Food & Drink

Lakeside dining domes reopen at Heaton Park for the summer

The dining domes were closed after 'senseless' vandals broke into them, but now they're returning for the summer season - with later opening times and a new evening picnic menu.

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 6th July 2022

Afternoon tea fans can once again enjoy scones and finger sandwiches by the waterside as Heaton Park reopens its lakeside dining domes for the summer.

After being targeted by vandals during the spring, the newly-refurbished domes are back to help us enjoy a bit of the al fresco experience this summer – no matter what the Manchester weather decides to do with itself.

Set in the midst of beautiful parkland, the refurbished domes will once again serve up a range of afternoon teas alongside a soon-to-be-launched summer evening picnic menu to help you make the most of the lighter evenings.

Image: Supplied

With later bookings being made available up until 7pm, evening visitors will have the option to tuck into a new summer picnic package with scotch eggs and sausage rolls, chocolate-filled churros, molten Camembert and cauliflower mac & cheese, not to mention a glorious range of salads.

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The private dome’s afternoon tea menus also return with several choices on offer, including a vegan tea, all carefully curated by Heaton Park Cafés to offer a mix of quintessential classics and reimagined takes on all-time favourites.

Each dome is fitted with shaded glazing and air conditioning, to keep you comfortable no matter what’s going on outside, with stunning views of the lake and park surroundings.

As for those who want to get out on the water and explore the lake and its scenic surroundings, Heaton Park Boats offer a range of hire boats, from the family-friendly Swan Pedal boats to traditional rowing and all-new Electric craft, for a more leisurely cruising experience. 

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Read more: Inside Canvas, Manchester’s new late-night bar, restaurant and music venue

Image: Supplied

The Dining Domes can seat up to six and children’s menus are also available.

The Afternoon Tea menus are £23.95 per person and served with a pot of English breakfast or speciality tea or regular hot drink, such as a barista-crafted coffee made with the unique Life Café Blend Coffee Beans.

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Read more: Scenic lakeside dining domes open for afternoon tea at Heaton Park

Heaton Park is a historic area on the edge of Manchester and is the perfect setting for a family day out. There’s something for all ages with an Animal Centre to a Tram Museum, play areas, bowling greens and delicious food and drink options curated by The Stables Café and The Lakeside Café.  

To make a reservation for Afternoon Tea please visit the Heaton Park cafes website here.

Feature image – Supplied

Food & Drink

This Manchester food hall is selling ice cream made from the world’s stinkiest fruit

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

A Manchester food hall is serving up a new ice cream flavour that it claims is the stinkiest in the world.

For those unfamiliar with durian, it’s essentially the marmite of the fruit world. Famous for having a truly terrible smell that’s been unfavourably compared to cat p*ss, it’s so pungent that it’s actually been made illegal to eat it on the subway in Singapore.

No such restrictions apply here in Manchester, though, where Hello Oriental, the new(ish) three-storey Asian street food hall on Oxford Road, is causing something of a stir with its stinky but delicious new addition to its soft serve menu.

Served in cute little bear and taiyaki fish-shaped cones, typical flavours on offer through the week here include ube (purple yam), pandan leaf, charcoal, mango and vanilla.

Credit: The Manc Group
The durian soft serve Credit: Supplied

But now, alongside those brightly-coloured, exotic soft serve flavours you’ll also find something a little bit more controversial. Durian soft serve.

Whilst no one seems to disagree on the terrible stench, when it comes to how the fruit actually tastes there are a mixture of comparisons.

Managing to be sweet, creamy and savoury all at once, some say it tastes like “diced garlic and caramel poured into whipped cream”.

The new supermarket at Hello Oriental. Credit: The Manc Group

Others have referred to “subtle hints of chives mixed with powdered sugar”.

Described by Hello Oriental as “one of the most addictive flavours to ever cross your tastebuds”, it’s safe to say that South Asia’s durian fruit ‘isn’t for everyone’ but, if you can get past its uniquely ferocious pong, you are in for a deliciously wild ride.

Available from Hello Oriental on weekends only, the durian batch of soft serve is specially prepared by the team fresh on Saturday and Sunday mornings and available to enjoy from 1pm.

Read more: Manchester’s tiniest tapas bar has found a new home in the Northern Quarter

Located just off Oxford Road, around the corner from Hatch, Hello Oriental offers uncensored
East Asian street food across three storeys.

Comprising a restaurant, bar, cafe, events space and fully stocked supermarket, it recently received a rave review in the Times, with Marina O’Loughlin calling it a “northern powerhouse of Asian street food”.

Featured image – The Manc Eats

Food & Drink

Manchester restaurant famed for ‘inflexible’ tasting menu completely flips the script

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

Since its arrival in Manchester, Michelin-recommended new wave Thai BBQ favourite District has staked its reputation on two things: fantastically surreal, delicious food and an extremely inflexible tasting menu.

Until recently its diners have had two choices, opt for the ten-course tasting menu or spring for the twelve, and whilst everyone I’ve ever known to go has swooned in delight over the whole experience, there’s no denying it hardly makes for a cheap night out (or an easily organised one).

Deposits have always been required up front, and adaptions have famously never been made for a customer’s dislikes, or even religious needs. It’s for this reason, and this reason alone, that until last week I’d never made it over – despite wanting desperately to go.

Simply put, I’d just struggled to find anyone prepared to give up a whole evening (and a shed load of cash) to come with me. Amazing, I know, but thankfully, that’s all now changed.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

Read more: Chefs refusing to cater for dietary issues listed as hospitality trend for 2022

Last year, the kitchen made headlines after getting embroiled in a ‘religious diet’ row with a Jewish customer who’d taken umbrage with its refund policy.

The whole affair culminated with District posting the entire altercation to its social media pages, alongside a caption stating it ‘will not be bullied or threatened into returning deposits’.

During the row, the customer had asked, “why not shout loud on your homepage ‘We don’t cater for Jews’”. Still, they held firm.

A year on and it seems that external pressures may have caused that iron will to buckle, because for the first time ever the Michelin-acclaimed restaurant has moved to offer dishes individually.

Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

In a complete change of direction, diners can now pop in off the cuff to enjoy a few plates and a couple of drinks. Personally, I think it’s the best news ever, but then I would. It’ll be much easier to get my friends in now.

Suddenly one of the best restaurants in the city has become so much more accessible, and its timing couldn’t be better. After all, we’re all getting poorer, and whilst not everyone has £100 to spend on dinner, everyone deserves a taste of the magic happening in the kitchen here.

Whilst the restaurant maintains that diners can either curate their own District experience or simply pop in for a few dishes, on our visit it is very much a small plate, tapas-style service, with everything appearing on the table in front of us in quick succession.

Read more: Manchester’s tiniest tapas bar has found a new home in the Northern Quarter

Translucent stone bass (£9) floats alien-like in its dish with crispy purple yam antennae suspended above a shimmering nam jim, whilst a pinky-purple pigeon satay (£9) is rich and gamey, dressed with sweetcorn, pumpkin seeds and crisped turnip all unfolding on the plate like a flower in bloom.

Every dish here is a surprise, ranging from a beautifully fresh salad of peach, pear, ginger and shrimp floss, to chicken fat rice, which comes showered in a generous helping of crumbed crispy skin.

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Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats

That rule extends into the desserts too. Homemade ‘tangfastic’ tamarind and chicken fat fudge sweets appear, suspended, on their own white marble platform like some sort of futuristic offering.

Elsewhere, a calamansi curd pavlova with sheeps yoghurt and passion fruit reinvents any preconceived notions I might have had about Thai food – or pavlova for that matter.

As Marina O’Loughiling wrote in her review of District for The Times last year, this is “Thai, but not as we know it”.

Read more: Chefs refusing to cater for dietary issues listed as hospitality trend for 2022

Speaking on the change of direction for the restaurant, owner Ben Humphries said: “We are passionate about creating the highest quality experience for our customers.

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“Our aim is to capture the essence of Thai flavours whilst maintaining the highest quality produce, suppliers and dishes.

“Changing our service style will give us creative freedom in the kitchen. We can develop dishes that don’t have to fit into a tasting menu format. We will also have the opportunity to offer daily changing special dishes.”

The new menu is available now with bookings being taken under ‘New Wave Thai’ on District’s bookings page here.

Feature image – The Manc Eats

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