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The Dinner Detective dines at: Isinglass, Urmston
The Dinner Detective23/ 2/2006
Unlike restaurant reviewers on some newspapers, The Dinner Detective eats out incognito and always pays for the meal. That way The Dinner Detective gets the same treatment as the readers, giving you an honest review of the service you might receive.
ISINGLASS describes itself as an English dining room, which
meant I wasn't sure what to expect from the menu.
Apart from, maybe shepherd's pie or roast beef, our national
cuisine is a bit of a moveable feast. The only English dining room
I can remember being in before is the one at school and the less
said about that the better.
My companion and I spent a while trying to get into Urmston, which
seems to have been rendered almost inaccessible by a glut of
roadworks around the M60, but when we managed to track the
restaurant down we were suitably impressed with the interior -
muted browns, high ceilings, nice pictures - and the very friendly
staff who cracked jokes about our struggle to open the front
door.
Chef Lisa Walker has won awards for her creative use of local
ingredients and many of the tasty sounding items on the menu
contained details of where they had come from - the menu is printed
on A4 sheets in a ring binder so it can be changed at the last
minute if any supplies run out.
I chose to start with a mini rump steak, with field mushrooms, a
blackstick blue rarebit and cabernet sauce (£4.95), which was a
real treat. The steak melted in the mouth, the cheese was melted on
top of it and the mushrooms were some of the tastiest I've
had.
My opposite number sampled the puy lentil and sausage casserole
with crusty bread (£4.85), which was equally delicious.
For the main course I opted for seasonal fish and saffron stew with
Lancashire pancetta pastry (£13.95).
It was served in a bowl brimming with a good variety of fish and
the pastry was delicious.
My companion chose corn-fed chicken breast stuffed with haggis on a
warm potato, apple and spinach salad (£13.95) and even though my
stew was delicious I coveted the meat and the old fashioned baked
apples, which were apparently cooked to perfection.
We shared a side-order of roasted vegetables.
Dessert is clearly a big thing at Isinglass.
The choice was varied and well thought out and I would suggest they
start serving some sort of combination, which might reduce the
length of time people like me spend umm-ing and ah-ing over the
menu before making a choice.
My sticky steamed ginger pudding with golden syrup and vanilla
ice-cream (£4.45) was a monument to all that is best in the
tradition of puddings, and the chocolate nemesis (£4.45) my
companion chose was equally superb.
Someone should tell my old school cook that English cooking can
taste like this.
Isinglass, 46 Flixton Road, Urmston, tel 0161 749 8400, close to on-street parking.
Starters from £3.95 to £4.95; mains from £8.95 to £15.95; desserts £4.45; wine from £3.50 a glass, bottles from £11.50.
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