Beggars Bush

There is a new restaurant on Beech Road and we like it very much. Beggars Bush has taken root on the former site of Mink, a nice little restaurant which did a fine Hungarian goulash in its day until it quietly expired under the weight of the competition from Marmalade, The Lead Station and Thai Spice. Beggars Bush was quick to jump on the spot and has been open for a short while now, quietly staking out its claim on the gourmands of Chorlton.

Named after a little beach cafe run by the owner-cum-head chef's brother in Bali, Beggars Bush is a friendly and laid back place which perfectly combines the arty side of Chorlton with its more trendy aspirations. Visiting for Saturday brunch, we were immediately shown to a nice table in the window. The space hasn't changed dramatically since its Mink days, but the dark and slightly oppressive decor has been replaced by warm cream walls that welcome in the light and tone perfectly with exposed wood flooring. Original art on the walls bear caricatures of rock stars like Shaun Ryder and local heroes like Tony Wilson, interspersed with a variety of mirrors that bounce the light around. The restaurant seating gives way to a bar area towards the back, clearly marked out with swish black tiling.

The menu is a funny affair, offering a mixture of tapas-inspired 'Small Bites' and full sized 'Bigger Bites' which show the head chef's history of working around the world. The 'Small Bites' steer away from the Spanish-inspired dishes you might expect, instead offering things like chicken in wine, cream and paprika, rendang (a mild Indonesian beef coconut curry) and oriental slow roast pork belly, each of which will set you back less than a fiver. The 'Bigger Bites' aren't quite as inventive, with the ubiquitous sausage and mash and beef burger making an appearance, though we were pleased to see that almost half the menu was given over to various fish dishes including whitebait and king prawns in onions, rosemary and garlic.

However, we decided to save the a la carte menu for another visit and turned to the specials board. After almost deciding on the Moules Frites (£6.50) and creamy haddock and leek pie (£7.50), we decided to go for altogether more simple options and ordered a full English breakfast (£5.50) and a panini (from £3.50). And that's when the fun really started. Having asked the waitress what paninis were available, she told us that there wasn't a selection, as such. Instead, the head chef had plenty of ingredients tucked away upstairs and he would make whatever you wanted. This is a great idea in theory but suffers from one big flaw - without being able to see the ingredients to hand, it is difficult to decide which of them you'd like in your sandwich. We decided that the most sensible thing to do, therefore, would be to leave it completely up to the chef. Make us a panini, we asked, with anything he likes inside it, except for cheese.

When our food arrived, we knew we'd made a good choice. Full English breakfasts are a funny thing to pull off perfectly, but this was easily the best we've had in Chorlton - thick bacon, juicy sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans, eggy bread, black pudding and the promise of as much toast as we'd like, all without any kind of oil slick attached. However, the panini was the clear winner, combining parma ham with roasted peppers and carrots, capers, olives and mushrooms in a fresh toasted ciabatta. The roasted vegetables were perfect, soft with the natural sweetness of the vegetables offset by the slight tang of citrus, and the whole panini was a delight. It's a rare day when a simple sandwich makes it into a restaurant review, but if all the food at Beggars Bush is prepared with the same playful attitude and attention to detail, this restaurant will have no trouble pulling in the Chorlton foodies.