/FOOD&DRINK
IF there’s a restaurant in Salford with a better view than The Alchemist, then I’m yet to find it. Straddling the bridge connecting Salford Quays to MediaCity it offers a quite simply spectacular view out across the Manchester Ship Canal and on to the amazing developments of recent years in this area of the city.
And with its gleaming golden spaceship design it has become a landmark in itself since its arrival last year.
On sunny days, of which we have been rather spectacularly spoiled with in recent weeks, the venue and its sun terrace is packed, and it’s not hard to see why.
With views out to the BBC buildings to your right, straight ahead a view of Coronation Street’s Trafford Wharf studios, and to the left the spectacular shard of the Imperial War Museum and modernist hub at The Lowry.
But don’t worry if you can’t get a space outside, because the wall-toceiling windows inside give the same stunning views in the sort of super-stylish interior that we’ve come to expect from the Living Ventures stable of bar and restaurant excellence.
On a busy Sunday afternoon, we take a place at the far end of the restaurant, which is packed with every possible type of customer you can imagine - older couples tucking into Sunday lunch, young families with bawling babies, groups of glamorous females supping cocktails at the bar while a DJ plays. We even spotted a group of Coronation Street stars enjoying the sunny weather.
The skill of The Alchemist (which boasts popular venues in Manchester at Spinningfields and New York Street) is that it really does manage to be all things to all people.
Naturally with a name like The Alchemist, it has become known for its extensive and inventive cocktail list and we order a tasty butter beer (£8.50) that arrives with smoky stuff spewing out of it.
Later, we order a Forest Fire (£9) that comes with a syringe filled with liquor that you can pump into your drink. So far so quirky. The food menu, rather like the clientele, is a massive melting pot of styles. There are signature dishes like the venue’s famous chicken in a basket (served in a giant wire chicken), and their sizzling fajitas, as well as a raft of salads, Pho soups, steaks, burgers, and sandwiches.
For starters we end up with fried stuff - pork bon bons (£6) which were tasty balls of meaty fronds, but the halloumi fingers (£5.50) were just a bit dull.
Feeling like I should push myself beyond ordering the chicken in a basket for the umpteenth time, I decide to try the seared tuna loin (£16.50) which stated on the menu it will be served with a Mexican rice fritter and chilli tomato salsa.
It arrives looking pretty good, a mound of fresh tuna steak surrounded by blobs of tasty mayo and sweet chilli sauce.
But when I remove the tuna, the “rice cake” underneath is an unfathomably bizarre bit of cooking. It’s a congealed lump of rice, with a circular seal on one side only, while the rice is all mushy beneath. It is underseasoned and underwhelming enough for me to ask our waiter if this is actually how it was supposed to be presented.
A manager returns to tell me that IS how it should be, but she’s sorry I’m not enjoying it.
She offers me a drink and also deducts 10 per cent off the bill.
I just wish I’d ordered the fail-safe fried chicken instead.
The Other Half has ordered a beef burger (£8.25) and a side of sweet potato fries (£4), which are perfectly fine but nothing extraordinary.
However our dessert was worth writing home about - a briliant mound of baked alaska (£6.50) which is served, in true Alchemist style, with our waiter pouring liquor over before setting fire to the meringue-y casing at our table.
There’s no denying this is a spectacular venue, a place you WILL want to visit and enjoy with family or friends.
It’s just a shame the food, on this evidence, isn’t reaching the same high standards of the rest of The Alchemist experience.