Stables Brasserie M.E.N Review - 'give me a night in Stables anytime'

Overall: 3/5
Decor: 3/5, Service: 4/5, Food: 3/5

Location, location, location – a mantra every self-respecting estate agent will be using soon on impressionable BBC workers who want to believe Swinton is not really in Salford. But in terms of dining out, the location of your restaurant is a tricky business.

The honeypots of the city centre, Chorlton and Didsbury do not necessarily contain the best places to eat, merely the most places.

Look at Aumbry, this year’s Restaurant Of The Year at the Manchester Food And Drink Festival Awards, which is doing very well in Prestwich, thank you. Another award winner, the excellent Damson, is in Heaton Moor; and Ramsons, one of the best restaurants in the country, established itself in an unfashionable Ramsbottom well before it became a foodie stronghold.

Locating near similar restaurants can either bring the benefits of shared custom or impossible competition – but setting up in isolation can lead to tumbleweed blowing past empty tables and a swift end, or a monopoly of appreciative diners who have always dreamed of a neighbourhood restaurant.

But what if that neighbourhood is Wigan, which has always been grim as coal dust for dining out?

If Sunday Times critic AA Gill was horrified at Manchester’s “drink first, eat after” culture last weekend, he should visit Wigan, where the only “after” is a mildly threatening but jovial taxi queue after a long night on the razz.

Food has rarely had a look-in here. Traditionally, it was something you did before going out. Why waste decent quaffing and dancing time, not to mention very hard-earned money, getting some scran in town?

But there is one place that is trying hard to win over the locals and Wigan now has a restaurant of which it can be rightly proud.

It’s not in the same league as the ones mentioned previously, but is serving honest, well-cooked food in Wigan-sized portions and with cracking service.

The Stables Brasserie has been operating in its converted Victorian building for a couple of years as a café by day, restaurant by night and has built up an enthusiastic clientele.

It is just round the corner from the impressive Face Of Wigan sculpture – a huge metallic, reflective fizzog by artist Rick Kirby – and is opposite the very faceless new shopping centre.

Inside, the décor is identikit contemporary, inoffensive but unimpressive greys – mushroom being the new beige in many restaurants nowadays – and there was also a mushroom/ beige jazz soundtrack breaking through the hum of pleasant conversation.

But dim lighting alone cannot erase the Stables daytime guise as a café. The unbecoming tables could do with some smart linen and the spidery light cutlery should be swapped for something more heavy and refined when the sun goes down – let’s have a little more evening elegance, please.

But strangely – and let’s remember we are in Wigan – there is some sense of the Continent, an unshowy European professionalism about the place that follows through into the food, which is described as ‘rustic and tasty’ and has a rough French feel.

So it was not unsurprising that front of house is owner Jeanne Lancashire, who is originally from Denmark but who married a Lancashire lad in more ways than one, David, from Ormskirk.

They both worked in catering in London before moving north, David also having a stint at Café Rouge on Deansgate. They found the converted stable building, brought in head chef Andy Leach and opened up two years ago last month.

There is nothing particularly original about the evening menu but it is well executed and, if you like your portions large, good value for money.

I began with ham hock and coriander terrine (£4.95), which was hearty but without much other flavour than the ham. It came with a nice, punchy, ratatouille-like chutney.

Opposite were four baked mushrooms (£4.95) and what was lacking in their taste was made up with a classic provencale sauce draped with stilton mild enough not to knock out the rest of the flavours.

My main of duo of duck (£17.95) was a delight. Workhorse in proportions, racehorse in flavour, it was big farmhand of a dish with thick, pink slices of breast and a plump, not too salty, confit leg on a king-sized bed of rough, braised red cabbage.

There were also two square tower blocks of creamy potato fondant and a pot of autumnal redcurrant jus that was raucous enough to be justly called gravy.

Opposite was a whole seabass (£16.95). The fish had been fussed over with fennel, new potatoes, cherry tomatoes, olives, in a white wine sauce and a heavy dill butter. This continental combination worked brilliantly and covered up the slightly over-cooked state of the fish, giving it a luxurious lift.

The fish at least was right for our New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Anapai River, which was decent value at £17.95 from an inexpensive list.
Service was unfussy and warmer than a miner’s armpit.

Unless you get on the wrong side of a Wiganer, they tend to be the friendliest bunch in the land. And this easy, relaxed, dryly witty bonhomie comes through in the service at The Stables.

Watching the staff work the tables, it looked like the diners were more like friends who paid for the food rather than customers. Why is it that many restaurants think that the obligatory: “Is everything all right?” halfway into the main course is job done on the glad-handing front.

I got a “You’ve not eaten all your cabbage!” Which prompts much more of an entertaining conversation and the honest reply that there really wasn’t a stomach this side of the River Douglas that could entertain the whole weight of that dish.

But saying that, there is always room for pudding. My lemon tart was excellent. Just the right balance between sweetness and that tarty tingle on the tongue. There was an interesting raspberry and rose wine sorbet, too.

We also enjoyed the pear tartin which came with a butterscotch coulis and toffee ice cream from excellent local producer Frederick’s.

Give me a night in the Stables anytime.


http://www.citylife.co.uk/restaurants/reviews/18694_review__stables_brasserie

---

Posted: Monday 25th October 2010
ID: 7860 - 553