

Masons Winter Menu Preview

There’s not many nicer places in the city to spend a few hours of quality time over some delicious food, than at Mason’s Restaurant and Bar in the stunning Manchester Hall.  It’s always an absolute pleasure to pay a visit and you’re guaranteed to feel special on any occasion.  So, when Mason’s launched their new Bistro-style Winter menu and asked us to come down and take a look, we simply couldn’t say no. 

Once inside that grand entranceway we were led to our cozy window booth, surrounded by customers having a great tine on a chilly Thursday evening.  We were excited to get stuck in and see what all the fuss over the new Winter menu was about.

Said Winter menu sports some true classics along with a score of Winter warmers, to help keep you going amidst the current artic-like climate.

Whilst picking our dishes we grazed on the Artisan Bread Selection (£8.5), which was uber generous and handy when partaking in some Winter carb-loading, which I tend to do all year round. The selection was made up of 3 different styles of good quality bread, with an array of compound butters. Chilli Honey Butter was the star here.

Ham Hock (£9.5) was a generous, hearty slab of shredded pork, seasoned properly with some well-cooked veg for textural variety.  Winter chutney and a slice of toasted brioche finished the plate along with a garnish of well-dressed salad.

Duck Carpaccio (£12) looked fantastic and nailed it on flavour too.  Well seared duck, sliced and plated into an attractive pattern.  Some Romanesco added a touch of colour and a bit of shave fennel on top brought freshness to tie it all together.

12 hour Slow Braised Short Rib (£22) feel apart into mere strands at the lightest of touch, following that long cooking process.  Some tasty onion mash and roasted tender stem broccoli completed the plate, along with a delicious gravy made from the braising liquid, of which there was plenty.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly (£19) was superb.  Crispy skin, with silky, juicy pork within.  The cider-based sauce which this dish came served with, was fabulous.   Sweet, rich, comforting with balanced acidity that worked so well with the fatty pork.

Sticky Toffee Pudding (£8.5) is everybody’s favourite for good reason; because it’s straight up delicious in any weather.  And this was a good one.  A lovely pudding bathing in a deeply rich toffee sauce, with some clever caramel brittle and a ball of great tonka bean ice cream.  As delicious as you’d hope it would be.

Ginger Spiced Cake Roulade (£9) completed our desserts and was a real treat, being a novel twist on the festive yule log, only covered in chocolate and nuts.  Pear caramel, a ball of vanilla crème fraiche and caramelised nuts completed the plate.  The perfect way to end.

So, Mason’s Winter menu is a winner.  It’s hearty, delicious, great value, and as mentioned, the dining room is stunning, and easily one of our favourite spots to spend a couple of hours anywhere in the city, especially if you’re lucky enough to bag one of the booth seats as we did!

Book your table today!

*** Our experience was gratefully comped ***