Room Restaurant

Room Restaurant, tucked away at the top of Manchester’s most exclusive shopping streets, has the reputation of being one of the city’s trendiest restaurants. Entering the restaurant you are immediately greeted by a host who will check your coat and bag so that you can sweep up the spiral staircase in style - and you’ll want to make a grand entrance because the bar at Room attracts what could be the best-looking crowd in town.

If you resist the temptation to gawk at the perfectly groomed clientele, you will see a beautifully designed space which combines the antique panelling of the building’s former life as a private member’s club in the Victorian days with bold wallpaper and enormous lampshades. A large, freestanding bar separates the cocktail crowd from the dining room, a large 120-cover space which boasts a combination of sleek black tables in the centre for those who like to be the centre of attention and intimate booths around the outside of the room for those who prefer to watch.

The food here centres on the idea of retro dining with a modern twist. Eschewing the trend for flowery descriptions the menu gets straight to the point with dishes such as “Chicken Kiev – corn fed chicken” (£12.95) or “Lancashire Hotpot – local rabbit” (£16.50) giving little away. While this has its advantages, it does mean that if you don’t ask before ordering, you may well end up trying to guess what exactly is on your plate. A visit between Christmas and New Year saw us order the Thermidor (£16.50), which arrived as about seven tender portions of roasted monkfish wrapped in Parma ham and served with a rich béchamel sauce, and the Wellington (£14.50), which was a taste triumph of rare breed pork glistening under a deeply flavoured gravy on a bed of green beans, but something of a surprise for my dining companion who had been expecting beef.

We decided against dessert and instead went for dessert cocktails (all £6). The Apple Pie Martini (combining Zubrowka bison grass vodka, ‘apple pie syrup’ and apple) begins with a sugar hit that gives way to a vodka kick before fading off into a cinnamon haze. It was criminally easy to drink. The Raspberry Cheesecake is a denser cocktail, combining Stolichnaya vodka, raspberry vodka, Frangelico and raspberries with cream in a layered confection that perfectly captures the smooth taste of its namesake. If all the cocktails are this good, it is no wonder that the bar does such a roaring trade.

A meal here isn’t cheap, with starters and desserts both costing between £4.50 and £6 and a bottle of wine averaging around £27 (though if you order before 7pm you can take advantage of both the happy hour and Magnificent 7 offer, during which all mains cost £7). However, the lure of the cocktails, the outrageously glamorous design and the unique menu justify the cost – and if that doesn’t sway you, maybe the chance to be one of the beautiful people for a night just might.