When it comes to Sunday roasts, by and large they’re pretty damn hard to beat. A catch-all plate loaded with your favourite meat and vegetables, drenched in gravy and topped with a fluffy Yorkshire pudding, what’s not to love?
Hands down this would be our death row meal every time. There’s simply no competition. So when we heard that a restaurant in Manchester has just launched a Sunday roast with bottomless drinks we felt the news was way too good not to share. After all, hot foodies don’t gatekeep.
Let’s be honest, we all love a good drink with our roast anyway – and now The Oast House has gone and made it that much more affordable.
Starting from 12pm on a Sunday, you can get 90 minutes of unlimited prosecco, a range of different spritzes and pints of lager here with your roast dinner for an extra £15.
Image: The Oast House
Image: The Oast House
The roast itself is priced at two courses for £18.50 or three for £22.50, with main choices including gorgeously pink-looking roast beef and lamb, plus chicken, crispy pork belly and a chestnut, mushroom and red lentil roast.
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All come served with mustard glazed carrots, red cabbage, Tenderstem broccoli, roast potatoes, a Yorkshire pudding and gravy – plus the option to add on crispy onion-topped Shorrocks Lancashire cauliflower cheese for an extra £2.50.
Elsewhere on the menu, you’ll find the likes of scotch eggs with picalilli, pea hummus, wings and calamari to whet your appetite as starters.
In the pudding section, meanwhile, there is a host of tempting options: ranging from a rose and hibiscus poached peach and pistachio cheesecake, to cookie dough loaded with Oreos and vanilla icecream.
Image: The Oast House
Image: The Oast House
Further pudding choices include a mouthwatering lemon tart served with raspberry sorbet and crushed honeycomb, a vegan-friendly dark chocolate and peanut butter pot with Biscoff crumb and caramelised banana, and everyone’s favourite: a sticky toffee pudding with rich toffee sauce and icecream on the side.
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Bottomless drinks options will set you back £15 per person and can be enjoyed by the whole table up to a maximum of six, with spritz choices spanning Aperol, raspberry, blood orange or elderflower.
However, if you’re not feeling that there’s also a Bloody Mary menu promising the ‘perfect pick me up’ for hungover heads with three different styles to choose from.
If you fancy getting stuck into a big roast and making a boozy one of it, then we think this will be right up your street.
Brand-new sandwich shop with Michelin credentials ALREADY forced to close
Daisy Jackson
A brand-new sandwich shop in Oldham founded by a Michelin-trained chef has had to close its doors already… because it’s simply too popular.
Fjord launched over the weekend, headed up by chef Kieran O’Reilly, with a fine-dining-inspired take on the humble butty. That means sandwiches with up to 20 elements inside.
But the sandwich bar above a barbershop has had to unexpectedly close after just a day of operations, telling followers ‘this isn’t sustainable’.
Fjord’s opening day on Saturday was so popular, they completely sold out within 90 minutes.
The new restaurant said it was having to turn people away from its Lees location, saying it ‘doesn’t sit right’ with them to do so.
And so Kieran and his team have decided to close the sandwich. bar and kitchen for the time being, so that they can reevaluate their operations.
“We’d rather pause briefly now than compromise on quality later,” they wrote in a statement.
“We need a little time to rework our production, increase our capacity, strengthen our supply chain and make sure we can deliver the quality and experience that Fjord stands for, without people queuing endlessly or missing out.”
Saddleworth’s new sandwich bar and kitchen with Michelin credentialsKieran O’Reilly (right) has launched Fjord in Lees
Over the next couple of days, Fjord will be meeting with their investors to stock up on more stand mixers, and more produce, so that they can scale the business to meet the incredible demand from locals.
In their full statement, they wrote: “Over the last few days, the support for Fjord has completely exceeded anything we could have imagined. From local customers to food bloggers, content creators and everyone who’s made the journey to see what we’re about, thank you.
“Today was our official launch, and the response has been overwhelming. We sold through what we expected to be a week’s worth of ingredients in a single day. The feedback on our sandwiches has been incredible, and seeing so many people enjoy what we’ve created has been a proud moment for the whole team.
“The only downside … We’ve had to turn people away. That doesn’t sit right with us. So we’re going to be closing for the next two days.
“Not because anything is wrong, but because everything has gone right.
“We need a little time to rework our production, increase our capacity, strengthen our supply chain and make sure we can deliver the quality and experience that Fjord stands for, without people queuing endlessly or missing out.
“This isn’t a step backwards; it’s a step towards building something sustainable, consistent and worthy of the support you’ve shown us.
“We’d rather pause briefly now than compromise on quality later.
“Thank you for your patience, your support and for believing in what we’re building. We’ll be back very soon, better prepared, fully stocked and ready to welcome even more of you through the door.
“This is only the beginning. All food options, booking and concepts reworked, all announced over the next days. Wednesday morning 9am.”
Manchester champagne bar launches new £155 menu of ‘exceptional’ single-bite dishes
Daisy Jackson
The UK’s first dedicated champagne boutique, Portfolio, is finally ready to launch its restaurant experience – and it’s like nothing Manchester has seen before.
The luxury champagne bar on Bridge Street has unveiled a new restaurant concept built entirely around ‘the perfect bite’, with diners able to enjoy up to 18 single-mouthful dishes for £155 per person (or 14 dishes for £135pp).
At lunchtimes, Portfolio will offer a 10 course menu for £75pp, with an optional wine pairing.
The intimate nine-table restaurant is the latest venture from acclaimed chef Julian Pizer, formerly of Another Hand and Edinburgh Castle, who says he wanted to focus on the one bite guests remember long after a meal has finished.
Rather than serving traditional tasting menu courses, every dish is designed to be eaten in a single mouthful, paired with some of the world’s finest and rarest champagnes and wines.
Diners are encouraged to tackle each course in one go – no matter how tempting it might be to savour it a little longer.
As co-founder Pizer explains: “I’ve always been drawn to the most memorable part of any meal – that single perfect bite, the one you remember long after the meal.
Beef fat hash, beef tartare, horseradish and Bloody Mary gel, served on top of champagne corks Carrot tart, gooseberry, fresh curds in thin crispy pastryhiso leaf taco with spring shoots, citrus vinaigrette, blackcurrant wood
“This menu is built around that idea: big flavour, perfect balance, all in one mouthful, designed to sit seamlessly alongside great Champagne.”
Highlights include a chicken and oyster tempura skewer topped with sour cream and chives, a carrot tart packed with gooseberries and fresh curds, and a beef-fat hash crowned with beef tartare and Bloody Mary gel, dramatically served on champagne corks.
One standout dish is a decadent lobster roll enriched with pork fat, where crispy brioche provides the perfect contrast to sweet Cornish lobster, cucumber, celery and apple.
Elsewhere, a refreshing shiso leaf taco with spring shoots and citrus vinaigrette offers a palate-cleansing break before richer dishes including Chinese-style pork belly with white kimchi, and a duck course featuring breast, confit meatball and duck neck sausage.
Some of the paired wines with the Portfolio lunch menu in ManchesterInside Portfolio ManchesterSome of the paired wines with the Portfolio lunch menu in Manchester
Dessert arrives in the form of a kiwi marshmallow-style treat with blackberry, mint and a dusting of icing sugar.
The drinks are no afterthought either. Portfolio houses more than 250 champagnes from over 70 producers, and diners can add carefully matched champagne pairings to either the 14-course (£135) or 18-course (£155) menu.
With only 24 covers available at any one time, the experience is intentionally relaxed. There’s just a single sitting each service, meaning guests can linger over their food and fizz for as long as they like.
For those not ready to commit to 18 bites in one sitting, Portfolio’s bar remains open six days a week, offering a more casual snack menu alongside its extensive champagne list.
Pizer describes the concept as his chance to experiment freely and, above all, ‘make food fun again’.