We always go for a team Christmas lunch with work, and this year we chose Artisan in Spinningfields, Manchester as our venue. I’ve been to Artisan before, and love the New York loft feel of the place. It’s very urban and modern, but full of warm, cosy touches. And the Christmas décor just adds to this – with wooden stepladders adorned in twinkly white lights, strings of large red outdoor Christmas lights looping down from the ceiling and lovely homely Christmas trees, Artisan really nails the festive feel! Even the table settings are in keeping with rustic crafty brown paper crackers.
As we were a group of 20 people we went for the Christmas set menu, which worked out at £25 per person during our lunchtime slot, and I thought there was a great range of delicious-sounding choices. Now, I can only really comment on the dishes that I chose, but I have to say that I definitely chose very well! All of my food was really delicious, and although I think set menus are never quite as good as the restaurant’s main menu, I wasn’t at all disappointed at Artisan:
Cream of cauliflower soup with curry oil and curried cauliflower. This was delicious! Artisan do great soup – I’ve had one before and both times I was very impressed. I would always recommend the soup option on their set menus.
Braised feather blade of beef with bacon, onion and mushroom. People who chose the other menu options genuinely had food envy at my beef. It was deliciously tender and very tasty. All the main course options came served with the same roast potatoes and seasonal veggies, which is pretty standard for Christmas set menus.
Cranberry and pecan tart with vanilla ice cream. Wow! This dessert was just fantastic! I could have gone for any of the dessert options on the menu to be honest, but I’m so glad I went for this tasty caramel-ly winter tart – just divine!
What was great about Artisan is that although we went on a Friday in December when it was very, very busy, but it didn’t really feel that way at all! Our service was great and it is such a spacious place that it didn’t feel chaotic at any point. Even the busy bar area was managed efficiently and we weren’t waiting too long for our cocktails. (And by the way, the cocktail menu is great and worth checking out!)
So a big thumbs up for Artisan at Christmas time! And I’m looking forward to going back at another point in the year.
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