The Kitchen

CLOSED LATE 2011

410 Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton

(Sorry photos of takeaway food usually turn out terribly - use your imagination)

Formerly Karahi Korner – on the same row in Chorlton as Oddest and North Star Deli, The Kitchen is another Halal takeaway doing curries (and pizzas).  Surely the market is saturated you cry – well not with good ones it isn’t.
 Although takeaways are part of this blog we’re more interested in cheap places in which you can ‘eat in’ and rarely does a takeaway menu that comes through the letterbox inspire us to pick up the phone – but Kitchen’s did. You can tell a lot from a menu and The Kitchen’s has a lot going for it. Not least the Pakistani classics of Haleem, Nihari and a daily changing Staff Curry – good signs.  And interestingly enough it has a ‘Nation's Favourite’ section with a Union Jack graphic with the Dopiaza, Tikka Masala, Madras type stuff in it. Again a nice touch.
So the plan was- a few veggie side dishes, a bit of a grill-up starter  and a traditional type curry.  After that we thought we’d have a reasonable feel for the place. – Best laid plans and all that. Unfortunately there were no traditional dishes on offer, all three requested were off. On a Friday night.
This was a real shame and gave us that sinking feeling that we’d been conned into thinking this was a decent place by fancy menu items that don’t exist. So we duly ordered as best we could – grilled meat, daal, lamb karahi and a few bits and bobs.
We then received a call back saying they’d run out of daal – but threw in a half portion as a gesture, free of charge. This was appreciated but also made us question the operation a bit – no lentils? Aren’t they almost free in the first place??
….So it arrived, not that it bore much resemblance to the original order. It was actually very good – clearly time and care had been taken with the food. The grills were all spot on, with a crispness and juiciness that only lasts a short period of time-  so clearly the delivery guy didn’t mess about either.  Big juicy lamb chops were great – when aren’t they? The bread and rice were very good; well flavoured, without the need for gaudy touches like red or green grains – another good sign.  The karahi was also a very creditable effort – so often the curry ends up playing second fiddle to the exciting variety of starters, but not this time.  Fine strips of ginger, garlic and coriander were some nice little touches that elevated it – although the rich, savoury sauce was doing a pretty decent job on its own and the meat was of surprisingly high quality.
In short the food was very good, as was the service – prompt, friendly etc and the pricing was very reasonable for the standard of food. The only issue was the lack of advertised dishes – and those being the more interesting ones. We think The Kitchen’s got a real chance here, they’re a very new business so perhaps it’s a bit manic and they underestimated demand or whatever. Or – if being pessimistic, perhaps they never really intended to do troublesome dishes like nihari – which takes a hell of a long time to cook and can’t be made with a base sauce – but put it on the menu to look authentic.  We really hope it’s the former – as everything else about the experience was very good.  We wish them all the best.

Jerk Junction

Jerk Chicken + Rice & Peas

Curry Goat + Rice & Peas

Ackee & Saltfish + Rice & Peas

Brown Stew Steak + Rice & Peas

Oxtail with Rice & Peas

170 Manchester Rd - Whalley Range/Chorlton.

January 2013 - Won't bother mentioning every trip - I go regularly and love it. Never a bad day.

August 2012 Oxtail, Brown Stew Steak, Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork (when it's on) & Curry Goat all thoroughly recommended. I'm kind of running out of things to say about Jerk Junction. I've heard a few negative things about the takeaway service and fair enough if that's the case - but other than that and the microwaved patties this place is pretty great. Let's hope this remains the case.

July 2012
And another trip, this time for Oxtail. Superb. Not fancy, just great.


Finally got round to trying the Brown Stew Steak. It was delicious. It reminded me of a Nihari to an extent. Large chunks of slow cooked meat, off the bone in rich broth with not much else in it - the only other discernible ingredients were a few red peppers. I perked it up with a good dash of hot sauce. Rice & Peas, as ever, were great. Almost anything on top of them would be great.

June 2012
Loving this place at the moment. Ackee and Saltfish was a first for me. It will probably never replace Curry Goat as my favourite, but was a welcome change. Shame the Jerk Pork wasn't on.

May 2012 - Really getting into this place. I hadn't had the Curry goat in nearly 2 years so thought it was about time. It was great (pictured third down). I think there's less variation between  places when in comes to this tradittional dish - the recipes are more similar than the Pakistani or Indian equivalents. I may be corrected on this but I think it's due to this type of curry being more dependdent on pre-mixed dried seasonings and therefore the variations between spice blends is less apparent. Whether this is good or bad depends on your perspective-  the good side is I've never had a bad one. But possibly a not very interesting one; however I don't partake regularly enough for this to be problem. Although I might start! - The hot pepper sauce was a nice addition, not too runny and more flavoursome than many others. Plenty of tender, spicy meat on the bone with a rich, delicious sauce, rice and peas and piquant sauce for a bit more fire. What more do you want?

April 2012 - 
Been a few times this month and have enjoyed it. The service and food were great. Jerk chicken was excellent - a good portion with sauce for £3.50 (pictured top). The patties were from a packet and microwaved, so no great as they steamed in the packet and became a molten soggy dumpling - and not made by Jerk Junction. However that's not the reason to come here. Jerk Chicken and Curry Goat are great, the portions are good and the staff were helpful and friendly. Salf fish next time maybe.

Visit on 08/07/2010
This place was formerly known as Rhythm 'N' Rice. It is very close to the junction of Upper Chorlton Rd and Seymour Grove - hence the name. The food in here is West Indian, with main courses that include Curry Goat, Jerk Chicken and Ackee & Salt Fish, Oxtail etc. The standard smaller and side dishes are the usual stuff: fried dumplings, patties, rice and peas etc. We went for the classic Curry Goat with rice & peas. It was superb - essentially rice and kidney beans cooked in coconut milk, the goat was on the bone, making it succulent and very tasty. The portions were large, and they justify the £5.50 price tag. We ate on the decked terrace area - which is a pretty good place to watch the world go by. The staff were pretty surly; it's hardly Starbucks - "can I get you guys a mocha-frappaccino" style service. In fact almost no words were exchanged at all - but this is fine by us and not all that different form the usual Curry Cafe experience, in any case the food more than makes up for this. We feel that this place is worth checking out - perhaps next time we'll try the jerk chicken and pork from the barbecue.

Ning

Oldham St.
This is a Malaysian and Thai restaurant in the Northern Quarter - close to the Frog and Bucket. Ning has a very good set menu deal that allows you to have two courses (from a restricted menu) for £12.95. The place looks great - with hanging lanterns and bright pink wallpaper along with black tables and simple chairs. The menu has some interesting dishes on it, particularly the Malaysian part. The chicken murtaback is an excellent savoury pancake, and the Basil Padprik is a very tasty stir fry. The service is good, and a large range of Asian beers is available. Ning is a decent restaurant that offers good food at reasonable prices.

Little Yang Sing, The

George Street, Manchester
There's plenty of information about the Yang Sing and Little Yang Sing on the web - fires, relocations - yadda yadda.
In short this is a good, old style, Hong Kong/Cantonese type place. It does all the old favourites, nice Dim Sum, duck and pancakes and all the usual main courses. It's not subtle, it's brightly coloured and not much like like 'authentic' Chinese food - neither is it cheap. However, this type of cuisine has found a place in the hearts and on the palates of British diners and the folk at the Little Yang Sing know how to give people what they want.  It's not really our sort of place in that it's a bit too fussy and expensive for a lunchtime 'gnosh up' and the food's a wee bit too sweet and 'MSGy-fied' to really cut it as a top notch evening destination. However a few visits have proved it a reliable place for providing good versions of Chinese 'classics' - it's less 'chilli-fried lizard gizzard' and much more 'sweet and sour prawn balls' - which is often a relief.

Yakisoba

A massive bowl of Red Sea Soup

Barlow Moor Rd, Chorlton.

April 2012 - It's good but what is it?
I'll get this out of the way - I like Yakisoba. I have eaten well here every time. The menu is mixed east asian - and I mean mixed in a very broad sense. The menu is essentially split into 'Oriental Tea House' - loosely starters and Bentos - loosely mains. I've never really seen a menu like it - the usual chinese type dim sum are here, duck and pancakes - steamed things, crispy things, skewers of things, and also slightly rarer items: steamed and deep fried sushi, calamari, lamb chops, beef samosa ('triangles')... It goes on and on. However - they are very good. Crisp and tasty, containing large identifiable pieces of what's supposed to be in there - prawns, scallops, duck - whatever. And they're served with a selection of pickles and sauces. Delicious. But as is often the case, this is the best part of the meal.
 Then there are the 'mains', the Bento concept I find a little confusing in this context. Every meal is acompanied by a bento box:

 Bento Box

This is a Japanese concept  for packed lunches and to get it in a restaurant, to me, seems like a bit of a gimmick. It's just an add on to the main dish and accompanying rice (where applicable). The 'mains' then come separately: It's nice to get the bit of miso soup and what not, but it's just all a bit weird. Should it be pre-starter? - sorry 'Oriental Tea House'. The melon's quite a nice palate cleanser at the end though.... I don't know. Not bad, just confusing.

The main courses then arrive and again there's a huge selection of loosely East Asian dishes. I've been here numerous times and never been blown away by the mains. After luxurious tasty starters how could I be wowed by ploughing through mountains of noodles or vats of soup? I just can't.  They're tasty - it just feels a lot less exciting. In the interests of branching out I tried a special - Mongolian Lamb. Yet another country added to menu. I've no idea what was mongolian about it. Didn't even know they had lamb in mongolia - I don't want to sound pedantic as I'm sure the intention was lamb in a Mongolian style but I really couldn't pick out anything distinctive, just lamb and red onions with a vaguely East-Asian flavour - though, it was tasty and well cooked.

Mongolian Lamb and Steamed Rice

Friends had:

Tiger King Prawn Thai Style Lomen

Duck with Thai Red Curry

Both of which I've had before and enjoyed - the Thai Red Curry probably being the best thing I've had here - though interestingly it contained cauliflower and potatoes this time. I feel like I'm being negative about Yakisoba when I don't want to be - it serves good, tasty food - we got stuffed on the dishes listed above plus a Sea food platter and two different dim sum for £50, which is good value. I'd just like a bit more focus and bit less of the attitude that anything east of India can be chucked in, be it a concept, dish or a flavouring.

FEB 2011
Quiet Sunday afternoon - excellent meal, meat and fish skewers, red sea soup - which was huge and brimming with fish and lime zest, Thai Red duck curry - rich, spicy and peanutty and plenty of it - (which is always one of our criteria). Good service and no complaints. Thanks.

General....
This restaurant offers reasonably priced Asian food from a range of different countries - including Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and China. It suffers from a lack of seating, with diners being somewhat crammed into a long narrow space. When it's busy in here you really know about it.

For this trip, the service was generally good because the staff were attentive - especially when it came to ordering drinks. However, there was an issue with the starters arriving at different times - one being served a good 10 minutes before the rest. The food was good - one highlight being the Vietnamese beef stir fry dish. The crab and king prawn roll was poor, but the other dishes were all of a decent standard. The central idea of Yakisoba is to have a bento box with a rice or noodle dish. This make the place a bit more interesting, and it involves getting a small box with different sections containing crackers, melon, miso soup, sweet cashew nuts and salad. The box is accompanied by the main dish. The main courses cost around £8.95 to £10.95 (£5.50 for takeaway - bit of a bargain), and starters are about £2.95 to £4.95.

Yakisoba is a nice place to go for a meal out in Chorlton, and the it won't cost you a fortune. It is best avoided at the busiest times, and - as with all places - you need to choose your dishes carefully. Finally, the food is available to takeaway, and many people use this service. It is one of the best 'oriental' takeways in the area.

Tibetan Kitchen