Crichton’s Bar and Restaurant

I was intending to keep this remark to the end of the review, when I could have slipped it in as a kind of nonchalant footnote vaguely denouncing Crichton’s. Instead I’ll just bark it out right here in the first paragraph. The Guinness cost £3.75! Three pounds seventy-​five! You could buy a platinum cruise ship full of strippers for that price! Probably.
Even disregarding the bloated overpricing, there isn’t much to like about Crichton’s. Its sterile décor lends it all the warm conviviality of an emotionless robot trying to comprehend a human running out of oxygen. The scant menu just adds to the detached sense of cluelessness. Does it not understand what customers like?
Also, £3.75!

Crichton’s just doesn’t do it for me. We all know that Allerton Road is somewhat pretentious, but we have managed to find some of the cosy, friendly and warm places hidden away. Unfortunately, Crichton’s isn’t one of these little gems… it’s very cold, clinical and spacious.
It claims to be «chic» and have a piano bar with floor to ceiling glass windows… sounds nice but when you’re there, it just feels like it has no character.
The food isn’t as bad as the atmosphere, but take that as no compliment because it’s still not very appetizing. It’s European-​cum-​Mediterranean cuisine could be much nicer than it is, one of the things I would recommend is the honey garlic beef with warm noodles.

Well from the outside it looks nice and from the inside the rustic brickwork isn’t so bad and seats are pretty comfy. There are three types of menu’s — daytime, a la carte and fixed price. For the daytime there is a funny mix of food, but the a la carte does get better. The prices are ok for both. The dessert menu could be a bit more adventurous with three sweets offered, or if you don’t fancy these then there is ice cream or cheese and biscuits. As you will have gleaned from my reviews, desserts, puddings, sweets, whatever you want to call them — they are important to me. So I must admit that at Crichton’s I had to give having a pudding a miss as there wasn’t enough choice to tempt me!
Last weekend I ate at the Modern, Urbis in Manchester and I certainly didn’t have to forego a dessert there I can tell you — lemon curd & vanilla syllabub with poached Cranage rhubarb — now that is more like it!

Yet another one of Allerton Road’s souless eateries and drinking establishments. Years ago when Allerton Rd opened its first bar there were screams of horror from local residents that was until places like Pod and The Other Place offerred the possibility of warm, friendly neighbourhood restaurants for the young professionals and couples of the area.
Well their fears have been proved right with the second generation of restaurant bars that fill every other space available on the stretch of road. I cam here on a lunch break from working nearby and my mate had some sort of bland pasta dish with overdone pasta while I had a very dry burger and not very well cooked chips.
It is busy on a Friday and Saturday evening as it forms part of a wider groups of bars forming a pub crawl along Allerton but it does attract some unsavoury characters.

Another un-​remarkable bar-​slash-​restaurant in Allerton Road. Veering away from the luxurious wood furnishings of other places, Crichton’s opts for the granite look, leaving the place looking a bit cold and clinical.
When I went for food there a while back, I was convinced that the two men at the table next to me were gangsters, dealers or both, as they were quite nervy and kept going outside to make phonecalls. One of them was especially jumpy and though he ordered food, didn’t eat it, choosing insteadto glare nervously at the nearest people to him, which was me and my friend. It didn’t really make the whole experience that enjoyable. Having said that, I remember that the service was quick and the food was good, although I can’t remember what I ate because I was too busy mentally willing the guy next to me not to freak out and attack me!
Another time, I went just for drinks and sat at the bar. Although the weather was particularly bad, there were still a few people who had made the effort to go there, which makes me think that it must be quite a popular place for regulars. According to gossip, it has been recently downsized due to a fallout between the two original owners, resulting in a similar bar being opened nextdoor by the other bloke.