Manchester House and Artisan – a girly night of cocktails in Manchester
After a very long and tough week and to celebrate Lucy’s birthday, we headed out for a well-deserved girly dinner and cocktails at Manchester House and Artisan at Spinningfields, Manchester. And what a night it was, full of good food and yummy drinks.
Artisan is one of the latest additions to what has become the place to be for an evening out: Spinningfields. The interior is incredible and mixes the natural (indoor herb gardens grow by the open kitchen) with the industrial (exposed brick work and piping) to create an incredible loft-style space. It’s huge! The menu is impressive and reasonably priced, so it’s the ideal spot for a girly evening of food and drinks (my favourite kind of evening).
We started with a bottle of Prosecco to toast the birthday girl and moved onto Red Wine to accompany our steaks and sides. I had the fillet steak with hollandaise sauce and crinkle-cut chips on the side. Delicious, it was like cutting butter. Nothing beats a good steak in my books. The other girls had rump and t-bone (I surprisingly had food envy over the rump, which looked really juicey!).
The menu doesn’t tell you what the steaks come with, so watch out for this as you have to order your sides and sauces separately. The steaks typically come with a garnish of roasted mushroom, tomato and bulb of garlic, which is great, but you definitely need to order the chips and sauce to complete the dish. The cost can mount up a bit here. The rest of the menu represents very good value for money though and good portions from what we could see…you always expect to spend a bit more on steak.
After filling our boots with the yummy dinner and red wine, we were in the mood for cocktails. And where better to head than the newly opened Manchester House, just a stones-throw away from Artisan at The Avenue North. This bar occupies the entire top floor of Tower 12 and boasts panoramic views across Manchester, one of the longest bars I’ve ever seen and comfy outdoor heated terrace spaces. What a combination!
The cocktail menu is impressive, but a little over-whelming. So this is when the incredibly well-trained and chatty bar staff come into their element. As we were studying the menu and confusing ourselves with options, our barman asked if we’d like him to create something for us instead…yes please Mr Barman! So we reeled off what we like in a cocktail and about 5 minutes later he came back with 4 very impressive looking and great-tasting cocktails. I had a Hemingway Daiquiri which I’d highly recommend!
Taking seats on the covered outdoor terrace, we settled in and chatted the night away, to the back-drop of Manchester spread 360 degrees around us. What an evening with great company.
If you’re heading for a night out soon, girly or otherwise, I’d certainly recommend these 2 hot spots – I’m sure you’ll be impressed. I look forward to becoming a regular :-).
Have you been?
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