2 Tony Wilson Place, First Street, Manchester, M15 4FN.

VEGAN OPTIONS: Listed on menu.
CUISINE: Pasta, Pizza, Burgers, Gastro Pub, Salads.
ATMOSPHERE: Date Night, Dinner and a Show, Evening Out.
PRICE: ££

Throughout the 90s and whenever funds would permit, my family’s trips to the cinema would always be preceded by a goopy and grease laden deep-pan pizza or a burger where the protein component was indistinguishable through the slew of onion rings and condiments it was buried under. These meals would invariably be hosted in retail park units with exterior walls as plastic as the cheese served inside. The rare trip or two we made to the theatre typically followed on from a more special affair: a hunk of flame-grilled steak that would fill a plate wider than the field of vision you could expect to enjoy during the play, or a never-ending bowl of rouge pasta that could stretch the length of Sicily. In each case these meals were as institutionalised as they were abundant. The food was theatre in the sense that it was just as generic as the show. You got comedy or tragedy. You got American or Italian.

The experience has moved a little further upstream in the present day – the more sophisticated restaurant franchises and entire solar systems of independent districts are never too far beyond spitting distance of metropolitan area theatres, and more often than not the more regionally serviced multiplexes and arthouse screens have in-built eateries to keep punters spending under one roof for longer. You may still find the occasional TGI Fridays or Pizza Hut around if you venture out into the deep-space of family hot spots – but they typically orbit the cinema experience now as satellite connections to the main event.    

In 2015 HOME entered this scene as a consolidation of two primary film, theatre and art centres in Manchester: The Cornerhouse and The Library Theatre Company. The result was a significantly attractive municipal environment that feels like an essential part of Manchester’s future vision – HOME is welcoming, supportive, progressive, inclusive. It hosts an art gallery, cafe, two bars, five screens, a theatre, a mixed-use studio space and a large restaurant, and has established itself as one of the most well-regarded performance and screening venues for contemporary arts in The North. But what of the venue’s restaurant menu? Does that, too, contribute to the spirit of Manchester’s collective ambition; or is the ghost of theatre-menu past still haunting the service?

In amongst the vast list of dishes the restaurant serves, those old tropes and pre-cinema staples are there: pizza, burger, pasta, rib-eye. But all seem to have a contemporary and unpretentious flourish that politely suggests that you relinquish any pre-conceived notions of tacky 1990s gear.  The menu listings read with a vocal quality: “This is not just a goats cheese salad.  This is a Formaggio di Capra Salad”. 

Vegan options are plentiful, listed clearly and feature a few bonus dishes if you care to omit dairy.  Appetisers and starters are itemised as Frickles (£2.95), Nocellara Olives (£3.95), Cauliflower Buffalo Wings (£5.95) and Beetroot Carpaccio (£4.95). With main courses railed off under various subheadings as [deep breath]: Wild Mushroom & Puy Lentil Shepherd’s Pie (£10.50), Jackfruit Ragu (£10.50), Superfood Buddha Bowl (£9.50), North African Buddha Bowl (£9.50), Portobello Mushroom & Bhaji Burger (£10.50), Memphis BBQ Pizza (£9.50), Roast Vegetable Pizza (£9.95) and Artichoke and Wild Mushroom Pizza (£10.50). Vegan cheese can also be substituted for mozzarella on any pizza for £1 extra. I order Beetroot Carpaccio and the Jackfruit Ragu (sans the Gran Moravia it’s normally served with).

More of a bright idea than a recipe, Carpaccio was invented for a countess on a diet of raw meat by Giuseppe Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice. The flavour of the traditional beef slices never truly extends beyond the realms of subtlety, so when defused by the acid, oil and salt that warrant the title of the preparation, beetroot carpaccio makes for a very different but nonetheless excellent dish. It is apparent in the flavour as to why the root has become such a popular replacement in vegetarian and vegan translations of the original recipe.

At HOME three types of beets are used; ruby and candy varieties are sliced into the orthodox paper-thin discs, while wedges of the meeker golden roots are plated artfully on top of their earthier relatives.  The carpaccio surrounds a nest of frissée occupied by the constitutive ingredients of a Waldorf salad and is dressed in some exceptionally nice olive oil.  The dish is pure equilibrium: the distinguishing subtle/divine balance of carpaccio’s flavour is there, while the salad provides a crisp texture and gusts some freshness into the palate. It’s simple, elegant and would not be out of place in a fine dining setting given a little more polishing – stacking in at under £5 it’s a steal.

The main dish of Jackfruit Ragu is less cheffy and far closer to the pre-show meal canon. A mountainous portion of tagliatelle is drenched in scarlet-brown and finished with what can best be described as a wig of rocket. Digging in, there is a pronounced flavour of bay and a strong acidity from the tomatoes and wine. And, I’m in the theatre so I’ll quote Shakespeare, “Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon”. The omission of the Gran Moravia is regrettably not compensated for and in the dish this missing ingredient is noticeable in the lack of a salty, sour, fatty, counterpoint to all of the tang and redness. A suitably Italian substitution could be made by some good oily breadcrumbs or almonds to fill the void left by the cheese. Yet the dish is still a nostalgic pleasure, the meaty jackfruit softening into the ragu and neverending gobstopper quality of the portion size put me in the mood to sit content in a seat with a restricted view when I’m done.

It doesn’t show in the least, but this visit to HOME is on the first days of the new menu which changes seasonally. Service was fantastic and the coffee after the meal was good. The restaurant certainly fits the ambition of its namesake with every dish at home on the menu for the Art/Theatre/Cinema setting.

Links:
Website: https://homemcr.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homemcr/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HOME_mcr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HOMEmcr/