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Brasa at Freight Island

Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor

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Brasa at Freight Island

Ticket Hall, Freight Island, 11 Baring St, Manchester, M1 2PZ
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  • Thursday4:00pm - 9:00pm
  • Friday4:00pm - 9:00pm
  • Saturday1:00pm - 9:00pm
  • Sunday1:00pm - 9:00pm

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

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Ian Jones
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Caroline Martins is at it again. Not content with creating Manchester’s most dramatic fine dining experience (the Alice In Wonderland-style Sampa), now she’s on a mission to showcase the rustic side of Brazilian cuisine. 

Need a clue? Her new project is called Brasa, which means ‘ember’ in Portuguese. Yes: fat steaks and flatbreads, grilled on a flaming hot barbecue. 

For this, she’s using the mighty Freight Island as her base. Specifically, the kitchen and dining space formerly occupied by the similarly meaty, Basque-inspired Baratxuri. Brasa rightly takes centre stage, with smoky aromas spilling across the huge hall, luring people in, siren-style. 

Of course, it’s Caroline, so it’s not as simple as buying a block of beef and heating bits up. BRASA involves charcoal-steeped oil sprays, ex-dairy cows, and a series of boundary-pushing sides and starters. 

There are two menus. One, street food style, designed for mooching around Freight Island enjoying the DJs and events. This includes barbecued flatbreads including pão-de-alho (Brazilian garlic bread), alongside Brazil’s much-loved cheese breads (pão de queijo), and crispy Brazilian croquettes (salgadinhos).

But the chef’s table is where the mágica happens. Ten seats and an à-la-carte sharing menu, with a view of the grill and kitchen in action. 

Larger dry-aged cuts include a 450g ex-dairy cow ribeye, a 650g T-bone and a 900g bone-in prime rib designed to be shared (unless you’re awfully hungry haha) while sides range from braised black beans (feijão-preto) enriched with garlic and bacon, plus a fresh heart-of-palm salad with cherry tomatoes. On the sweet side, you can enjoy bite-sized Brazilian churros filled with doce-de-leite.

Rally your mates and book a table, Thursday to Sunday for the foreseeable. Those in the know know Caroline is Manchester’s most exciting prospect, and this is a chance to see her flex her heritage, while get a bit drunk and eat some of the city’s best-sourced, best-prepped, best-cooked steaks. Time to act a bit caveman-slash-cavewoman.

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