Well, this is going to be a little bit different to the regular restaurant reviews but it was well worth a mention…

Last night we partook in a tour of the underground canal systems and tunnels of Manchester, and before delving into the murky depths, we enjoyed a rather lavish buffet at one of the two Victorian Chop House Company pubs in Manchester. Sam’s Chop House has often been touted as the better of the two, but this was our first expedition into the younger of the historical establishments. Both champion British food, and both are a bar and a restaurant all in one, in genuinely old buildings, with all the traditional feels you’d expect from such a place.

Before we get onto the grub, Manchester Confidential’s Tunnel Tour was one of those experiences that’s strangely brilliant. I was expecting something akin to a trip down a cavern where you learn about stalagmites and stalactites and see the underground rivers and, well, have a perfectly lit path in front of you! It hadn’t even occurred to me to bring a torch – fortunately, in the pitch black, even the iphone’s pathetic attempt at a torch works. You could literally feel your senses straining to adjust to being 40ft underground in the absolute, total darkness. Jonathan Schofield’s tour was informative and funny and certainly one to do, as long as you’re not claustrophobic… or scared of the dark… or scared of rats. We even switched all the torches off completely in one of the chambers and had a good scream. In that situation, a scream, even a controlled and intentional one, takes on an altogether more eerie edge. The old underground canal system, converted into bomb shelters in WWII and complete with its own ghosts and supernatural activities is, in very much a cliché way, a step back in time. You can entirely imagine what it would’ve been like down there when it was used as a thoroughfare between the canals and River Irwell (unsuccessfully), whilst Manchester was getting flattened by bombs and also, strangely, whilst it was trendy to have a good shindig down there. The tour wasn’t all great – I was expecting there to be a bit more that you can access and I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as busy. Unfortunately, because of flooding we only saw a few chambers, missing out on 11 more that weren’t accessible – although I can’t imagine there was a massive amount more to see in those that wasn’t in the five we’d already seen. There’s also something of a suggestion of exclusivity in the adverts which makes you expect that you and the 30ish other people in your group will be down there on your own, but there were a fair few groups either already down there or that came in whilst we were taking our tour around the tunnels. But no biggie…

Anyway, onto the food. Buffets are strange ones to try and tie down really, I guess. We were served up with white puddings with apple sauce, some bizarre little lamb meatballs that, on investigation, looks like they were lamb faggots (proof that you should just try things and not ask questions… I’ve always been put off by offal just because of the mere thought of it, but now I’ve had it, it was rather tasty), chicken skewers, pumpkin & Lancashire curd salad, fish cakes, proper big chips and mini shepherds pies.

It was all incredibly tasty, and a good sample of a fair bit of the menu. I can also confirm that it was at least on a par with Tom’s Chop House round the corner and, being slightly bigger, was a bit of a better venue for our group of around 30 people. There was also plenty to go around, which is good for a buffet. Even the latecomers found there was plenty left, and we all had very healthily piled plates too! The quality of the food was well above standard pub fare, but still has a good home cooked feel to it. The regular menu generally is a little on the pricey side though, as are the drinks behind the bar, but it’s definitely worth it for a treat every now and again. One very slight disappointment was the lack of corned beef hash on the buffet – highly recommended if you find yourself in this traditional haunt.

All in all, a good night really 🙂