Prestigious restaurant chain Hawksmoor has announced it will be launching an indulgent festive special of its home delivery boxes this Christmas.
Since temporarily closing doors in Manchester due to the first lockdown back in March, Hawksmoor has been working hard to bring its unique dining experience into homes nationwide with the Hawksmoor at Home series, offering easy-to-make meal kits and some of its most popular cocktails mixed by bartenders, along with special edition spirits and different products added regularly.
And now, in the lead up to Christmas, it’s only gone and got even more special.
Hawksmoor is launching its most indulgent Hawksmoor at Home offering yet – ‘The Festive Box’ – at it’s available to order from next Thursday.
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Inside is everything you need for an easy-to-prepare steak night.
Pre-dinner cocktails are followed by smoked salmon and champagne, fillet steaks with sides, Hawksmoor beers and a bottle of Pulenta Malbec, and finished off with a huge sticky toffee pudding to share.
Hawksmoor at HomeHawksmoor at Home
What’s included then?
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Sour Cherry Negroni
Hawksmoor smoked salmon, soda bread and cream cheese
Pamler & Co Brut Champagne
x2 300g Fillet steaks
Matt Brown’s Ultimate Oven Chips
Creamed Spinach
Bone marrow & Madeira jus (for making Bone marrow gravy)
A bottle of Rosso Braida
x1 large Sticky toffee pudding with Clotted Cream
x2 Hawksmoor lagers
The Festive Box comes with easy-to-follow instructions and a bar code to access videos by Matt Brown – Executive Group Chef at Hawksmoor – for anyone needing extra help with cooking.
Another bar code will take you to a specially-curated Spotify playlist to listen to if you wish.
The Hawksmoor at Home – The Festive Box will set you back £165 in total, but if you’re not big on drinking, or would prefer to pair it with your own tipples, you can get the Hawksmoor at Home – The Festive Box (Without Alcohol) for just £105 instead.
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The restaurant chain has also chosen to give back this year too.
It has confirmed that £5 from each box sold will be split between three worthy causes that it has been cooking for and supporting in other ways this year – City Harvest, Wood Street Mission (Manchester), and Soul Food (Edinburgh) – and so far in 2020, Hawksmoor has donated tens of thousands of pounds and cooked over 30,000 nutritious meals for eight different charities.
Each of the organisations in London, Manchester and Edinburgh have been helping to fight hunger during what has been one of the most challenging years nationwide.
For every box we’ll donate £5 to @CityHarvest@WoodSt_Mission and @SocialBite_. So far in 2020 we’ve donated tens of thousands of pounds to and cooked 30,000 nutritious meals for 8 different charities fighting hunger during this most difficult of years. We’re cooking again now. pic.twitter.com/YtA2DWZIog
Speaking on Twitter about the decision to donate funds to chosen charities through the sales of the Hawksmoor at Home boxes this year, Hawksmoor said: “Christmas should be about being happy and doing something for other people. We hope that, whether the restaurants open or not, that we’ll all manage to make a few people happier this Christmas.”
How brilliant is this?
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So, if you fancy treating yourself this season, you can get your hands on the Hawksmoor at Home – The Festive Box via the Hawksmoor website here.
Deliveries will start from Thursday 26th November, with last deliveries on Wednesday 23rd December.
Eats
Siam Smiles, the authentic Thai cafe on a Manchester backstreet
Georgina Pellant
When Siam Smiles was still a little cafe in a Chinatown supermarket it received serious rave reviews. Since moving up to Deansgate Mews, however, it seems to have been forgotten about a little.
Most famously described as “the most exciting thing to happen since the days of the Hacienda” by Marina O’Loughlin in a 2014 review for The Guardian, owner May also made headlines for teaching herself to cook on Youtube after her chef left the business one month after opening.
National critics, like O’Loughin and others, were seemingly drawn in by the cafe’s novelty – not one review missed the opportunity to mention the supermarket, or tell you how the ingredients in the dishes were often the same as the ones on the shelves.
But since it has moved over to The Mews, an oft-forgotten back street within the Great Northern Warehouse complex, the reviews have gone suspiciously quiet – so we thought we’d pop in to see if it’s all still up to scratch.
Spoiler alert, it definitely is.
Stir fried chicken Pad Ka Paow with jasmine rice and a fried egg. / Image: The Manc Eats
Inside SIam Smiles on Deansgate Mews. / Image: The Manc Eats
Two years after that rave review from O’Loughlin, rising bills forced the cafe to close – but with a little help, May reopened in 2016 at the Great Northern Warehouse. It’s here that you’ll still find her cooking up a storm today.
With bills firmly on the rise once again, we thought we’d pop in to shine a light on this longstanding Mancunian gem and are happy to report her food hasn’t faltered one iota.
We went for stir fried chicken Pad Ka Paow with jasmine rice and a fried egg, and a steaming bowl of KuiiTiwe Moo Nam Tok with fresh egg noodles and roasted duck breast, with two glasses of Singha on the side.
A hearty portion of green papaya salad with dried shrimps. / Image: The Manc Eats
A steaming bowl of KuiiTiwe Moo Nam Tok with fresh egg noodles and roasted duck breast. / Image: The Manc Eats
We also couldn’t help but opt for a hearty portion of green papaya salad with dried shrimps, a dish that’s hard to find but something of a speciality here, as well as a second glass noodle salad with plump prawns and minced pork.
The dressings, always made by May herself, completely hit the spot with their balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet.
We strongly recommend you pop in and show Siam Smiles some love. It’s not all just about the shiny new restaurants, after all. We need to treasure the veterans too – and this is one we need to protect at all costs.
Find the cafe on Deansgate Mews Unit G Upper Level ,Great Northern, 253, Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EN.
Feature image – The Manc Eats
Eats
There’s a huge burger food fair happening in Manchester next weekend
Emily Sergeant
Burger lovers in Manchester should probably get themselves down to the city’s largest street food hub next weekend for a feast like no other.
That’s because GRUB is hosting its very-own burger food fair.
Perhaps it’s not the first city you’d think of when it comes to burgers, but Manchester is absolutely chocked full of an endless list of eateries and food traders serving up some of the most impressive patties you’ll quite possibly ever see in your life.
Whether you’re a meat lover, chicken fanatic, veggie or vegan/plant-based, there truly is something for everyone to tuck into in our city.
And a handful of those finest food traders are coming together all under one roof for the GRUB Burger Food Fair – which is taking over Manchester’s biggest street food venue and events space next weekend from Friday 30 September – Sunday 2 October, and is promising to bring “wall to wall burgers” to the hungry masses.
The Cheetham Hill-based venues’s annual celebration of all things burgers returns for 2022, with traders bringing a special menu inspired by their own take on the humble burger, as well as a whole range of different sides, snacks, and all-American desserts to go along with it.
BON Street Food, Spicy Baby, Thief Street Grill & Waffle, Charlie Mac’s, and The Cookie Smith are some of the traders you can expect on Friday and Saturday.
And then, as is the tradition at GRUB, everything that is served up on the Sunday of the three-day event will be completely “plant-powered”.
GRUB Burger Food Fair is taking over from Friday 30 September – Sunday 2 October / Credit: Thief Street Grill & Waffle | BON Street Food
Vegan vendors Boneless Brigade, and Dohlightful just some of the names lined-up to take part.
GRUB Burger Food Fair is free to attend, and will kick-off from 4pm each day of the three-day event, with no need to book any tickets in advance.
It has to be said though, that GRUB’s themed food fairs are always very well attended, so for that reason, the venue recommends that any large groups planning on heading down next weekend should book a table here.
Emily Sergeant -
20th November 2020 
