Winsome

Chef extraordinaire Shaun Moffat has had quite the impact on Manchester since landing in the city in 2022. He’s transformed multiple restaurants with his style of bold British cooking and now has his very own place, staffed by the region’s brightest and best. 

The name Winsome is straight out of an Edwardian Boy’s Own novel, and you can see that in the menu. Think wholesome, hearty and full of derring-do. 

The asparagus and dippy egg dish sums this up. Gloriously fresh produce, cooked beautifully. Want more? To hell with it, stick some caviar on top. This is unabashedly opulent food – rich and comforting rather than finicky or precious. 

Pleasingly, the menu steps away from the standard small plates fare found across the UK, and more towards small, medium and big plates, without the stuffy formality of starters and mains. 

That said, the confit mussels and trotter on toast does make for a particularly good opener. It’s a rich, dark tangle of texture and potent enough to turbocharge your tastebuds without being too heavy. 

Follow it with the skate wing. Arguably the best dish in Manchester this spring, it pairs buttery leeks with a sauce made from pepper dulse (an aromatic seaweed, known as ‘truffle of the sea’) to evoke the British coastline without relying on obvious tropes. 

Match this with some of the simple seaweed potatoes for a truly memorable mouthful. Rise, Sir Moffat, master of seaweed. 

But there’s much more to enjoy on this wide-ranging menu. The pork chop (with conference pears) is a powerfully meaty plate, while multiple members of staff rave about the beef shin and blue cheese pie. Meanwhile, the dessert menu is all a masterclass in simplicity. 

The restaurant has the buzz and vibrancy of a friendly bistro, backed by the uncompromising standards of a pre-fame Marco Pierre White. 

And that’s Winsome in a nutshell. Head chef Shaun might be South African-born, but he does modern British food better than most. No bells, no whistles, just magnificent ideas and graceful execution.