The Cornerhouse - Manchester

Located at the top of Manchester’s long and busy Oxford Road, The Cornerhouse is a legendary landmark in Manchester’s cultural heritage and is Manchester’s centre for contemporary and visual arts. Founded in 1985 by the Greater Manchester Visual Arts Trust it has lately merged with The Library Theatre and is now at the forefront of Manchester’s vibrant cultural scene.

The Cornerhouse Cinema - with thanks to The Guardian

As avid readers of this blog will realise; I’m not bigging The Cornerhouse up for the visually exciting galleries or the small, independent film showing cinemas it contains; nor for their support and funding of new arts projects; or for the well-stocked shop on the ground floor brimming with contemporary arts, visual and cultural materials – you all know there’s got to be some food link somewhere.

Cornerhouse main building - with thanks to Viewfinder General

The Cornerhouse does indeed hold a café-bar-restaurant: split over two floors it serves from first thing in the morning, to pretty late at night and is always filled to the rafters with students, workers, lovers and cultural explorers chatting over coffee, relaxing with a local beer, sharing tapas or eating something a bit more substantial. We visited on a Tuesday night and were hard-pushed to find a seat, sneaking in to a corner foursome by the big plate windows with a great view of the hustle and bustle of a rain-drenched Manchester evening.

The menu’s a mix of laid-back, comfy food taking inspiration from around the globe with a good smattering of veggie options, so there’s something for everyone. Being ravenous pigs on a budget, we decided to have the pizzas – nothing like a big hit of carbs to fill you up!

Pizzas at The Cornerhouse are stone-baked, thin and charred – the edges bubbling, blackened and crisp on the tooth. They’re not stingy on the toppings here; the polpette was covered with mini, juicy pork and beef meatballs and a big sprinkling of red onions. The tomato and chorizo sauce added a pleasing sweet, smokiness that was tempered by the milky, creaminess of the cheese.

Sweet, smokey, sexy polpette

A good old Americano was spicy sassiness; a salty plate full of salami and jalapenos that you could actually taste (rather than green mush tasting of pickling spices). There was little bit too much cheese for my liking, but I’m notorious for asking places to half the cheese (so I’m not going to listen to your complaints then - Ed).

Spicy, sassy Americano

Pizza’s aren’t anything extraordinary and there’s no shocks or surprises here – it’s just good food done really well, for a not too outrageous price. The added good value of The Reel Deal makes the food taste even better – a pizza, a drink (alcohol inc) and a film ticket all for £14.50 – that’s cheaper than an Orange Wednesday!

Price for two Reel Deals - £29
Usual price of pizzas – between £6-£9.

Food – 7/10
Atmosphere – 9/10
Service – 7/10
Value for money – 9/10 (for The Reel Deal)

Total – 32/40

Go again – Yes, the Reel Deal is excellent and I love the small, old skool cinemas at The Cornerhouse. I’d like to taste the main menu too as it looks pretty tasty and the portions seemed massive (when we were spying on other people’s food!).

The Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5NH – 0161 228 7621 – info@cornerhouse.org – Twitter – Facebook

http://www.cornerhouse.org/

Luciano's at the Millstone - Anderton, Chorley

Luciano's is the recent incarnation of an Italian restaurant at The Millstone, it's been remade and done up - previously it was a sad, tired restaurant with peeling 90s wallpaper serving over-priced, over-cooked food apparently with a mediterranean influence ie. served with watery courgettes and a sprinkling of oregano.
From the outside the Millstone looks like an old-style country pub, however inside it's all white linen tableclothes and leather chairs. Luciano's is now headed up by Luciano Fortuna, who's gregarious Scilian personality can usually be found heading up the restaurant and welcoming guests with a twinkle in his eye.

Looks like a pub, is a restaurant - with thanks to Chorley Guardian

We were seated quickly even though we didn't have a reservation in the modern, clean dining room. Thankfully Luciano has a habit of seating guests near other tables and filling the restaurant up that way, so even if the restaurant is only half full it seems like there is plenty going on and the atmosphere is good.

There's a main menu comprising starters, pastas, pizzas and mains - plus a daily changing special menu. I decided to order the mussels off the specials and have to say they were freshest, tastiest and well cooked mussels I have had; the flesh was silky soft and the tomatoey broth thick with fragrant herbs and garlic, it was so good I asked for a spoon (they agreed without quibble)!

Spanking fresh mussels

We ordered pizzas and pasta as it was a relaxed meal - good wood fired dough, thin and crispy. However it was 50/50 as to whether they were worth it. A 'create your own' of rocket, calabrese salami and peppers was fresh and very tasty, but the prawn pizza was bland - far too much cheese, hardly any courgettes and a few tiny rubbery prawns, this sorry state was replicated in the Sciliana as well. A secret to pizza success here seems to be asking them to be easy on the cheese.

Overly cheesey, bland prawn pizza

Pasta was well cooked to the bite and the sauce well seasoned, the diavola being loud and shouty spice in your mouth - it could have been toned down a tad as the spice seemed to drown out anything else, but was overall rounded and well thought out.

Service was attentive, if somewhat over-bearing from someone whom we could only guess at being the head waiter - an over-the-top personality who made us feel very welcome, but whose schtick soon got a little tiring. Far more subtle and effective was Luciano himself, who glided around the dining room, was expertly knowledgable and liked to talk about proper Scilian and Italian food.

We've aslo popped to Luciano's for a drink after work - the beer garden here is pretty and good sized, though a little close to the road to really chill out (thankfully you can only hear it and not see it). It's good to see that as well as serving Peroni and other largers, they pay a respectful nod to the local Bank Top Brewery and serve Flat Cap on tap. Order the breads and olives whilst you sup - the chewy bread comes with some lovely, grassy olive oil and come very sticky, thick balsamic syrup.



Luciano's isn't a mecca for foodies, but for a local mid-week, fairly priced meal that's actually alright it hits the nail on the head. If Luciano could influence the menu to give the food a more Scilian slant I think they would be on to a winner.

Price for one appertiser, two starters, three pizzas, one pasta and drinks - £67.75

Food - 7/10
Atmosphere - 7/10
Service - 6/10
Value for money - 6/10

Total - 26/40

Luciano's Italian Restaurant, At the Millstone, Bolton Road, Anderton, Chorley PR6 9HJ - 01257 480205
http://www.lucianosatthemillstone.com/