Over bank holiday weekend Noreen and I were in Manchester – just because we had the opportunity of a cheap-ish weekend break. We spent the time doing next to nothing – a bit of sightseeing; some shopping; lots of sleeping and reading. We managed some good food and avoided an excess of alcohol. The highlight was probably Sunday lunch at the Pacific Chinese Restaurant in George Street (in Manchester’s Chinatown).
Knowing we were staying close to Chinatown, I contacted a former colleague in Manchester (who is Chinese) and asked where was especially recommended to eat. He said to try the Pacific and then admitted it was owned by his father! He also said “I recommend you try the Sizzling Beef Fillet Steak – Cantonese style. It’s to die for”. Noreen phoned and booked us in for Sunday lunch.
Manchester’s Chinatown is fairly scruffy and unprepossessing and arriving at the restaurant the omens did not look good: a scruffy doorway into a stairwell that looked as if it led into a semi-derelict block of high-rise social housing, complete with buggered lift. We followed our noses up the stairs to the first floor and found ourselves in the restaurant: Chinese on this floor and Thai on the floor above. Yes, a single establishment with two different cuisines in separate restaurants. This was quickly followed by “no we do not have your reservation and we don’t have a table for you; please to wait a few minutes”. Doubts set in but a quick check revealed that we were in the right place; so we waited.
The restaurant was indeed full. Full of Chinese. Large family parties of them; three or four generations sprawled at large round tables covered with what looked like mountains of food. Hardly a European face to be seen, a the few who were in evidence were going upstairs for the Thai lunchtime buffet. We waited; maybe 10 or 15 minutes, then were shown to a table in the middle of the restaurant and presented with the usual bewildering menu. But yes, there was the Sizzling Fillet Beef, with a choice of sauces.
We ordered a mixed Dim Sum starter for two. And for the main course we both ordered the Sizzling Fillet Beef, one with Cantonese sauce the other with spring onion and ginger sauce. Plus some mixed stir-fried vegetables and noodles.
Mountains of scrummy-looking food kept walking past the table: big dishes of duck and rice; towers of five or six bamboo steamers; endless pots of tea. The Chinese just appeared to eat and eat. Some left; more people from the long queue by the door appeared at the empty tables. The noise of chatter was deafening. Black-clothed waiters scurried hither and yon; and paired up to carry huge round trays piled with dirty crockery off to the dishwashers.
The Dim Sum arrived. They were clearly excellent, but for me were a disappointment. This was something to do with the combination of flavours and textures not working for me. Noreen was more impressed.
My colleague’s father, very recognisable and dapper in his grey suit, wandered round generally keeping a watchful eye and lending a hand here and there.
The sizzling beef arrived – sizzling! The hair-like noodles; mixed stir-fried vegetables (nicely crunchy after the Chinese style) and bamboo shoots with mushrooms were all delightful. The Sizzling Beef with Ginger and Spring Onion sauce was excellent with whole slices of ginger just waiting to assault the taste-buds. The beef with Cantonese sauce – a very subtle and nicely balanced sweet and sour; lots of onion but not a sign of the normally ubiquitous pineapple or lychees – really was to die for. It was one of those dishes one could just go on eating it was so, so good. So good in fact that we decided to forego a dessert and enjoy the flavours lingering in our whiskers.
At just over £60 (including soft drinks and service) for the two of us it was the same price as we paid the previous day for an equivalent lunch in Café Rouge (one of the better national chains of bistros). Both were good. But the Pacific was much more fun and stole the award for the overall best dish: Sizzling Beef Fillet Cantonese Style.
