Manchester Restaurant Tips by johngayton

The Bank: Great Sausages, Shame About The Pie!

In the search for a traditional British pub lunch we happened on The Bank, on Mosley Street, pretty much halfway between our hotel and the art gallery. As pubs go this is modern-classy and seems to set its stall out to be one of the up-and-coming city-centre "Gastropubs".

Well it certainly does have the veneer of being classy with its immaculate dark wood bar, solid wooden tables and leather-upholstered seating. The ceiling is high, as would befit its former role as the Portico Library and fortunately, on a dank rainy lunchtime, the heating was well boosted.

This is a nice comfortable pub with decent beer, a reasonably interesting menu, slightly off-hand service and a bit obviously part of one of the pub groups - Mitchell and Butlers as I've sinced found out.

Favorite Dish: The menu features good old pub classics such as steak and ale pie, fish and chips, sausage and mash and a couple of more exotic options. I knew it was going to be too good to be true to actually find that my pie was going to be home-made but I ordered it anyway. Well, I wasn't disappointed: yep it was a bought-in pie, all soggy pastry and hardly any filling served with a pretty naff, overcooked selection of veg.

The sausages however, which have their own separate menu, were actually delish. I can't remember how many varieties they offer (and the menu board tells which are available on the day) but these are good sausages and the portion substantial, served with mash, onion gravy and a sprinkle of parsnip crisps. Marina opted for the lamb and mint variety which defeated her after about three-fifths of the way - well that made up for the lack of meat in my pie as I assisted the plate cleaning.

Great sausages, nice decor, decent beer, not too expensive but not a place particularly worth seeking out if you're looking for a proper pie!

Address: 54 Mosley Street

Comparison: about average

Directions: Just off the bottom end of Piccadilly Gardens, heading towards St Peters Square (I think).

Phone: 0161 228 7560

Price: US$11-20

Rating: 2

Theme: Local

Website: http://www.mbplc.com