Things have started to pick up again over the last few months. Mo and I have both been busy; he’s been back and forth to Harrogate and I’ve been catching up with all my freelance work. Our calendars have been filling up quick so I made sure to schedule in date night well in advance.
Instead of venturing into the city, as we usually do, we decided to head South for winter and venture nearer to where I work by the Airport.
Bredbury Lounge and Brasserie has recently undergone a refurbishment and also adopted a brand-spanking new menu by Paul Whitefield.
I’ll be honest, the restaurant isn’t much to look at when you compare it with the themed eateries that seem to be all the craze in the city centre, but at the end of the day, this is of course an out of town hotel restaurant (not some trendy hangout in central Manchester).
One thing that does stand out is how versatile they’ve made this space. The open plan area can cater for dinner, lunch, meetings or even just a social get-together. This was reflected in the diners that were there with us that night, a real mix of both national and international guests.
We picked ourselves a comfy booth at the far end, where we had a full view of the restaurant.
Todays visit was all about trying out the Brasserie menu. I was in the mood for some real hearty British cuisine and although the halal card narrowed down our choices, there were still a number of good looking dishes available.
First up, hummus and black olive tapenade dip with ciabatta croutes. Ok, so not quite British cuisine, but I couldn’t pass on the chance of indulging with what I imagined was pan fried ciabatta bread. It was a good choice too! Growing up in Saudi Arabia, I have eaten a lot of hummus in my time, I know middle-eastern food like the back of my hand and this particular dip in a Stockport hotel restaurant, was pretty damn good. Like really good. (Well done Bredbury!)
For mains, we did our usual and ordered pesce dishes; Mo had the classic fish and chips and for me, the grilled salmon steak was exactly what I was hungry for that evening.
There’s really not much to say about these two apart from they were exactly what it said on the tin.
So, after eating every last crumb of the ciabatta croutes and then polishing off my main course, I really did not have any room for dessert.
BUT
Mo pointed out the creme brulee and we just couldn’t say no. It arrived, looked perfect but strangely came with this piece of homemade shortbread. Bit odd but hey, shortbreads pretty un-offensive so we gave it a go and went halves. Now, creme brulee is my all-time favourite dessert, but in this instance I would have given it up for another piece of that deliciously moist, non-crumbly shortbread. WOW. It was a perfect ending to our meal.
One thing that really stood out for both Mo and I was the service we received throughout. Our waiter, Jake, was exactly the kind of front of house staff you would want in your business. He was attentive and helpful, as you would expect, but he was also friendly and had a really lovely manner about him. We were both very impressed and to be quite honest, he pretty much sold the evening to us.
If the service across the board at Bredbury is of this standard, I can imagine a stay or event here would run seamlessly.
My top tip for anyone planning a visit, yes, get a starter and a main, but be sure to do the British thing and leave enough space for tea and biscuits at the end!
Bredbury Hall Brasserie and Lounge
Osborne Street, Bredbury, Cheshire, SK6 2DH
Tel: 0161 430 7421
Thank you to Bredbury Hall for a lovely date night, and special mention to Jake for providing us such great customer service.
