Caravan Restaurant & Roastery
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
Caravan is ready to roll, having opened on 20 August serving up Antipodean speciality coffee culture alongside high-quality all-day dining. It’s based in Manchester’s St John’s district, alongside high-profile neighbours such as Fenix and Aviva Studios, and open all day, seven days a week, from 8 AM (9 AM at weekends).
The menu ranges from little nibbles to small plates to share to heartier large plates – not forgetting the bright, feelgood bowls and grains. We had a sneak preview of some of the dishes. News flash: there’s not a duff among them.
The smacked cucumbers are a fresh way to kick things off, full of sharp, tart flavours. There’s a pleasing array of textures thanks to the crispy shallots, spring onion and crunchy cucumbers that burst delightfully in the mouth.
From the small plates section, the garam masala labneh is a fine choice – pleasingly hot flatbread, primed for scooping up the fenugreek-chilli butter and spiced chickpeas.
Similarly the charred hispi cabbage, cleverly made with den miso sauce, memorable chunks of potent stilton, plus some mint, basil and spring onion for good measure. It’s one of the best hispi cabbage options in the city right now, and worth nabbing before summer ends.
It needs to be said: Caravan do amazing things with tofu. The inside is slightly soft silken tofu, but the outside is all crunchy, textured crisp deliciousness.
Have it as the protein in the excellent coconut red curry, or one of the grains and bowls options, or alongside baby spinach, ketjap manis, spring onion, shiso, chilli and sesame as a small plate. It’s a come-back-for-more ingredient.
The steamed cod dumplings are another standout dish. Bitesize dim sum-style dumplings, packed with well-seasoned cod and resting in a delicious Indonesian-inspired sauce, heavy on the sambal and soy, as all good things are.
But that’s just scratching the surface. Caravan’s menu is packed with some of the best daytime dishes in Manchester. Try one, try them all.
