The Kitchens

A number of Manchester's best street food sellers have recently been given the opportunity to occupy a permanent location within Manchester's Spinningfields area. 6 restaurants are going head-to-head against each other, 7 days a week, to be given the chance to open their restaurant on a permanent basis in the same location, The Kitchens.

The Kitchens

Most of them will continue to travel around and showcase their food elsewhere but, with some having had difficulty recently in selling from their normal locations, it provides a great opportunity to settle down somewhere for at least 12 months. 

The 6 food vendors are:

1. Mumma Schnitzel - fried chicken 
2. Bangers and Bacon - pork based meals
3. Hip Hop Chip Shop - fish and chips like no other
4. Chaat Cart - Indian Street food
5. Wholesome and Raw - Fruit and veg in more ways than you can imagine
6. Yakumama - Latin American Street Food

We've reviewed some of these in the past and so most reviews here will be kept quite short, but with some of them going missing for a few months now we were keen to check them out again. 

So with Thursday evening being the opening night, the Meat Memoirs headed straight there after work to check it out. 

Set right beside the canal in Spinningfields, 3 restaurants occupy each side of the open Irwell Square, in the middle they are constructing decking and seating areas for those busier times. As it was opening night, the party atmosphere was in full swing, with a DJ playing and all the food sellers queued up. 

With Bangers and Bacon the most fresh the meat memory, having reviewed them quite recently after attending one of their chefs tables, (READ THE REVIEW HERE), we headed their first to see what they'd brought to the Kitchens. 

Bangers and Bacon seemed to have the most extensive menu of all the sellers, with a large selection of plates to choose from, each containing pork in one way or another. 

Bangers and Bacon Menu

Bangers and Bacon breakfast menu

Without much description on the menu, we opted for the Pig Mac. Unsure if we were going to receive some sort of pork based version of a Big Mac or Macaroni cheese containing pork we awaited the result patiently. The wait wasn't long before I was handed a tub of large pasta covered in cheese and mixed with huge chunks of gammon. 

Bangers and Bacon Pig Mac (£5.00)

Large chunks of pork mixed with thick cheesy pasta topped with
Bangers and Bacon own pork cracking type prawn cracker

The cheese certainly wasn't the main ingredient as can sometimes be the case with macaroni cheese. There was just enough to soften the pasta and create a smooth creamy sauce. The thick cut chunks of gammon/bacon could be found throughout the tub and tasted excellent.  A simple dish from the Bangers and Bacon team but excellent none the less. 

Bangers and Bacon are situated between the Hip Hop Chip Shop stall and Mumma Schnitzel stall. So it it made sense to try these next. 

Both Mumma Schnitzel and the Hip Hop Chip Shop have featured in the Meat Memoirs before from a previous visit to Guerrilla Eats (READ THE REVIEW HERE). 

Mumma Schnitzel used to attend the food festivals around Manchester and operated out of a van in the Spinningfields area during the week. However, they haven't been seen for some time and so their presence here was great to see. 

Mumma Schnitzel

Their menu still consists of breaded fried chicken portions used to create simple burgers topped with their own made sauces, and they're still creating fried halloumi options of a similar nature to go with the chicken. 

Mumma Schnitzel Menu

We opted for their simplest chicken schnitzel burger which contains a fried chicken potion, with salad and Mumma Schnitzels own mayo and sweet chilli sauce. 

Mumma Schnitzel - Chicken, Mayo & Sweet Chilli (£5.00)

Biting into these burgers still reveals one of the most moist chicken portions I've ever eaten. The light fried coating adds a crispy texture to compliment the moist chicken inside. 

Mumma Schintzel's sweet chilli sauce adds a firey hit and tastes incredible, while their own made mayo counters it with a cooling taste. The burger is contained within a soft brioche bun and finished with fresh salad. 

Then it was on to the Hip Hop Chip Shop. 

Hip Hop Chip Shop

Again, we've featured them before in the Meat Memoirs from Guerrilla Eats previously but we enjoyed their fish and chips so wanted to try them again. We chose the "Meat Junkie" box from their menu. 

Hip Hop Chip Shop Menu

The triple fried chips are still as crispy and delicious as previously, while their crispy battered onion rings were done in their glorious batter. 

I personally didn't sample the battered sausage as another member of the party ate this so I can't comment on this part of the box. 

Hip Hop Chip Shop - Meat Junkie (£7.00)

Hip Hop Chip shop seem to be another that tasted exactly as the meat memory remembered and they should be another strong name within the Kitchens. 

On the other side of the square, the remaining three restaurants can be found. Running out of time before our train we only had chance to try one more and so opted for Chaat Cart. 

Chaat Cart

Chaat Cart Full Menu

Unfortunately their full menu wasn't yet available on opening night but their most popular dishes were available. We opted to try the Puri Chaat. 

Chaat Cart Prawn Crackers

While we waited for this to be prepared, Chaat Cart had a wok filled with brightly coloured prawn crackers to snack on. These were crispy, fresh and flavourful! 

Puri Chaat (£4.50)

These turned out to be crispy parcels filled with cream, tomatos, onion and pomegranate seeds. These fresh flavour filled parcels would have made a great dessert after a spicy Indian meal.

I wish we'd opted for more of a main meal to really try what Chaat Cart has to offer. These parcels were fresh and tasty though, but when I return I shall sample more of their menu. 

The ones we didn't get to try:

Yakumama

Wholesome and Raw Main Menu

Wholesome and Raw Sushi Menu 

Conclusion

Unfortunately we'd run out of time to try the finial two restaurants in Yakumama and Wholesome and Raw. 

However, The Kitchens is set to be around for 12 months and with some of our favourite food vendors now available 7 days a week you can guarantee we'll be back to try the remaining restaurants as well as sample more of the menu from the others. 

The Kitchens should be a huge success. Set within the highly popular Spinningfields area it will appeal to early morning business folk, then again for lunch, and then draw in people frequenting the local bars in the evening. Despite it being set to the quiet end of Sprinningfields, the previous Spinningfield regulars and Manchester best known street food should attract a steady crowd. 

I for one will be back there before long to finish this review....

@_TheKitchens

http://thekitchensleftbank.com/

Kitchens Facebook page

B.Eat Street - Friday Food Fight

B.Eat Street's Friday Food Fight started out, as you can probably guess, as a Friday evening event featuring a large selection of Manchester street food traders and unique restaurants serving up sample menus. They also offer up a big selection of cocktails and drinks on their bar.

The event has moved through 3 locations over the past year but is now currently residing within an unused space of the Great Northern Warehouse just off Manchester's Deansgate. It became so popular in its original location just over the road that they've started opening on both Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons. This helps spread the number of visitor out as when it was just held on the Friday evening it was almost impossible to find a seat to sit down and eat. The queues for the food stalls could also be like queuing for a ride at Alton Towers during the school holidays! It also seemed that a lot of people would be there for the drinking more than the food too which never helped in getting a table. Because of this, I was little apprehensive about returning to the Friday Food Fight.

But with the promise of some old favourites, and some new names on the line up I figured it was about time B.Eat Street featured in the memoirs. 

Tonight's line up was due to feature the following names, not only from Manchester but from the length of the UK, with a special guest travelling up from Brighton. The line up included:
Piggie Smalls (@PIGGIESMALLSYO)
Viet Shack (@vietshack)
Coq o' The North (@CoqOtheNorth)
Dim Sum Su (@DimSumSU)
Lucha Libre (@LuchaManchester)
Diamond Dogs (@Diamondd0gs)
Dirty Food Revolution (@dirty_food)
Mei Mei's Street Cart (@mmStreetCart)
And Special Guest from Brighton - Fries Guys (@friesguysuk)

We arrived around 7pm which I expected to be the busiest time but entered via the manned door to the side of the Great Northern (next to the cinema entrance). You walk past the plywood tables and into a red tinted warehouse type space with a live DJ playing from a raised area. To one side of the hall is the bar, while opposite is a wall of food stalls from the various vendors. Between, the room is full of tables and benches with the odd oil drum dotted around forming a table or bin. It was good to see spaces at the tables and room to sit down and eat this time!

Seating Area

Drink & Cocktail Menu

B.eat street have improved the payment system opening a separate desk where you exchange money or pay on card to the value you wish to spend on food in exchange for poker chips. This seems to work well and it allows for card payment which wasn't possible at previous venues when you would pay the stalls individually. 

I was excited to see some new stalls to try and to revisit some past favourites. I'll admit I was very keen to try Fries Guys what with them having travelled all the way from Brighton, but it looked as though terrible traffic both around London and on the M6 had prevented them from arriving. 

Dirty Food Revolution

First stop was to a vendor we recently tried for the first time at another food event (See Previous Memoir Here), Dirty Food Revolution. I try not to visit the same places so soon after each visit but after winning a competition online for a free meal from Dirty Food Revolution I didn't need any more of an excuse to sample their burgers again. 

Dirty Food Revolution

Their menu was basically the same as at their last event, but at least it would give me the chance to test their consistency. There was a slight tweak to the fries being offered, still sweet potato fries but listed as having Dirty Seasoning and Vanilla Dusting on top. 

The burgers were the same mixes of sweet and savoury delights that I couldn't wait to sample again. 

Dirty Food Revolution Menu 1

Dirty Food Revolution Menu 2

As the fries were the only thing I didn't have last time I had to order them this time. 
I was a little apprehensive about fries with vanilla dusting, and I'd have to order to discover the surprise of the dirty seasoning. 

Dirty Fries - £3.00

The sweet potato fries were well cooked, crispy without being over done. They'd have been just like any other fries were it not for the dirty seasoning, icing sugar! Now I admitted at the time, if someone suggested putting icing sugar on my fries I'd tell them to get lost, but having tried these sweetened sweet potatoes I wouldn't need convincing again. Now, just to convince others that this is a suitable topping for fries. The vanilla topping I didn't notice though. 

As I engulfed the fries, I waited for the burgers to be cooked. In the background the thick patties on the grill looked delicious. I soon remembered the last time I tried these. 

Patties on the grill

For the burgers I opted for the Dirty Elvis burger, a chuck steak patty, american cheese, smoked streaky bacon, pork rind crumbs, maple syrup, sweet potato fries, all between a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

Dirty Elvis Burger - £7.00

My girlfriend ordered the Dirty Swine burger, a chuck steak patty, mature cheese, smoked streaky bacon, frazzles, pork rind crumbs, dirty mayo, dirty BBQ sauce all between a brioche bun. 

Dirty Swine Burger - £7.00

The Dirty Elvis was another mix of sweet and savoury, as well as a mix of soft and crunchy. The beef patty was about as thick as the doughnut and in the centre oozed out a huge dose of maple syrup. The iced Krispy Kreme added a huge sugary boost, while the prok cumbs add a crispy bite. This is still one of the messiest burgers I think I've eaten to date. The sticky icing on the doughnut, the thick american cheese and the way the sweet potato fries fall out of the burger means there's no dignified way to eat this. 

Dirty Elvis - £7.00

Those with a sweet tooth might prefer the Dirty Elvis over the Dirty Swine. The fans of a more traditional burger wouldn't be left disappointed by the Dirty Swine. The thick juicy steak patty, crispy bacon & frazzles still makes this one of my favourite burgers. The Dirty mayo and dirty BBQ sauce do get a little lost in all these flavours. 
It's also a little less messy to eat than the Dirty Elvis. 

Dirty Food Revolution are obviously a fan of both sweet and savoury and aren't scared to mix the two. I'm glad they're brave enough to offer this menu and run the risk of people turning their noses up at it, because those that don't obviously love it (they sold out by the end of the night). They're also putting together some of the best patties I've found in Manchester. Hugely thick and really well cooked! 

Money for Meat: Competition win

Meat Rating: 10/10

Mei Mei's Street Cart

This was one of the vendors I hadn't come across yet so was keen to try it. Their menu board gave a brief description and diagram of the Jian Bing's (or Chinese style crepes) they were serving. Not something I'd come across before. 

Mei Mei's Menu

Mei Mei's had 3 different filling options, fried chicken, shiitake mushrooms, or a Beijing veggie option.  

We opted for the fried chicken option. These large folded crepes were freshly prepared in front of us, sprinkled with spring onions, covered in a hoisin & chilli sauce, before being filled with the selected filling and folded into an easy to hold package. 

Jian Bing

Both my girlfriend and I agreed that these were very good. The mix of flavours from the egg crepe taste and the onions combined with the sliced chicken was fantastic. The hoisin sauce added a great little kick towards the end which the crepe helped cancel out preventing it from being too overpowering. 

Money For Meat: Paid in full

Meat Rating: 8/10


Coq o' the North

Coq o' the North have become a regular at the food fight recently. They offer up buttermilk fried chicken in fresh brioche buns. 

I used to say that no chicken burger could compete with a beef burger until I tried a certain Manchester street food vendor selling their take on a fried chicken burger, since then my mind has been opened to the fact that they can. So on this note Coq o' the North had to be tried. 

Coq o' the North Menu

I ordered their "lip tingler", a spicy buttermilk fried chicken breast on a toasted brioche and a bed of mayo, lettuce, onion & tomatoes. 

The price was one of the cheaper main dishes on the night. I waited for the chicken to be fried and saw the bed of large tomatoes and onion pieces being prepared. 

The Lip Tingler - £5.00

When the burger arrived it looked a bit salad heavy but I'd give it chance. Upon taking a bite my original theory was immediately restored. Although the salad and bun was fresh, the thin piece of fried chicken tasted a tad too salty. The batter was of a good breaded texture, and well cooked. The chicken breast was just too thin though, and after being fried was just too dry. The overall taste reminded me of a late night takeaway chicken burger. Too much salad, and an overwhelmingly spiced battered thin piece of chicken. 

Overall I was left disappointed in Coq o' the North. A real shame having had my mind opened previously to what a chicken burger can be.

Money for Meat: Paid in full

Meat Rating: 2/10

Dim Sum Su

The final choice of the evening was the other vendor I hadn't heard of before, Dim Sum Su. Dim Sum is a traditional Chinese style of food, and the menu seemed to offer some Chinese favourites. Sue and John run this little business and although Sue couldn't attend the Food Fight this weekend John offered us a warm welcome. 

Dim Sum Su menu

On the front of the desk they had a couple of sample dishes, one of their peking chicken wraps and a box of their wontons. 

Sample Dishes

We opted for a portion of the home made Wontons to share between us. John explained that they'd started to dish up some black bean chicken wontons as well as the pork, prawn & peking chicken wontons and offered us a mixed box which we happily accepted. 

Wontons - £6.00

These wontons were my partners favourite dish of the night and they were definitely up there for me. These crispy, fried little packages were packed full of great flavours. Having a little box like this with a mix of different flavours in added to the excitement as you never knew what flavour you were biting in to. 

Crispy fried wonton skins

The seasoned meats inside the peking wontons were delicious and the peking sauce added a fantastic hint of traditional Chinese flavour. The black bean chicken wontons were equally as great. A tingle of spice from the black bean sauce around the minced chicken was a perfect amount of spice. 

Meat packed wonton with sweet chilli dip

I'll be following Dim Sum Su on social media to keep up to date on the future events they're attending, as I can't wait to try more from their menu.

Money for Meat: Paid in full

Meat Rating: 10/10

Conclusion

B.eat Street's Friday Food Fight seems much improved, with its new location, the decision to split the event over 2 evenings and the ability to now take card really seems to have improved it. Oddly, it seems to have got quieter though. To me that's a bonus, as it just seemed too busy in the past. It's lively and atmospheric now, without having to spend half your evening queuing. 

There's a big list of food retailers attending each night, offering lots of different choice to customers. We were spoilt for choice. 

Overall, the Food Fight has become one of Manchester's biggest food events every week. It's easy to see why with their large bar menu, and even bigger selection of food on offer. I'll be back to the Food Fight before long no doubt, and we'll feature it in the Memoirs when we do. 

An apology to all those stalls we didn't get chance to sample on this visit. We just couldn't accommodate them all. There'll sure to be a memoir feature for you all in the future. 

Here are the menus from the other vendors from the night:

Diamond Dogs - Menu 1

Diamond Dogs - Menu 2

Lucha Libre Menu

Viet Shack

Piggie Smalls Menu

Piggie Smalls Signs

Patty & Bun

The third stop on the meat tour around London was to Patty & Bun for an evening meal. This restaurant is often regarded as serving some of the best burger in London so we couldn't miss this off while in the city. 

They have two restaurants within the city but we opted for the one near to Oxford Road on James Street (the other is located near Bishop Gate). This is a street full of little restaurants and is very busy in an evening for people eating out and socialising. It seems that Patty and Bun are one of the few which doesn't offer outside seating as almost all the other restaurants on the street have seating to the front of the shop. 

The small, open front restaurant stands out on the street thanks to the red paintwork. Arriving, your welcomed by a member of staff at the front door who asks how many you're with and then asks you to wait outside while your table is prepared. Being a weekend evening it was quite busy for our visit and we had to wait 20 minutes or so. 

Normally this isn't a problem, but with only a small bench for a number of people waiting outside at such a busy time it means you're left standing in the street waiting. There is a menu to look over but this would probably be little consolation should the weather be anything like traditional English weather. There is a small overhang to the front of the restaurant but it wouldn't be able to shelter everyone waiting (unless you were all suddenly very comfortable with each other).

Front of the restaurant

Menu

Once we were offered our table the waiter showed us to a table toward the rear of the restaurant. Inside the restaurant is quite small and dimly lit and it becomes clear why you're made to wait on the street, there's just no room for waiting customers inside. There are a set of tables along either side of the restaurant and a small bar tot the back. The kitchen and toilets are located down the stairs to the rear of the restaurant. The decoration is quite simple with chip board lining the walls, and sketches on cardboard hung from the walls higher up. 

Open fronted

Inside the restaurant

Decoration

Each step of a burger?

Having been sat at our table we were offered a paper menu to look over and reconsider our choices. The burgers vary with a wide range of flavours of different sauces and relishes. They also offer chicken and lamb burgers in case beef isn't your bag. Having heard great things about their "Smokey Robinson Burger" this was my choice, combined with sides of fries and "Winger Winger chicken dinner" BBQ chicken wings. It wasn't long before the waiter was back to take our order and deliver our drinks we'd ordered on entering. 

Paper Menu

They also offer a daily special but due to the time of day they had sold out of this option on our arrival. 

Places are then set with a brown paper place mat to save on any plate washing and the centre of the table has cutlery and additional sauces to save you having to get your own. I'm a fan of this as it's more like a restaurant. They've managed to eliminate most of the washing up but keep the need for service staff, as the trend nowadays seems to be for customers to get their own cutlery etc.

Centre pieces

The wait isn't too long before the food is delivered, despite how busy this little restaurant is. 

The sides come in a polystyrene cup and the burger is wrapped and sealed with a signature P&B sticker indicating which burger is wrapped inside. 

Smokey Robinson Burger & Fries

The burger is huge! I was feeling hungry and was tempted to ask if they did any double burgers before ordering but the beef patty in these burgers is so thick a single is adequate enough. 

As you unwrap the burger the cheese tries to hold the burger to the wrapping. Thick, stringy, melted cheese which has to be pulled away from the wrapping. It's great to see proper cheese on a burger, not the usual thin cheese slices. 

Unwrapping

Beneath the patty, the bun is coated in thick ketchup and P&B mayo, along with the lettuce. Then on top of the patty they have a big dollop of caramelised onions and the thick cheese. 

Smokey Robinson Burger (£8.50)

Inside the thick beef patty is a slightly pink in the centre and seems to be high quality minced beef. Under all the onions it's difficult to see the bacon but it's in there! The caramelised onions really flavour the meat and Patty and Buns mayo is a really great sauce. Really sweet flavour. This is easily the best burger I'd found in London so far! 

Burger Section

It's also possibly the messiest burger in London. 

Burger Mess

The fries are crispy with skin on, and quite heavily salted (£2.75). They taste great though. They don't taste like they're cooked in regular cooking oil, there's something different about these fries. They're then seasoned with some rosemary for a bit of extra flavouring.

The wings are also served in a polystyrene cups like the fries, but there's a decent number within the cup (roughly 6 wings). They're doused in a thick BBQ sauce which is very messy to eat. The sauce is has a tangy tomato flavour to it followed by a very sweet sugary flavour. The wings are cooked so well that when I put one down and picked it up again by the bone it left the chicken on the table. Couldn't be cooked better. 

Winger Winger Chicken Dinner (£5.50)

Conclusion

Patty and Bun was the best burger I ate on my search around London. The beef patty was good quality and cooked to perfection. The sides were spot on too! And P&B sauces are fantastic! They've done a great job on the recipes for these sauces. 

The only thing that lets it down is the restaurant size. It's not too bad once you're inside but having to queue outside I imagine puts a lot of people off, especially in poor weather. It's worth the wait though for those willing to wait around outside! I'd be willing to wait in the rain next time as this will be my place to visit next time I'm in London! 

@pattyandbunjoe

Meat Rating: 9/10

Money for Meat: Paid in Full