Dahlia Stereo

My word, Dahlia Stereo sounds good. Literally. An obscene number of man-hours have gone into making this new Northern Quarter bar-restaurant an audiophile’s dream. Acoustic panels here, treated walls there, all designed by the best in the biz to sound pristine, whether you’re eating a meal, sipping a cocktail or dancing your limited-edition Docs off. 

It’s not just for show either. Opening night saw a DJ set from the Father, Son and Holy Ghost of cratediggers, BBC 6 Music’s Gilles Peterson, followed by Jon Da Silva the next night, with all manner of respected DJs over the coming months. Not an algorithm in sight. 

But it’s not all about vibrating waveforms, Dahlia does a mean line in Mexican-influenced food and drink. Again, this goes Inception-levels deeper than “we like spicy food”. The team did on-the-ground research in Latin America, cherry-picking ideas and even specific recipes from rural abuelitas, presumably baffled at this influx of hungry Mancunians. 

In one corner, the Barbacoa Cósmica, the open-fire kitchen which serves up steaks, ball-shaped charbreads, fearsomely bright achiote chicken and a small but well-chosen selection of other sundries. 

Dahlia shines with its sauces and dips, with a special mention for the extremely well put-together smoked salsa roja, which is a few Scovilles down from its hellfire hot appearance. 

It’s all relatively affordable too, considering the location and quality; aside from the sirloin steak, which at £55 is probably best served up as part of a sharing-with-meat-loving-mates outing. 

The melon pisco is the drink to get. It’s the owner’s favourite, a staff favourite, and a me-favourite too. A combination of honeydew-infused BarSol, fino sherry, Midori and cucumber that ticks the same boxes as the bar itself: backed up with serious expertise, but zippy and easy to enjoy. No drinksplaining at Dahlia. 

It’s another winner from the team who brought us Ramona and The Firehouse, as well as Tangerine over on the Salford border, but this feels more personal. 

Appropriately, you’ll find it down a graffiti-strewn backstreet – the New York subway-style of doodle, not council-funded street art-lite. Dahlia is practically a love letter to what the Northern Quarter started out as: a home for mavericks with very, very good taste.