Electrik Bar - Chorlton, Manchester

Where do old DJs go when they hang up their headphones? Some become big name record producers, some crash and burn spectacularly and some get graveyard slots on Radio Hull. And some open bars, as have Jake and Luke of  Manchester's legendary Unabombers - is this where their reputations lay down and die?

Electrik is the latest offering from Jake and Luke Unabomber and is decked out in mismatched chairs, wood and previous Electric Chair posters trumpeting past successes; a fitting decor in the largely young professional populated Chorlton. It's the young, middle class idea of hangover heaven.

Electrik - with thanks to Deltrams

The vibe is funky, with a great jukebox and playlists from staff, public and the Manchester great and good like Guy Garvey. By day it's a relaxed eating/drinking joint with a book exchange, wifi and daily papers. By night the atmosphere steps up a gear and gets quite busy with locals appreciating the music and sampling the victuals.

Food is as relaxed as the surroundings, however this attitude produces some pretty underwhelming outputs from the kitchen.

Boy ate the burger; we were hoping for great things as the menu descried it as being made with bourbon beer and served in a Barbakan bun (chi chi bakery up the road, if you ain't using their bread you ain't on message); unfortunately the texture of the meat was too soft and mushy, almost if the burger had been (shh don't say it) bought it. The overall taste of the dish was far too sweet and a real let down.

Burger

My falafel and haloumi burger hardly fared better; consisting of a few large chunks of crunchy but soft falafel with hunks of overly fried and greasy haloumi. The pitta it was served in fell apart and there was a severe lack of seasoning; however the addition of salsa and hummus meant there was at least some flavour and a lot of value for the princely sum of £5. Better than the boy's, but I still couldn't get excited.

Falafell

Electrik's a great bar with a good selection of drinks; including cask ales, Hendricks gin and alright cocktails. The service is a bit slack due to staff becoming swamped at busy times, but here's a lot of thought been put in to making this a relaxed and friendly joint that's good for whiling away a few Saturday morning hours, catching up with good friends or getting the night started. A few tweeks with the food and they'll be bang on - just like their DJ sets used to be.

Ps Check out the Electrik website and twitter for event updates, there's some very interesting things going on there, plus they've been nominated for second year running as Best Bar in the Manchester Food and Drink Awards.

Price for two mains - £10.50

Food - 4/10
Service - 5/10
Atmosphere - 8/10
Value for money - 8/10

Total - 25/40

Go again? - Yes for drinks, but not for the food.


Electrik, 559a Wilbraham Road, Chorlton, Manchester M21 0AE - 0161 831 3315 - info@electrikbar.co.uk

Twitter

http://www.electrikbar.co.uk/