Happy Seasons - China Town, Manchester

Taking a tip from a fellow food lover I followed my nose and took my grumbling tummy to Manchester's brightly coloured, richly smelly, hustling and bustling China Town to search out a long-standing little gem called Happy Seasons.

I have to admit, I've never been to Happy Seasons; never giving it more than a quick glance as I moved on to the pared back Japanese cuisine at Yuzu or the face-melting dishes at Red Chilli. It's rammed in to Faulkner Street between a dozen other dining dens and only manages to catch your attention because of its fuck off neon sign. Oh and the guy chopping meat in the window.

Big sign/bad photo

How I never managed to spot a place with peking ducks hanging in the window and a man permanently chopping different BBQ meats (don't question this, we have done tests, he is always there, always chopping. We have visited numerous times to confirm this), I don't know, especially as I've been next door to Wasabi about 400 times. I shan't miss it now though, not that I know it's there.

Meat window - chopping man got shy but you can still see him hiding - here Mr Chopping Man

Happy Seasons is very much like Handmade BBQ Noodle King - you don't go there for the decor. In fact many weak-stomached mortals who rather like shiny new chain restaurants (ooh...well ya knor jus wot yers getting even if yer go to like another town int it?) would take one look inside and condemn the place faster than an over zealous food hygiene officer. It's shabby, it's ramshackle and it's painted hospital green - but as I said, you really don't go there for the decor.

Wow, look at this amazing decor...NO LOOK AT THE FOOD, it's what you're there for

What you do go to Happy Seasons for is BBQ meat. There's a big menu with other un/usual dishes, some of it looks amazing, but nothing touches the BBQ meat. Ever. Well maybe the Char Sui buns, but you can have them for starter so let's not worry about it.

Due to the extreme amazigness of the smells coming from the kitchen we got giddy and ordered rather too much for our stomachs (don't worry, we got a doggy bag and ate it later on) all of which came  at once - I'm sure our little corner table gave an audible groan as the plates were laid upon it.

Prawn dumplings were little (well actually quite big, two bites I'd say) steamed dim sum - super hot, but gorgeous and stuffed full with large chunks of prawns with a good dose of seasoning; we suffered burnt mouths almost with glee to get these in.

Char sui buns were some of the best I've had in China Town; super fluffy and soft, oozing with sweet/salty/unctuos char sui (roast pork) - again lava hot, but again we didn't care and merely shovelled in jasmine scented tea to deal with it.

Char sui buns - don't even think about eating anything else (apart from the BBQ meat)

BBQ pork was divine and arguably the best - chucks of dense belly pork with only a little fat topping each piece off (I prefer this less fat/more meat ratio) with a crispy, crunchy crackling top. The BBQ sauce is super salty with that indescribable umami satisfaction taste wrapping itself around your tongue and smothering you with savouriness, all partnering well with the sweet pork fat/meat and the bland boiled rice we'd ordered to sop up all the lovely juices running off the meat (this is imperative. DO NOT lose/leave behind those juices - fight your table companions/the next table for them and guard them with your life).

Pork back, duck front - FIT

We ordered the duck in this BBQ style as well - not as successful as there was far too much fat and the dish left your lips overly greasy and a little sickly. Plus we'd already eaten so much pork we couldn't give the poor old duck as much attention as we liked so it had gone a little cold and hard by the time we got to it - in fact, each of the meats was served a little cold, but the rice was so hot it didn't matter at all.

Don't march down Faulkner Street dismissing places that don't conform to the perceived ideas of cleanliness or fancy decor - Happy Seasons (as well as Handmade BBQ King) is a proper hidden gem and is proof that sometimes it's the food that should be concentrated on, not the dining room.

Ps Ask for the spring onion dipping sauce - just spring onion, ginger and fish sauce bashed together. Amazing to cut through the fatty sweetness of the dishes, but you will need to drink about three gallons of water during the following night or you'll wake up with a face like a prune.

Price for two starters, two mains, one rice and tea for two - £26.40.

Food - 8/10
Atmosphere - 9/10 (packed and full of very talkative Chinese families)
Service - 6/10 (functional but probably better if we spoke Chinese)
Value for money - 10/10 (seriously massive portions and minimal price)

Total - 33/40

Go again? Yes! Yes! Yes! I need more of that BBQ pork and those Char Sui buns.

Happy Seasons, 59-61 Faulkner Street, Manchester M1 4FF - 0161 236 7189

Sweet Mandarin - Northern Quarter, Manchester

Last time I reviewed somewhere associated with a certain foul mouthed, botox injecting, kitchen tyrant celebrity chef, it closed down soon after (here), so it's with trepidation that I review another Ramsey endorsed establishment - although as Sweet Mandarin has been trading since 2004, I'm sure they're not quaking in their boots.

Sweet Mandarin - with thanks to themselves

After a public battle in the middle of the Northern Quarter with t'Boy and the little bro, we decamped to Sweet Mandarin as it was a) open b) looked inviting and c) it was cheaper than the surrounding places and d) the other places were full.

It's run by two sisters, Helen and Lisa Tse - one in the kitchen and one front of house. There's a family feel about the place, probably because the girls are third generation restaurateurs - their grandma opened one of the first Chinese restaurants in the UK and the menu is littered with dishes that hark back to their family; Mabel's clay pot chicken is their Mother's dish and their sweet and sour is made to a recipe their father created. You can also buy a book about the family's move over from China written by Helen - these girls are ever industrious, there's even homemade sauces which you can buy and take home and they've started a cookery school and cocktail classes and...

Fishy polystyrene and some ab fab sauces

Talking about the bottled sauces, out came the prawn crackers - I don't like  prawn crackers; words like fishy polystyrene, bubble wrap and plastic come to mind - however the sauces made them pretty agreeable. The sweet chilli was firey and sharp, with no over cloying sweetness and the BBQ was a finger-licking treat.

Lions Head meatballs - a portion size for a lion

Sweet Mandarin's not cheap for a Chinese, obviously taking a lead from it's Northern Quarter neighbours, the mains hover around the £10 mark with quite a few above that - plus there's rice needed on top as well! Feeling the pennies pinching, I chose the Lion Head Meatballs; soft and sweet meatballs in a fabulously salty, oyster sauce served with noodles (so no rice required) and some token Chinese greens. Playing on the salty/sweet, meat/seafood juxtapositions, this dish was a bit of a hit - though the size meant I could have shared it and saved myself a couple of extra quid.

Sweet and sour in a crispy bowl

Crispy Sichaun Beef lacked the massive chilli punch I was waiting for from a dish from the hot and spicy part of China, though the beef was crispy as advertised. The sweet and sour was served in a crispy bowl, which was good fun for dipping in the mouth puckering sauce; however I'm no fan of sweet and sour as it's always too gloopy for me and this was no exception.

Crispy Sichaun beef

Sweet Mandarin is a great little neighbourhood restaurant; the staff are welcoming and friendly, plus were super patient when I wanted to change my mind 15 times and didn't begrudge my refusal to budge from tap water all night. However if Sweet Mandarin was just a little neighbourhood place, tucked away in some provincial town, I'd be giving this place a full house of tens for the score - but this is the middle of Manchester, with some pretty fine eating establishments round the corner, a top-rate China Town down the road and Ramsey awarded it the best Chinese place in the UK.

Best Chinese in the UK? Not in my books, but better than your usual Chinese fare and a cheap for the Northern Quarter.

Total for prawn crackers, four mains, rice and three beers - £62.30

Food - 6/10
Service - 8/10
Atmosphere - 7/10
Price - 7/10

Total - 28/40

Go again? Yes, if I was in the area and the group wanted a Chinese - otherwise I'd head down to China Town for a big wallop in the face from Red Chilli or those delicious chewy handmade noodles from the BBQ King.

Sweet Mandarin, 19 Copperas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1HS - 0161 832 8848 -
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http://www.sweetmandarin.com/

Red Chilli - Manchester

Manchester’s Chinatown offers avenues for culinary exploration and sensory stimulation to visitors and Manchester’s large Chinese population alike. One of the largest Chinatowns outside China, it inhabits a distinct area just off the city centre and is vibrantly spread over four streets. Chinatown boasts a beautifully ornate arch, bustling Chinese supermarkets and a phalanx of restaurants to stimulate your senses.

Manchester Chinatown with thanks to Panoramio

One restaurant on the edge of Chinatown, which is rapidly gaining credibility with the more adventurous of eaters, is Red Chilli on Portland Street. This restaurant is the original, with branches popping up across the North West; there’s a second, bigger version in Manchester’s university area on Oxford Road.

Red Chilli - with thanks to the Local Data Company

Red Chilli on Portland Street is pretty cramped, dark and a little dingy. It’s full of dark wood, mirrored walls and a few Chinese carvings with plenty of brooding atmosphere. Apparently it’s been done up lately, but the stairs up to the toilets are still pretty grimy and the seats in the waiting area are a little past their best.

However this isn’t a style blog so let’s move on for the main reason you’re reading this – the food at Red Chilli is influenced by the Sichuan and Beijing areas of China, so there’s plenty of small sharing plates, royal style dishes, dark soy sauce and bold, punchy spice. The extensive menu reads like a what’s what of animal parts and makes use of stronger meats like mutton, which can stand up to the challenging and potentially overpowering flavours of this style of cuisine.

Chilli beef

Shredded chilli beef was pleasingly crispy, crunchy and sweet; small strips of beef that had been chucked into oil and coated in a thick sauce flecked with little bits of chilli. Sliced duck breast with young leeks was the most conservative of dishes we tried, however still managed to deliver on the flavour front; the sauce was rich, dark and full of salty flavours that married well with the sweetness of the duck and the leeks.

Duck with young leeks

Dan dan noodles were shared between the table; the waitress making ceremony of measuring them out in to individual bowls and passing them round. The flat noodles had been cooked in a spicy broth with the addition of very soft, minced pork. The soup was surprisingly deep in savoury flavours with tongue numbing Sichuan pepper combing with chillies and the fresh bite of spring onions to create a balanced dish with a huge spectrum of flavours.

Dan dan noodles

Whether Red Chilli was having an off day, or whether it was because we were a table of small European girls, the food at Red Chilli didn’t quite offer the spicy assault on our taste buds we had expected. After eating a lot of the noodles our mouths were starting to numb and tingle, but I managed to have thirds and could still feel my tongue. The spicy chilli beef could have benefited from the supposed chilli that was meant to be there; coupled with the crispy, gloopy, spicy beef it would have been completely divine.

Apart from the misplaced heat, the food at red chilli is delicious and extremely moreish. Their approach to delivering properly regional dishes and their bravery at including all parts of the animal is refreshing when most Chinese restaurants are content with delivering the same anglicised versions of mediocre dishes.

Ps Try the pork buns, we didn’t have them, but they are a bit of a delicacy. If you go to the bigger restaurant on Oxford Road you can also have more ‘upmarket’ recipes such as Peking duck.

Price for three mains (we shared between four as the portions are large and we still didn’t manage to finish it), four beers and rice: £38.50

Food – 7/10
Atmosphere – 6/10
Service – 5/10
Value for money – 8/10
Total – 26/40

Go again – yes I would. It’s not expensive and the food is always interesting.

Red Chilli, 70-72 Portland Street, Manchester M1 4GU – 0161 236 2888

http://www.redchillirestaurant.co.uk/

Simply Yu and You - Horwich

Gordon Ramsey - a shouty, crinkly faced, telly-monger and not someone I usually consult for anything other than how not to speak to other people. However female solicitor is a fan of some really trash telly and mentioned that Mr Ramsey had recently bestowed Yu and You Ribble with the title of 'Best Chinese Restaurant,' therefore we should probably nip over to the Horwich branch to see if we agreed with him.

Simply Yu and You is tucked away on St John's Street, around a corner off Winter Hey Lane in Horwich; thankfully the solicitors had done their research, presented their case and led the way.

Any winner for a restaurant is service, and the staff at Simply Yu and You made us feel like kings, or more fittingly emperors. Though service was clumsy (dropped cutlery anyone?), the staff were very friendly and knowledgeable; something many places could learn from - hope you're taking note Vermillion.

Having never visited the main Yu and You, or indeed watched that rapscallion Mr Ramsey's programme, I have no idea how Simply compares. At first glance the restaurant is very stylish; with a bright blue up lit bar, granite panelling and flock covered menus. In contrast the actual restaurant part is somewhat 'bedroom wallpaper from Homebase,' but the main thing has to be said that the small space is clean and they have at least made an effort.

The menu is a little shorter than a standard chinese restaurant's, plus seems to be much more simplified than the Ribble restaurant's version; though unfortunately the prices don't much match this simplification. The question was, why does Yu and You think the people of Horwich need a simpler menu?

Starters came out reasonably quickly, though female solicitor's didn't come out until we had all but finished ours - something she used to her advantage by nicking off our plates. If we hadn't been 'sharing' we may have complained, but portions were big enough and when it did come out they were very apologetic.

Mini duck spring rolls

The boy's vegetable spring rolls were nice enough, crispy pastry no hint of oil; but he was very jealous when female solicitor's mini duck spring rolls arrived, there were four compared with his two - and they weren't that mini either! Once again I chose the squid, was cooked well but nothing special and did have an oily aftertaste. However the winner of the starters was male solicitor's salt and pepper spare ribs - the only word I have to describe these are soft and lip-smacking - yum!

Lip smacking spare ribs

For mains the boy's beef with green pepper was good, female solicitor's predictable sweet and sour pork was predictably alright - good compared with the stuff you get from the chinese takeaway, not mind blowing, but for once a sauce that is both sweet and sour, not just cloyingly sweet.

Sweet and sour

Male solicitor was vying for first place again with his Thai style crispy king prawns - the sauce was lovely, however his prawns were slightly overdone and chewy. My steamed sea bream was cooked to perfection with the flavour of the fish delicately skipping across my tongue, the crispy noodles a great contrast in texture - however the dish was spoiled by the soy sauce; instead of a complimentary, slightly salty flavour the sauce overpowered the delicate fish and left me gasping for water: therefore no winners on the mains front.

         

Steamed sea bream

To finish off we ordered the fruit fritters; too oily, not worth mentioning and not worth the £4.95 we paid for the them no matter how good the presentation was (thought the server had managed to knock over both towers bringing them to table, we restyled them for the photo).

Fritters

Simply Yu and You is better than the takeaway but seems to have simplified not only its menu, but also it's award winning cooking style - however not its prices. Although the service is charming, the food isn't worth the prices charged; whether this is a reflection on Gordon's taste I am unsure, let's hope the Ribble restaurant is worth eating at - the Horwich one certainly isn't.

Price for four starters, fours mains, two sides and a pudding - £72.25

Value for money - 6/10
Atmosphere - 6/10
Service - 8/10
Food 5/10

Total - 25/40

Simply Yu and You, 2 St John Street, Horwich, Bolton BL6 7NY - 01204 698600 - http://www.simplyyuandyou.com/