My first paid gig in years, a cheque in the bank, and the money burning a hole in my pocket.

It being Friday, I head for a fish place, and the best place for fish on a Friday in Manchester is undoubtedly Bar Shrimp. Opened last October by the team behind Higher Ground and Flawd, it is a fast-rising star in Manchester’s growing foodie reputation. Hell, even restaurant critic Grace Dent ventured north of the Watford Gap to proffer her opinion. She gave consecutive excellent reviews to Skof and Bar Shrimp, the latter of which she describes as “Manchester’s new best thing ever”. I can only concur.

Not just a restaurant, Bar Shrimp has an impressive cocktail list, as well as a DJ booth playing cool soul music and dance tunes late into the night. The interior is stylishly modern with the bar and semi-open kitchen at one end. It is also lavishly draped in red curtain which gives it the feel of a New York speakeasy (it is on New York Street), replete with a hint of David Lynch if his film had been called Red Velvet. The combination of space, function and intention is unique. In fact, it’s so cool that Condé Nast Traveller magazine voted it one of the coolest spots in Britain where “Manchester’s most stylish grown-ups go for a drink, linger over dinner, and dance until the lights come on”. With my drinking and dancing days behind me, I do still know a good lunch when I see one. And the food at Bar Shrimp is astonishing.

I start with what is one of the finest plates you will find in the city: Morecambe Bay langoustines in wild garlic butter. Succulent, sweet and proper messy, they require their own implement to dig out every morsel of crustacean goodness. This is a plate of pure joy. Next is a dish of grilled sardines, silver bellies with barbecued burnt upper bodies, the interior of each fish bursting with dark, tasty flesh, easily filleted from the bone and scooped into my welcoming mouth.

I couldn’t resist a third course of monkfish ravioli. In the past, I’ve been confronted with parcels swimming in an over-creamy sauce, killing the taste of the fish and the pasta. So I’m very happy to see a plate of juicy pasta pillows nestled in a shallow coating of a butter and fish stock, sprinkled with scallion greens. I taste and savour every delicious ingredient. A glass of chilled Rosé straight from the tap enhances the experience.

Chef Yuna Kim is a sensationally talented cook who oversees an equally talented kitchen. Bar Shrimp is unique in that it has an ice-cream machine behind the bar, and Yuna is kind enough to bring me a dish of cherry blossom soft-serve with maraschino cherries to end an outstanding meal.

The problem with meals as good as this is that they come to an end. The only solution is to promise myself a return visit as soon as possible. Does anyone know of a paid gig?

Words and images by Robert Hamilton

 

Bar Shrimp