'An awful lot to be stimulated by': Jay Rayner heaps praise on Manchester restaurant in glowing review

Erst, Climat, The Alan - all have captured the attention and praise of The Observer’s Jay Rayner and now, another Manchester hotspot has made the list as one of the esteemed writer’s top city centre food spots.

The culinary critic said there’s ‘an awful lot to be stimulated by’ in the ‘tall, narrow building’ that is 10 Tib Lane - a cocktail bar and restaurant just off Princess Street.

He, along with five other diners, visited the eatery which boasts ‘eclectic small plates and a knowingly idiosyncratic drinks list’, and left feeling rather impressed by a number of the dishes - not a single one of which ‘breaks £20’.

READ MORE: We took Jay Rayner for lunch at one his favourite Manchester restaurants - here’s what he had to say about the city’s food

“We should put this one alongside places like Erst in Ancoats, the recently reviewed Climat, the soon to open Higher Ground, the Alan and Another Hand,” he wrote in today's Observer. “Somewhere along the way Manchester was culinarily twinned with Hackney.”

Cured egg yolk, charred hispi cabbage and sourdough toast hint to modern trends, but Rayner said ‘there’s also a wonderful old-school sensibility at work’ at 10 Tib Lane, with a menu ‘built around huge sweet and sour flavours’.

“Sweetbreads are breaded and deep-fried, like chicken nuggets for grownups,” he said, “but come on a thick, emulsified grain mustard sauce full of seeds that pop pleasingly against the top of your mouth.”

The food enthusiast also enjoyed a ‘blackened slab of cabbage’ with slowly roasted shallots, and a ‘big old pork chop’, the handle of which described as ‘eminently nibbleable’.

Rayner left a glowing comment on an ‘impeccably made smoked trout mousse, but it seemed to be the boned plaice meunière,