Restaurants Of Manchester (Wednesday 11th April 2018)
Decor & Ambience
A smart dining room with bright and airy booths styled in yellow leather, with tall ceilings and striking red light shades. The colours of the Spanish 'Bandera', fittingly. Broadly, it’s a handsome place to enjoy a quality meal.
The bathroom could perhaps do with a bit of TLC.
Price
Fantastic value for money is on offer here, with the tasting menu with matched wines summarising this, at a snip for just £45 for 6 tasting courses and £25 for 6 quality glasses, which equated to around a whole bottle of wine in volume. Quite possibly the best value tasting menu with matched wines anywhere in the city.
Compared to the tasting menu which offers amazing value, some a la carte and wine options could relatively feel a little pricy in comparison, although the quality justifies this prices.
Croquetas de Chipirón en su Tinta (squid in its ink croquettes £6.95)
Lágrimas de Pollo (chicken strips in a honey & mustard £6.75)
Service
From start to finish, service was impeccable, knowledgeable, warm, and attentive, with perfect pace and sequence. Crucially, half way into our meal, a group of gentleman from a Premier League football team arrived. The levels of service which we received didn’t change despite this, and every table was given the same high level of service.
Not much worth mentioning at all in all honesty. Our server ran his dining room akin to how Messi controls a game for Barcelona.
Pulpo en dos cocciones
(twice cooked Galician octopus £9.95)
Lomo de Bacalao a la sal sobre creme fina de guisantes
(grilled wild Cod fillet on a green peas sauce £9.95)
Food & Drink
All in all, quite possibly the best Spanish cooking anywhere in the city centre, even if some neighbours get more press and the media train gets carried away with pushing the more trendy venues.
Great produce, skilled and refined cooking which transcends regular tapas offerings, backed up with a cracking wine and general bar product. Presentation and plating has also improved since our last visit. Very strong.
Desserts felt a little below the standards of our savoury courses.
Bistec de Ternera con salsa Trufada
(flat Iron steak with a Mushroom and truffle sauces £18.95)
Tarta de tres chocolates
(Triple layered chocolate cake £)
Overall
One of the best restaurants in the city, without question, and for us, the best Spanish offering which we have currently available in Manchester city centre purely in terms of food quality, authenticity and quality. We have a lot of genuinely good Spanish food in the city these days, so that’s some compliment.
The slightly hidden away, unassuming venue behind Deansgate does them no favours in terms of footfall and exposure. You could easily walk by if you weren't heading there purposely. More people should know about La Bandera.
2 Ridgefield, Manchester, M2 6EQ
0161 833 9019
