Food critic Jay Rayner has left another glowing review of one of Manchester’s restaurants - although he couldn’t help but acknowledge there was an ‘eschew’ of pepper on his plate.
Writing for The Guardian, the esteemed writer reviewed The Edinburgh Castle on Blossom Street in Ancoats. Fronted by Executive Chef Shaun Moffat, the pub, which dates back to 1811, offers a small menu of traditional British dishes.
As Jay cites, everything on the menu is locally sourced, such as sourdough bread from the nearby Pollen Bakery. It’s for that reason alone that the critic is told ‘the chef does not use pepper because pepper does not grow in the UK’ - a controversial decision, if you will.
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While the critic acknowledges that ‘the service is sometimes chaotic’, he recognises that ‘like a primary school ballet class, [it is] always enthusiastic’ and the food is top tier. “There’s a deftness, solidity and wit to the cooking, utilising ingredients of quality,” he writes.
Jay adds: “What’s happening here fits very comfortably into Ancoats, a fast-developing district of boozy and edible promise, where the industrial past has been repurposed for the service industry present.”
He begins with ‘an impeccably French and impeccably dense’ ham hock terrine with lightly pickled blackberries, alongside yellow courgettes and taramasalata. “It’s a moment of the Mediterranean, here amid the falling Ancoats dusk,” he eloquently quips.
Next on the menu for Jay are pork chops, served with cavolo nero and chips ‘cooked in dripping’. Speaking of the chops, he says they are perfectly rested and sliced, lying 'in lakes of their own juices, much like me on a boozy Saturday night’.
But here is where the pepper debate begins to rear its head. “Why eschew pepper, if you’re not going to make a point with its absence?,” Jay asks his readers. “Nearby Rusholme and Longsight are full of Middle Eastern and South Asian shops serving communities that have been part of the region for generations. Are they doing something inauthentic? No, of course not.”
For dessert, he gets to try a 'crisp-crusted' berry seed cake and a berry crumble featuring 'a topping that feels like part of the dish rather than something chucked on at the last minute'. All in all, Jay describes the menu as being ‘pleasingly eclectic and very now’ and full of ‘solid and sustaining food’ but he still can’t resist making a further point about the lack of pepper.
“Would anything have improved it?,” he rhetorically asks. “I’d suggest a grind of black pepper on the steaks, but that would just be a provocation for its own sake.” He adds that those wanting to try the Edinburgh Castle should definitely give it a go, for it is ‘a great place to eat’, but goes as far as cheekily suggesting you bring your own pepper grinder. But don't do that, it would be uncouth.
You can read Jay's full review on The Guardian.
The Edinburgh Castle is on 17 Blossom Street, Ancoats, M4 5EP.
