Sam’s Chop House, Manchester

On our last night in England, we were looking for a more traditional dinner. 

While there are many great places spread all around the Greater Manchester area, it just seemed right to have dinner in the city centre. Sam’s Chop House was a natural choice. Scott informed me that in America you usually can’t go wrong with any restaurant with “chop house” in its name, and as I had eaten there once before (as well as once at the sister restaurant Mister Thomas’s) it seemed like the ideal place to take him in order for him to try some delicious homemade English fayre.

The atmosphere at Sam’s is classy casual without being stuffy. As you walk in the door and go down the steps, you are greeted by a statue of L.S. Lowry, the famous local artist, who is permanently sat at one of his favourite bar stools.

We were sat in the back dining room, and started out with the Whitebait & Chip basket. The whitebait was crunchy and salty, and while it was a bit off to be eating whole little fish, it was a tasty and crispy start. The chips appeared to be just small frozen chips, as they don’t resemble the restaurant’s usual chunky, hand cut chips you get with the main courses, but as this was a starter, and it was the fish that was the star of the show, this really didn’t matter.

For our main course, we enjoyed the Sausages & Mash and the famous “ten days in the making” Corned Beef Hash. Both were exemplary editions of classic English fare, with a twist of gourmet flair added to them. 

The Sausages & Mash are locally sourced from Didsbury and were accompanied by a sultry red-wine gravy. The Corned beef hash is a secret recipe, but listed features were sautéed potatoes, creamed onions, soft-poached egg, and Cheshire-smoked dry-cured ham. The (what I assume was homemade) HP sauce that accompanied it was to die for, the egg was perfectly runny and the bacon perfectly crispy; coming from Asia where we had been eating poor substitutes for proper bacon, this was a real treat and offered a good contrast to the soft and creamy hash.

Dessert was delightful as Sam’s provided their version of Sticky Toffee Pudding, and while I may have preferred custard, it still worked. 

I would have liked a little more of the toffee sauce, particularly as the sponge was quite dense, and was also surprised to find no pieces of date within the pudding, but it was still damn tasty nonetheless.

If you follow in our foodsteps:

• Sam’s Chop House is located at Chapel Walks, Back Pool Fold, Manchester City Centre (the cobbled street which intersects with Cross Street and is lined with several bars and restaurants)
• The restaurant gets particularly busy at evenings and weekends, so booking is probably beneficial, especially if in a group, to guarantee a table
• The restaurant has a very extensive wine list, but the servers are more than happy to help suggest something that will complement your order