Bourbon & Black

Rich C’s birthday rolled round again and so it was time for another steak dinner. I actually booked this some time ago so wasn’t aware of the 25% off deal running during December and January, but you should definitely all take advantage of this.
As it was we got 30% off because the table was late. As is the theme at this time of year, this was because they were dealing with the Christmas party from hell. We didn’t mind and said as much, but the staff were very apologetic and gave us the discount anyway. The food was super reasonable after this, but even without it’s pretty good value for money.
After a public transport nightmare I was glad to arrive to find Rich C had ordered me a glass of Malbec, which was delicious and much appreciated. There was a live band downstairs which to my taste was loud and annoying but other people seemed to be enjoying. The bar area is pretty small and was getting pretty busy while we were there.
It wasn’t too long before our table was ready and we were seated near the open kitchen which was nice. It was time for a full on feast.
I’ll run through what we ordered:
Olives — I ate all of these and they were really tasty. The black ones were a bit soft but this is a common thing with black olives in my experience.
Jalapeño cornbread — This was nice, something a bit different, though I’m not sure I would order it again.
Pigs in blankets with mustard — These were as expected, delicious. Not as good as my mum’s but such is life.
Chicken wings with B&B sauce — Yum. These were sticky and sweet and delicious. There are only four in a portion but as they are huge with loads of meat on this is not a problem. A blue cheese or sour cream type dipping sauce would have been appreciated though.
Fillet steak — Rich would not agree to share the Tomahawk with me (I remain very surprised by this) so we each ordered fillet steak. Mine was rare and his was medium rare. We both enjoyed them a lot. Chips were tasty, but I can’t eat very many ‘fat’ chips in one sitting. They came with a grilled shallot or something like that which looked smart but added very little overall. In retrospect I wish I’d got some vegetables on the side.
Cornflake tart — I saw one of these going past and knew I had to have it. It turns out that Rich didn’t know what cornflake tart was. Did he never eat a school dinner?! Anyway, it was really delicious, and the bourbon custard was great. After ordering I remembered that I’d had bourbon custard once at another restaurant and hated it, but this was delicious.
Then we rolled home and fell into a food coma.

We popped here having pre booked on a Friday evening. I arrived 5 minutes before the booking time to be told there would be a delay of about 20 minutes. Given my girlfriend was about 10 minutes late and there was a bar to keep me company, I wasn’t too fussed. We got 30% off the bill regardless so they were clearly more bothered about it than we were but we weren’t complaining!
We had the b&b chicken wings and pigs in blankets to share to start which were both very tasty. For mains we both had a fillet steak with chips which was fairly good. I think the test of an amazing steak though is if it’s good enough to be thoroughly enjoyed without sauce which I’m not 100% sure this was. For dessert we shared a corn flake tart which was actually very good.
Overall it was a nice but odd experience, I’d started a tab downstairs which I couldn’t pay with the bill, the food was decent and pretty heavily discounted over not much fuss (perhaps I’m too nice?), the service was good, the starters and the dessert were perhaps better than the mains which I’m never sure how to take which I think kind of sums up my feelings, good, I will definitely go again if someone else suggests it but I probably wouldn’t make it my first choice.

Bourbon and Black is a new restaurant in Didsbury Village situated where the old Casa Tapas bar used to be. The place has been done out very smartly with exposed brick walls and leather booths. It is a mainly a bar downstairs and as the name suggests they serve an interesting range of bourbon based cocktails. Upstairs is the eating area. I like the fact you can see the chefs cooking in the open kitchen. The menu is a small one with 5 or 6 choices for each course. I had the fish pie which tasted very nice but would have benefitted from some veg on the side. The burgers looked particularly good.
The best thing about Bourbon and Black is the staff, they are so friendly and accommodating. They did everything they could to fit in our large group of 20 and nothing was too much trouble. Considering we were such a large group the food came out swiftly and efficiently. They do need to work a bit on their menu. Ensuring that all the dishes are available and tried and tested etc. But I’m sure that after they have settled in over the next couple of months this place will go from strength to strength.

So it was a dreary cold January day in Manchester so I decided I needed to venture out to cheer myself up from my post Christmas funk. One of my meet up groups was doing a post new year gathering here so I decided to go along.
The venue (which is the former casa tapas I believe) has got a warehouse feel to the deco and split in two drinking down stairs and eating upstairs. We were upstairs as there was 20 of us. We all ordered going straight for the mains. I was a bit disappointed as they has run out of the pulled pork which was what i has been eyeing up on the menu so I opted for the burger.
Burger arrived with skin on fries. Burger itself had quite a nice chargrilled taste to it but it needed more relish and salad as it was a bit over powered by the bun and was bit too bready for me due to this. Fries were nice.
They do (as the name suggests) stock a good range of bourbons but good thing to know that the soft drinks are not ridiculously over priced which seems to be the way in some places
Would go back again to try the pulled pork.