Opus One

We ate at Opus One last night and had a very mixed experience. Happily, we took advantage of the 50% off (food only) offer......though the bill still came to £120 or so (with £50 spent on wine).

The service is first class, the room is very pretty......and all should be well. Except for the food......which to me was something of an issue.

First out of the kitchen was a cutesy little amuse bouche, which was a small, fried spring roll served with its own tiny bottle of sauce. The problem here was that it tasted for all the world like a frozen spring roll.....and not a bit better. But it was free, so what the hell.

The first courses were tuna for the Mrs, which she liked a lot. I had the prawns, which were amazingly bland. Half of them came absolutely plain, just boiled and put in a little bowl. if they were meant to taste like anything.....garlic, butter, white wine........it was a total flop, as they were dead boring. The other half of the dish consisted of three deep fried, breaded prawns. These were ok, but again, nothing more than you'd get by dropping a few frozen prawns in a fryer.

For mains we had one dish of brill, which was by far the standout of the meal, and worthy of the best French restaurant. A classic presentation, with a superb chive cream sauce. Delicious.

The other main was the most expensive on the menu (£29), the "Rib of Beef", which suggests to ME at least that it would be roast. What came out was in fact a rib steak. It actually had surprisingly little flavour.....no grill taste, or evidence of any marinade or seasoning. As there was no sauce with the steak, this was a problem, as the thing was pretty tasteless. Who thought that the right thing to put with a rib steak is corned beef hash should be jailed. Why would you want a meat dish as a side for a steak? The hash was ok, but that's the best I can say for it.

Deserts were reasonably good, but not memorable.

Overall, if you get it for 1/2 off, and order the right dishes, you'll be happy. But there are definitely better places to eat in Manchester.
Comment on this reader review

Adam Roberts
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Sunday, August 29, 2010

I dined in OpusOne last night 17th August and dont normally write reviews, but I must say this was one of the best dining experiences that I have had.

Fantastic Food, Fantasitic service and the Restaurant was busy for a Tuesday night. Shan the Manager was great and looked after us well.
Comment on this reader review

Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

My partner and i went to the restaurant on a Friday night as a valentine treat.

While the atmosphere and staff were excellent and the presentation of the food beautiful the taste let it down considerably. I was excited to see such a variety of game and sea food on the menu and ended up with the guinea fowl while my partner had the duck breast with squid. While my meal was pleasant it was fairly plain and a little on the salty side my partners food was hard to finish as the salt was so overwhelming! The desert on the other hand did not disappoint a beautifully rich chocolate tart with a refreshing raspberry coulis. Overall we were disappointed with the food especially when you consider the fairly steep price and would be unlikely to return.
Comment on this reader review

genie
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 22, 2010