Winsome
Manchester Reviews |
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Decor & Ambience  |
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It's more than reminiscent of St John; the London based industry icon. From the pig-centric logo, the whitewashed walls, the bustling vibe of service, humble table settings, and a no nonsense British-hearted heavily flavour focused carte. It's a lovely place and as a huge St John fan and annual customer of theirs, it's nice to have something on my doorstep that reminds me of a place where I've had dozens of memorable meals over the years.
Of an evening the lights are dim, the mood is super laid back with the gentle vibe of service humming away nicely in the background. We were treated to a nice corner table too, which was perfect for the occasion. There's no denying that this is a superly handsome space, with a lovely ambiance adding to its personality.
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The downsides? In the same breath; it's more than reminiscent of St John! Whilst there's nothing wrong with inspiration and the industry is founded on borrowed ideas, but when you have carte blanche, why recreate a brand and style of decor which instantly reminds you of a London legend?
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Value  |
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The bill for 2 cocktails, a very lovely bottle of Cotes de Nuits, 2 oysters, 2 starters, 2 mains, a side, 2 puds, plus water and service came to £242. Whilst our objective scorecard dictates an average score of 3 out of 5, the value is largely everything that you should expect to pay at a quality mid ranger which now sports a little red plaque to add a little ego driven sheen to your experience. The damage wasn’t even put on expenses and yet was still worth every penny since value is of course entirely subjective. Silly scorecard.
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And it's all quality juice so not overpriced as such, but the wine is up there in price tags. With 12.5% added service charge, expect to pay in the mid-£40s for the cheapest bottle and many markups around the 3x level. It's hefty for a mid-ranger as strong as the quality is. Surely there's room for a mid £30's option?
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Food & Drink |
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We kicked off with a couple of lovingly prepped cocktails and paired oysters, just to get us in the swing. The drinks tasted like absolute professionalism, which you expect when Mr Tom Fastiggi is involved.
The first warm up course was our Red Sun Carrots (£14), served with goat's curd and sunflower seeds. It was a well-played serving of freshness, crunch and seasonality. A solid start to the procession.
Sea Bass (£16) replaced the listed trout on the next dish, which was fine by me as I prefer it as a fish. This was super fresh, lifted with its garnish of earthy beet, punchy horseradish and a nice blast of creamy acidity from some clotted cream. Delicious.
The first main on the evening was 'A plate of Sladesdown Duck' (£36), which was exceptional in both quality of protein, and also its preparation. And it wasn’t only a singular plate, instead showcasing slices of breast doused in a blockbusting sauce which demanded a spoon as to avoid missing any. But the 'plate' also came with a side bowl of salad, tempered with nuggets of crispy duck leg. Bang on the money.
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Brixham Hake (£28) displayed some delicate cooking, yet with the same hearty backbone that you expect from Mr Moffat. Plump and meaty fish served with vibrant broccolo fiolaro and a scattering of Pembrokeshire cockles, finished with an obligatorily butter heavy sauce. Solid work.
Our chosen wine was a great pinot noir based all-rounder to largely handle the flavour profiles of all our plates; in this case a bottle of 2020 Cote De Nuits from Pierre Naigeon. It's just a superbly classy bottle of juice which fitted the occasion perfectly. Bravo Mr Black.
We shared a bowl of roasties with the mains, and they were predictably excellent. I won't waste too much copy on dropping adjectives for the sake of wordsmithery and sounding clever, but they were crunchy and fluffy in equal measures, mopping up that duck sauce like a dream.
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Onto the puddings, literally, and we chose the Sticky Toffee Pudding (£10), with an aptly seasonal brandy butter ice cream. It was as generous and comforting as you'd ever hope for a pudding to be when it's baltic outside, as was the case on this particular evening.
Apple crumble with oat milk sorbet (£9) is bound to be a heavily ordered dish, as to be honest you'd need to be an absolute heathen to not enjoy a good crumble. It's just the ultimate British crowd pleaser at the end of any solid meal originating from these isles.
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But; some pastry fell a bit short of the salt-based offerings. The apple crumble wasn’t really a crumble, with the topping being mainly nuts rather than a flour/salted butter rub thats been tempered with oats/nuts; the bedrock of a great crumble topping. And some of said nuts were caught/bitter too. It was the only miss of the whole meal.
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Overall |
After a few months of operation, a press lunch, a Manteca collab evening dinner, and several quick pop-in visits for just drinks and oysters, we finally made it back to Winsome for a proper full fat review of the actual menu! To be honest a review was never supposed to happen and the visit was intended to be a date night, but we had such a good time that a posthumous review felt apt!
We knew exactly what to expect based on those past visits, and this particular one lived up to the expectations. Plus the menu rotates dishes enough to keep things interesting too, so our historical visits didn’t dull the excitement one bit.
But to bookend this review; when it comes to eating out I'm not the kind of person who generally visits any restaurant, aside from my locally handy curry house/pizzeria, more than a couple of times a year. I'll always sway towards choosing variety over the familiar simply because it's more interesting and enriching. But if you held a gun to my head and made me choose a single restaurant in Manchester to eat dinner at every single night, Winsome would be knocking around the top of that list, above the more fancy places which are seen as being 'better' but whose level of occasion/product probably doesn’t fit the bill for a nice tea on a random Tuesday date night.
Winsome's style offers the kind of food that makes you happy no matter what the occasion, big or small, and Shaun Moffatt's cooking is one of the city's biggest pleasures. It just makes you smile, and for me, ultimately that’s what food on any level should be about as much as many Chefs forget that when pursuing technique and following trends. But feeding people well and properly is a talent which is so sadly lacking these days, and one will never go out of fashion either.
Winsome is an absolute masterclass in that ethos.
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Winsome - Launch
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Manchester has been blessed with a real bolstering of our mid-market offering in the last 12 months. We've seen some seriously good new openings in that period, and one which stands out is Winsome, headed up by the legend who is Shaun Moffat. |
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We were lucky enough to be invited down for a press and influencer preview and as ever, Shaun Moffat's flavour-driven cooking knocks things out of the park and Shaun is undoubtedly a Chef who above all else has a true grasp of what people want to eat most of the time, and what's straight-up delicious, dressed in a high end yet informal setting. Shaun's style and mantra suits Manchester perfectly. The wet offering is also similarly top drawer, as you'd expect when Tom Fastiggi is involved. |
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We won't detail what we ate, as it was the whole menu, so the attached image details things, but outstanding plates were; |
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• Casino Oysters
• Rabbit Pie, Ramson and Bacon Pie
• Asparagus and Dippy Eggs with Caviar
• Crab Salad
• Potatoes with Seaweed
• Fudge
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When we heard that Shaun was joining Maya, it instantly felt like a very strange appointment. I'm a staunch believer that a well-regarded Chef's cooking style should never be dictated by the venue at which they operate, and that the venue should always fall in line with that Chef does naturally and allow their offering to follow that of Chef. Winsome appears to embrace this perfectly, allowing Shaun to do what he does, unleashed. |
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We visited the fantastic Counter 71 in London a few months back. Chef Joe Laker asked us; 'Do you know Shaun Moffat, he's is a great guy'. Before moving onto bigger things, they seemingly worked together at Coqfighter, who purvey some of the country's best fried chicken, done to an elevated standard and totally in-line with that flavour-driven ethos. Great food that people want to eat for any occasion, done really well. |
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Anyway, we've been back as paying customers to bag some wine and oysters when passing by without a reservation, but look forward to calling back for that full fat experience in the coming few weeks once they’ve fully bedded in, to get that proper review done. I can tell already that it should be a good one! |
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Winsome Restaurant Reviews |
| Renowned Manchester Chef Shaun Moffat will take the lead as Chef Patron of Winsome
Restaurant this Spring providing Northern Hospitality and thoughtful British cooking. Housed on Princess street (adjoining the Whitworth Locke Hotel). |
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74 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6JD
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WORLD CLASS! 
= FANTASTIC 
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Good 
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OK 
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Poor
