New restaurant in Manchester: Winsome

How does a meat-heavy restaurant get on with some non-meaty customers

I find myself teetering around the food industry more and more as I get older. The same thing happened with the interiors and design industry. Moments in personal life have a funny way of reflecting what your work life includes (that is to say if your work allows it, or maybe you’re aiming for a Severance-like cut-off situation); buy a house, get more interested in interiors, end up being happily enamoured with the design industry. Travel places, becoming more obsessed with researching into local food and drink joints. Realise how important community is, start shopping with and visiting small businesses as much as possible. It’s all linked.

While I wouldn’t say food was a particular big deal for me in my 20s, my 30s is the total opposite. It’s not just about the food though, it’s the shared experience with friends + family, the environment you find yourself in and how much effort the people involved have put in to making the experience a memorable one. I don’t mean in a theatrical performance way as such - that’s a slight turn off for me - more just everything else in between.

New gaff on the block, Winsome, just opened inside Whitworth Locke, around the corner from Oxford Street in Manchester. As soon as I saw it doing the rounds on Instagram I was buzzing to get down and try it; a few days later we got the call up in the form of a PR invite from a friend-of-a-friend who has recently become an online friend. Han’s bio reads “what u having for tea?”, so she’s my kind of people.

The interior, menu and overall design of the place feels reflective of an upscale but casual modern British restaurant; painted white brick walls, wooden tables and benches, white table clothes, open-plan kitchen and candle light for the evening. The staff uniform of washed-out blue chore jackets with the restaurant logo on the back was a nice nod to the amount of work that goes in to such a busy and stressful operation (The Bear is accurate, right?).

The menu leans heavily of meats, it’s their thing; half of our party dabbled but me and Jord stuck to the other non-meat bits. I also didn’t have the oysters, as I’ve been ruined for life on those, but they seemed to go down well.

Here’s what I shared:

• Baker House Milk Rolls with Winter Tarn Butter

• Asparagus + Dipper Egg

• Cylindria Beetroot, Sunflower Seed, Fresh Curd

• Scottish Sea Trout, Buttermilk, Artichoke, Dill,

• Delica Squash, Butter Bean, Green Sauce

• Skate Wing, Leeks, Pepper Dulse Seaweed Sauce

• Sides; Chips, Greens, Seaweed Potatoes

• Desert; Yorkshire Rhubarb Jelly + Custard, Bread and Butter Pudding, Set Chocolate Cream

Not being a wordsmith when it comes to food, I certainly can’t get in the full business end as it were, we can’t leave that for Jay Rayner’s visit I guess, but from the above my stand outs were;

The milk rolls were as soft and creamy as any I’ve had, and I’m from a town that claims to be one of the originators of the stuff. The salted butter mad them zing.

A late-comer to asparagus (I’ve been able to tolerate more thing since I lost my taste from Covid around 2021, and thus end up acquiring a tastes for things I didn’t like); it was super a thick-stemmed variety, and who knew dunking them into a runny egg would be so good. Loved it.

Beetroot, man, I love that stuff. Anytime I see it on a menu, I know what I’ll be ordering. This was a little earthier than I imagined, but didn’t enjoy it any less than I imagined. I could have happily had this for every course if that’s what they wanted.

The squash was perfectly cooked, and plopped on top of a creamy beige butter bean and spinachy sauce. This one that will stick with me.

And yessir, desserts are now my thing. Since 2024 they’ve won me over, and all eyes were on the jelly and custard for me. Wobbly as they come, perfectly set, served on a trad-English caf-style plate. I’d go back just for another one of these if they’d approve of such a cover. Best of the year so far for me.

All around a really nice experience; one which I think fits into Manchester’s food and drink scene very well. Winsom definitely has a London walk about it: Chef Shaun Moffat and the team would have been aware of this when curating the interior, service style and menu, and it works as perfectly as that milk bread did.

If anyone from Drake’s is listening, let’s do some snaps in here.

Thank you Han + team for the PR Invite.

Mat.