A luxury usually available to restaurants is to purposely stagger bookings by 30+ minutes to delay arrivals, push certain starters and puddings, and hence encourage orders landing at spaced out times to take pressure off the kitchen. This luxury isn’t possible here, purely because on the restaurant's intrinsic location. Basically, customers generally want to arrive at around 18:00 and be finished eating by 19:15 ready for their show to start at 19:30. This gives the team little leeway in their preparation and serving times, and it's all hands to deck when the dining room fills up, and they seem to cope amazingly well. However, should you choose to go with a pudding and don’t quite have time to fit it in ahead of the show, the team are more than happy for you to eat this at the interval, should you fancy a break. A very nice touch we found.

On closer inspection, the menu was actually pretty varied, contained something for all tastes, along with a clear use of quality locally sourced ingredients. We started with the Pressed Ham, which looked great, was well seasoned, tasted lovely and looked aptly theatrical for its surroundings. Next came the Onion and Tomato Quiche, which again hit the spot with flavour. The pastry may have been a touch thick, but it still disappeared in no time. A sensed a pleasant surprise here, following 2 starters which both said 'restaurant', not 'theatre café'.

Our main courses of Lamb Rump and Sweet Potato Cake, were more than a match for our starters in terms of quality. The lamb in particular being perfectly cooked pink, well-seasoned, well dressed, looked great, and was some truly accomplished cooking. Dare I say it, with some bordering on fine dining presentation touches. The potato cake was equally as enjoyable, with our only criticism being that it was perhaps too big. Hardly a criticism! It was topped with a perfectly poached egg, coated in a sumptuous sauce. And whilst the lamb also came with a sweet potato cake component, whilst I've mentioned that certain parts of dishes are repeated in others, the potato cake in this case was prepared differently, and was in no way repetitive in feel. The wine list is also pretty comprehensive too, containing over 25 bottles. Our very drinkable Elementos Torrontes from Argentina was best friends with our lamb dish. There's also a range of cocktails, spirits and hot drinks too.

There is no doubt that front of house has been well honed by manager Mike Lee, and the kitchen is headed up by Chef Oliver Thomas; formerly of the 5 star Lowry Hotel just down the road. Since the aforementioned is a kitchen which over the years has consistently produced some of the highest rated food in the city, such standards here shouldn't be a surprise? The dining area enjoys lovely views over The Quays, whilst still feeling like part of the theatre and retaining the ambiance of the building. There should be no doubt that this is without question a restaurant which is part of the theatre, not just a place to grab a quick and convenient bite.

So, you can now go to the theatre and see a show at The Lowry, and at the same time enjoy some of the best food on The Quays. The next time you're going to a show, or even if you're not and just want a quality meal whilst in the area, add some extra performance to your evening and bypass the local chains. Give The Lowry Restaurant a try. You'll no doubt want to give it an encore, not to mention giving a break from chocolate bag rusting for the person next to you during the show! ~ Restaurants Of Manchester (6/6/14 - visited on a Friday evening)