I tried the giant £20 Manchester ‘mystery’ sandwich weighing over 1kg
Filled to the brim with quality imported Italian ingredients, Ad Maiora's giant three layer XXL schiacciata will set you back a pretty penny - but it's so worth it.
Over in the backstreets of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, there’s a couple slinging out some of the best sandwiches in the city from their tiny third-floor flat.
Sardinian couple Daniela Steri and Enrico Pinna have been at it for eight months now after quitting their jobs to become full-time sandwich dealers at the end of 2022.
Before long, they’ll be moving on to new beginnings as they take over a kitchen at the new Kargo food hall inside Salford’s Central Bay – and Daniella, for one, is very excited to be getting their home back.
Currently, it’s piled high with meat slicers and dough mixers, giant bags of flour, multiple ovens, and metal shelves stacked with all the Italian ingredients your heart could possibly desire, with a forgotten flat-screen TV sulking in the back corner.
As of 14 August, though, they’re expecting to be officially up and running on the Quayside – moving into the new development from Liverpool’s successful GPO and Sheffield’s award-winning Cutlery Works alongside the likes of Bab K, Tang Hot Pot, Rio Mex and Nila’s Burmese Kitchen.
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Ahead of the move, the pair has just released a new, updated sandwich menu that sees all of their old favourites sit side by side with some new additions – not least, an epic three-layer giant XXL ‘Misteriosa’ schiacciata which I quickly nickname ‘the Beast.’
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Weighing in at over 1kg, it takes more than ten minutes to prepare from scratch using giant slabs of schiacciata bread baked freshly by the couple that morning.
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Excitedly, I watch Eric lovingly prepare it: toasting three layers of bread, layering basil pesto onto one, and melting scamorza on another. In case I don’t go on about it enough I bloody love a sandwich, and I’m yet to find a bigger one than this.
Onto “the first floor” (as he calls it) go a host of traditional Italian flavours: rocket, freshly cracked black pepper, thick slices of beef tomato, followed by fistfuls of prosciutto, an entire ball of buffalo mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, olive oil, basil, and more black pepper.
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Next comes the ‘spicy floor’, starting with a slice of toasted bread simply oozing with melted cheese that drips all down the front.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Stacked above is more rocket, several handfuls of fennel salami, salami Napoli (sliced freshly in front of us. no less), spicy nduja, more mozzarella, and then to finish more pesto on the top.
A beast it really is. Of course, it’s worth noting that you don’t get the same every time. Quite the opposite, really. It’s a sort of ‘pot luck’ sandwich, as the name ‘Misteriosa’ implies – with every order set to be different from the last.
Daniela explains: “Yes so it’s like chef’s idea, maybe two people are going to order the same but we cannot give the same. It’s a mystery so everybody gets something different.
“I never mention on the box because it’s a mystery, they’re going to open the box and say ‘oh, what is going on?'”
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The inspiration, I’m told, comes purely from customer demand. “People ask can you put more salami, more … so, they want [it] bigger,” says Eric.
“They want you to mix everything from salami to parma ham, everything mixed,” agrees Daniella.
To me, this sounds like the order of an indecisive person who feels that everything looks so good, they want it all in one – and I say as much. Not that I’m complaining. If it wasn’t for those people, the XXL Misteriosa may never have come into being and I would not be fidgeting excitedly on their sofa preparing to eat it.
But whilst I spend the next half an hour running around town trying to cram a 1.1kg butty into my mouth, apparently there are others in Manchester who find even the regular-sized schiacciata too large for them.
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Keen to cater to all stomach sizes (as well as those, like me, with eyes sometimes bigger than their bellies), Ad Maiora’s legendary sandwiches can now also be ordered to share with the option to choose two different flavours from the menu for £6.50.
Elsewhere, further new additions include the A Tutto Tonno – an ‘Italian twist’ on the English staple with mozzarella replacing our traditional melted cheddar – and the Selvatica with olive tapenade, grilled courgettes and artichoke.
For butty lovers in the Northern Quarter, there is little competition. Fat Pat’s, famed for their Philly Cheesesteaks and meatball subs, does a very strong trade on the other side of town but the two menus are absolute chalk and cheese.
These are classic Italian sandwiches served on crisp focaccia-style bread, built from scratch in a house where Amato – the incredibly Italian wholesaler behind Piccadilly – is king. Long live Ad Maiora.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Eats
Top Manchester restaurant ‘so chuffed’ after receiving glowing national review
Daisy Jackson
Top Manchester restaurant Skof has received a stunning review from a national critic, with the team saying they are ‘so chuffed’.
The acclaimed NOMA restaurant, headed up by chef Tom Barnes, has rapidly become one of Manchester’s most decorated restaurants.
Not only does it proudly display its first Michelin star – earned in less than a year after opening – but it’s also been named the coveted AA Restaurant of the Year.
And now Skof can add a rave Guardian review to the list too, with critic Grace Dent heaping praise upon the business.
She said that Skof is ‘well worth the hype’, describing it (much like its parent restaurant L’enclume) to be ‘one of those intensely relaxed yet still ferociously fancy restaurants’.
Dent praised ‘hugely scoffable’ snacks like a cheese biscuit topped with broad bean, pike roe and shiso, as well as a lightly set custard with truffle and mushroom dashi (‘a quiche filling on steroids’).
In her Guardian review, she also loved the final course always served at Skof no matter how much the menu changes with the seasons – the tiramisu served from a giant bowl, tableside.
“The final hurrah: that scoop of Tom’s dad’s tiramisu, served from a big bowl,” Grace Dent wrote.
“It’s a clunky, sentimental and, ultimately, glorious end to the meal. Many Michelin-starred restaurants bookend your visit with a gift of seeds, teabags or fancy chocolate, but at Skof they send you on your way with this tiny taste of boozy stodge that’s both incongruous with everything that went before but at the same time is also symbolic of Tom Barnes’ life and everything that went before.”
Grace Dent heaped praise on Skof in a recent Guardian reviewSkof placed 29th in the National Restaurant Awards
The amazing review also said: “Fine dining can at times be truly maddening, and leave diners hungry and hoodwinked, but Skof is proof that this often precarious blend of pacing, staging and portion size can be properly magical.”
She signed off by saying: “Skof is clever and emotional… It’s also well worth the hype, so do try to nab a table, if you can. It’s fancy, yes, but it also fills you up. This is fine dining that even a naysayer would like.”
Skof has said that it’s ‘so chuffed’ to receive the review, which landed in The Guardian on the restaurant’s second birthday.
They wrote: “Our 2nd birthday just got a quite a bit more special with an absolutely amazing review from @gracedent. We’re so chuffed with the write up. Hope the man from the traitors comes down, so we can serve him a crumpet.”
You can read Grace Dent’s full Skof review in The Guardian here.
The legendary Hulme community pub The Old Abbey Taphouse has been reborn
Daisy Jackson
The closure of The Old Abbey Taphouse was a real blow for Hulme and the surrounding university district area; the community pub was a bit of a local institution thanks to its grassroots music and inclusive atmosphere.
But now it appears that the spirit of the venue lives on, under the new name of The Abbey.
Some of the city’s most experienced independent operators – who have been behind venues like YES and The Deaf Institute, and music promoters Now Wave – will be the new custodians of this beloved local landmark.
The pub, which closed early last year, has now been carefully and lovingly restored ahead of its big relaunch, which will start in true Manc vision with an exclusive opening night gig.
The Abbey is reborn. (Credit: The Manc Group)
The vision for its new chapter will be ‘Old Pub, New Music’, creating a new home for grassroots live music and emerging artists.
There’s also affordable, hearty pub grub, including Pieminister pies, and a huge range of beers from local breweries and beyond.
Bringing The Abbey back to life are a core team of four: Ruth Hemmingfield, Wesley Jones, Jonathan Wickstead and Gareth Butterworth.
Ruth, Jon and Wesley are co-owners of YES; Ruth previously launched and programmed landmark Manc venues including The Deaf Institute, Gorilla and Albert Hall; while Wesley and Jonathan, through Now Wave, promote hundreds of independent gigs and live events each year.
As for Gareth, he’s the founder of the multi-venue festival Manchester Psych Fest, meaning that all of them have plenty of hospitality, late-night, live music and events experience between them.
The team behind The Abbey pub. Credit: Piran Aston
The rear of the site of The Old Abbey Taphouse will be extended to create a new dedicated live music and events venue, while the cherished beer garden is given a facelift with new decking and its own bar.
The Abbey has stood in Hulme since the 1890s, playing an important role in the area’s heritage – this is where activist Len Johnson managed to overturn the shameful ‘colour bar’ policies of the 1940s.
Its restoration and relaunch are part of the flourishing Manchester Science Park development.
Matthew Pazos, Senior Retail Commercial Manager at Bruntwood SciTech, said: “Ruth, Wesley and Jonathan are the perfect custodians to breathe new life into The Abbey.
“Their reputation for running independent spaces in Manchester, alongside their live music expertise, will ensure this much-valued pub once again becomes a beating heart for Hulme and the wider neighbourhood.
“The reopening of The Abbey will create an inclusive new hub that welcomes everyone – from the Hulme locals who have looked after the pub over the years, to the Manchester Science Park community, university students, and the many residents and workers across the Oxford Road Corridor.
“We are delighted that such a culturally significant and important pub is set to open its doors once again.”
Ruth from the new Abbey team commented: “We love a good pub. With The Abbey, we’re excited about bringing a brilliant old pub back to life, protecting what people loved about it, and creating something special: a great local, alongside a vital grassroots music venue for the area.
“We’re honouring the pub’s history while building its future.”
Georgina Pellant -
28th June 2023 
