Its difficult to know whether the Mark Addy counts as a hidden gem or not. On the one hand its been around for ages, has always done good business, and has been feted by Manchester Confidential quite a lot recently. On the other hand its on the other side of the River Irwell. Like, in Salford. This means that a large proportion of Manchester would never consider going there. But its only just over the river (five-ten minutes walk from Albert Square), and is one of the few places in Manchester/Salford to take advantage of the waterways rather than stubbornly ignore them. If you can walk through the weird brown tunnel thing and down the stairs you will be rewarded with a very charming riverside terrace, which on a hot weekday lunchtime was very welcome indeed.
The Mark Addy has received so much attention from Manchester Confidential because of its executive chef, Robert Owen-Brown. He has to run a number of pubs in the area, all of which were praised for their food, all of which closed. So hopefully he’s on to a safer bet with the institution that is the Mark Addy. The stand-out menu item is the cheese and pate board, which was hugely enjoyed by a number of people in our group. The range of local cheeses was brilliant, and the only complaint was that you could only choose one if you wanted pate too. Why not be generous and let people get two or three cheeses, maybe upping the price if necessary? As it was lunchtime we didn’t really take advantage of the hot mains menu, and most had sandwiches and chips, which were fine, but hardly the stuff of rave reviews. I decided to try one of the tempting starters with chips on the side. I chose the coddled egg with shrimp and soldiers. It was tasty, with the little brown shrimp buried at the bottom of the egg cup. However the pile of soldiers were far too large in number for the size of the dish, and I soon ran out of anything to dip them in. It was of course a starter but a little more generosity wouldn’t go amiss for seven quid. The chips were an inviting brown, but were soggy rather than crispy, and didn’t taste like they’d been made fresh.
The dreamy location by the river with the sun beating down on us was an all-round winner, and the service was good. Just wish I hadn’t left feeling a bit let down by the food.
The Mark Addy has received so much attention from Manchester Confidential because of its executive chef, Robert Owen-Brown. He has to run a number of pubs in the area, all of which were praised for their food, all of which closed. So hopefully he’s on to a safer bet with the institution that is the Mark Addy. The stand-out menu item is the cheese and pate board, which was hugely enjoyed by a number of people in our group. The range of local cheeses was brilliant, and the only complaint was that you could only choose one if you wanted pate too. Why not be generous and let people get two or three cheeses, maybe upping the price if necessary? As it was lunchtime we didn’t really take advantage of the hot mains menu, and most had sandwiches and chips, which were fine, but hardly the stuff of rave reviews. I decided to try one of the tempting starters with chips on the side. I chose the coddled egg with shrimp and soldiers. It was tasty, with the little brown shrimp buried at the bottom of the egg cup. However the pile of soldiers were far too large in number for the size of the dish, and I soon ran out of anything to dip them in. It was of course a starter but a little more generosity wouldn’t go amiss for seven quid. The chips were an inviting brown, but were soggy rather than crispy, and didn’t taste like they’d been made fresh.
The dreamy location by the river with the sun beating down on us was an all-round winner, and the service was good. Just wish I hadn’t left feeling a bit let down by the food.
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