Provenance Food Hall & Restaurant, Westhoughton

Bolton is a big town - after living here for 9 years there are many parts of it that I have still not been to.   

One of the things I love about living here is that despite its size, it has a strong community spirit. So when somewhere new and exciting opens, word spreads like wildfire. 

I have been hearing great things about Provenance Food Hall & Restaurant in Westhoughton since they opened in the summer of 2015.   

They are obviously doing something right because they have been featured in the 2017 Good Food Guide, putting Westhoughton firmly on the foodie map.

On the ground floor is the food hall - a veritable smorgasbord of high quality produce that is heaven for any food lover.  

Cheeses, pastries, steaks... how have I not been here before!  This is what Bolton has been crying out for - what I wouldn't give to have this range of locally sourced delicacies near home.

You have to pass through the food hall to reach the restaurant upstairs so you arrive drooling, ready for something special.

We arrived early for lunch but this proved no trouble for the helpful team at Provenance who seated us in our own corner of the bright and modern eatery, overlooking the busy Market Street.

Now that we are parents, the facilities in a restaurant are even more important than before - we were given a very good high chair for our daughter and there is a communal area outside the toilets with baby changing.  This is such a fantastic idea that I wish more places offered rather than making parents change their children in the disabled toilet.

Homemade Chilli Hummus with bread
Rustic and chunky with a kick, our shared starter got us off on the right foot.  Like a spicy guacamole, it perfectly fulfilled my current obsession for avocado based dishes.

Beazley Sausage & Mash with Crushed Peas

What a revelation.  Somewhere that offers an exciting and diverse children's menu!

My daughter polished this dish off in record time. Easily the best restaurant meal she has ever had - I could not be more impressed with the quality of the ingredients, especially the sausages.  We switched out the green beans for peas which proved no fuss at all for the very accommodating Provenance team.

The sausage was so good that we bought some from the Food Hall to take home.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken Burger, Homemade Beans, Fries

Hannah ordered the chicken burger which was to die for.  Sweet and succulent on a brioche bun.

The surprise star of the dish are the 'tomatoey' beans.  Superb.

Beef Burger, Gem Lettuce, Beef Tomato, Gherkins, Tomato Relish, Treacle Cured Bacon, Lancashire Cheese with fries

Just what a burger lover wants.  The best produce used to create a classic taste.  You can really taste the difference with such good ingredients.

This is exactly the kind of place I love - somewhere that values high quality local produce, a family friendly environment and excellent customer service.  

It was so good that we took home 3 vanilla slices, a chocolate brownie, some sausages and a couple of steaks!

If you are taking the family out for a bite to eat, go here, you won't regret the trip to Westhoughton.  We are already planning our return to try the Chateaubriand and enjoy one of their live piano evenings. 

SoLita, Prestwich

SoLita is one of the best places to get a bite to eat when in Manchester as I pointed out in my "Birthday Blog" last year.  If I lived in the city I would no doubt eat in their Northern Quarter restaurant at least once a week. 

However, I live in Bolton and given the severe lack of trains running between my village and the city this summer, I don't get into Manchester as much as I would like.

Luckily for me, SoLita have just opened up in Prestwich which is much easier to get to and will no doubt mean more trips to their fine establishment.

This week my friend Jono and I had the pleasure to visit the new location - it lived up to the hype and then some.
 

Once In A Lifetime:
2 x 6 ounce minced steak patties, pulled pork, crispy bacon, shoestring onions, buttermilk chicken strips, Monterey Jack cheese, house BBQ sauce and sweet potato fries.

I ordered this and have been looking forward to trying it for a year. It was unbelievably good, especially the buttermilk chicken. It's the biggest burger I've ever seen jammed packed with ingredients!

Nom nom nom!

The Big Manc:
2 x 6 ounce minced chuck steak patties, trifecta brioche, iceberg, home pickles, Monterey Jack cheese and Big Manc sauce.

Jono went for SoLita's famous Big Manc and said it was utterly incredible.  This burger is firmly in my sights when I next visit!

Chow Chow Slaw:
Creamy and sweet.  Lovely.

Bacon Wrapped Onion Rings:
Yes, you read that right.  3 bloody brilliant rings of onion wrapped in glorious bacon. 

Kill me now, I've found heaven. 

I was hugely impressed with the new SoLita in Prestwich.  Not only was the food outstanding but the way they have done up the place is spot on. For me, a lot more convenient in terms of location and a lot bigger than the central Manchester restaurant.

Here's hoping their next move is into Bolton...

Handmade Burger Co, Leeds

I was over in Leeds when I stumbled across a restaurant chain I hadn't heard of before.

A little digging online and I soon found out that the Handmade Burger Company had opened up a Manchester chain on Deansgate so I thought it worth a visit to the established Leeds restaurant to see if it was a new star or a wet lettuce.

The restaurant is very modern and inviting from the outside and there was no queue either.  Seeing as my friend and I were in a rush this encouraged us to eat here and we were swiftly shown to our table.

Based on the style of the chain, you would be forgiven for thinking that there is a link between Handmade Burger Co and Nando's.  

The entire set up is similar and you order in the same manner too.

My friend ordered the Mexican beefburger with salsa, crushed avocado, tortilla chips, jalapenos, chipotle sauce, lettuce, tomato and red onion.  It had a nice spice to it and was served with a fresh lime on top.

I went for a Speciality Cheese burger with my favourite goats' cheese flavour and a red onion chutney on the top. 

It was a little too 'bready' for my taste and the huge lettuce leaf wasn't really necessary.  But despite this, the burger was juicy and the cheese was adequately strong.

The chips were probably the best things we ate.  This is one of the only chain restaurants I have been to that serves chip shop style chips - they were marvelous.

Handmade Burger Co. was actually alright and beat my expectations.  
In Manchester it is probably competing more with Nando's and Wagamama rather than places like Solita.

Not bad for a quick burger bite when in the city but I can't imagine hearing anyone saying "let's have a cheeky Handmade" anytime soon...

Pitt Cue Co, Soho

They say that fate is a cruel mistress.

Well that certainly wasn't the case on our final day in London earlier this month.

The sunshine disappeared and was replaced with drizzle meaning we needed to get indoors. In our efforts to find Choccywoccydoodah and some new converse trainers, we ended up getting lost around Soho.

In a fortunate turn of events, we stumbled upon Pitt Cue Co purely by accident. A small, unassuming building which looked nothing like a meat lovers paradise.

This place has been on my radar ever since I got my hands on the Pitt Cue Co. Cookbook. With there being only 30 seats in the tiny restaurant, I didn't think we would ever get a chance to savour its delights.

Thankfully fate was on our side today. With no queue in sight on this Sunday lunchtime it was an obvious choice.

A cryptic menu was pinned to the net curtains in the window but I only had to read the words 'Pulled Pork' and I was already through the door.

When you first enter the restaurant it is striking just how small it is. Like an old saloon in the States there are bourbons on display and stools to sit at the bar. It didn't look big enough from the outside and where were the tables?

We were led downstairs to a dim and compact dining room which gives you the feeling of being in a genuine barbecue joint somewhere in deep Louisiana.

Heaven.

Our helpful waitress gave us a rundown of the menu and we ordered a couple of cocktails.

The drinks were different, mainly bourbon based cocktails, strong enough to put hairs on your chest but absolutely delicious.

Cider Sour

Bourbon, Cider, Lemon, Ginger Syrup

Sidetruck

Bourbon, Cointreau, Lemon, Bitters

Pulled Pork
Served with sourdough, pickle and green chilli slaw.  The perfect specimen of pulled pork. 

I am getting flashbacks of this meal right now and damn, I want it again.  Immediately.

Beef and Stout Bun
A perfectly toasted brioche bun with a juicy beef patty that satisfies even the most demanding of burger eaters. The meat melted in your mouth.

Bone Marrow Mash
The best thing we ate all week.  Thick, rich and creamy with beef gravy and bone marrow it was the perfect accompaniment. By an absolute mile the best mash you can find.  Anywhere.  

Our meal at Pitt Cue Co. made my weekend in London complete. It was a unexpected surprise find on this miserable rainy Sunday.

One thing is for sure, it's one of the only places I'd be willing to queue for! 

Almost Famous - Great Northern, Manchester

Everyone loves Almost Famous.

In fact, for the last few years it has been the number one recommended place to eat by friends and colleagues.

When I had a birthday meal last year at Solita, most of my friends had suggested Almost Famous as their favourite place.  

When we went to Red's True BBQ for a midweek meal, three different people declared that if I thought that was good, I would be blown away by Almost Famous.

Finally, this week, I had a colleague say that 'you can't call yourself a burger lover unless you have tried Almost Famous'.

My expectations were well and truly set, but let me now set your expectations for the blog post you are reading:

You're not going to like everything I have to say. 

Hannah and I were due to catch a train from Manchester Piccadilly last Friday night, ready to begin our weekend adventure to London.  

We had a couple of hours spare to have some food so what better opportunity to finally give in and try Almost Famous in The Great Northern.

The new restaurant, opened in 2013, is right next to the Manchester 235 casino and the All Star Lanes restaurant/bowling alley.  There are so many great places to eat and drink at this end of Manchester, making it my favourite part of the city.

There was no one there to greet us upon entering Almost Famous but I approached the bar and we were told to take our pick of tables.  This was not a difficult decision as my wife directed us to an amazing table that had been filled with sweets!

The menu is my kind of heaven, filled with spectacular burger combinations and funky cocktails - I could have eaten everything on offer.

Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Sour & Root 66
Both concoctions were spot on but the Fruit Sour drink won out as we both ordered this for our second round.

Baddaboom
Hannah went for a double cheeseburger with garlic butter brioche, bacon, chorizo, bbq fried onions, marinara, famous sauce, french's, Parmesan and chillies.  

It was scrumptious with the addition of chorizo which gave it a Spanish twist.

Triple Nom
My selection was also a double cheeseburger but with pulled pork, coleslaw and famous & redneck BBQ.  

The first bite is forever memorable with the perfectly seasoned patty and juicy pulled pork.  The burger itself tastes very much like a McDonald's cheeseburger only better... much better.

Bacon Bacon
At Almost Famous, you order your sides separately so we decided to share a portion of the Bacon Bacon fries.  

Regular skin on fries and sweet potato fries are mixed together and covered in baconnaise and bacon rain (crispy bacon bits).  

I love what they do to potatoes here - simply genius.

Chocciwoccihoohaa
We had room for something sweet after our delicious mains and Hannah was naturally drawn to the chocolate dish on the menu.

This 'I Scream Sundae' was served with chocolate brownie pieces and whippy ice cream topped with whipped cream, nuts and chocolate fudge sauce.

Just enough to leave us satisfied.

The food is great.  It compares well with other restaurants I love such as nearby Red's True BBQ and The Farmer's Arms in Bolton but I wouldn't say it was in a league of its own.

However, our experience was not 100% perfect.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that I wouldn't go back to the Great Northern branch of Almost Famous.

Let me explain...

Hannah made an interesting comment during our meal last Friday.  She said that it felt like our generation had grown up and was starting to open restaurants that try and evoke memories of our time at university.

This is exactly how I feel about Almost Famous in The Great Northern.  

It is like sitting and having a meal in the university nightclub whilst indie disco plays loudly in the background and the lights are too low to really see what you are eating.

University was a brilliant time but I am now 28 (nearly 29) and as much as I loved the dingy union dance floor back in the day, I have moved past it now.  What I want is a bright environment where the music isn't so loud that I have to shout just to talk to my wife.

Add to that the staff who were difficult to get hold of and a little rude.  They milled around in groups discussing their plans for the weekend when it would be better if they engaged the customers to explain, amongst other things, where the cutlery is.  I didn't really understand why everyone around us had an allocated waiter/waitress to serve them but we had to get up and find someone. 

Back at uni, someone in the know would tell you about this "super cool" bar and everyone would immediately nod and agree about how great it is.  I kind of get the impression that this happened with Almost Famous and no one really wants to admit that we don't think it is quite as cool as everyone says it is.

Perhaps I'm just being a grouch in my old age but I found the whole experience very annoying.