Ancoats pub given glowing review and hailed as 'a great place to eat' by elite food critic

Food critic Jay Rayner has left another glowing review of one of Manchester’s restaurants - although he couldn’t help but acknowledge there was an ‘eschew’ of pepper on his plate.

Writing for The Guardian, the esteemed writer reviewed The Edinburgh Castle on Blossom Street in Ancoats. Fronted by Executive Chef Shaun Moffat, the pub, which dates back to 1811, offers a small menu of traditional British dishes.

As Jay cites, everything on the menu is locally sourced, such as sourdough bread from the nearby Pollen Bakery. It’s for that reason alone that the critic is told ‘the chef does not use pepper because pepper does not grow in the UK’ - a controversial decision, if you will.

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While the critic acknowledges that ‘the service is sometimes chaotic’, he recognises that ‘like a primary school ballet class, [it is] always enthusiastic’ and the food is top tier. “There’s a deftness, solidity and wit to the cooking, utilising ingredients of quality,” he writes.

Jay adds: “What’s happening here fits very comfortably into Ancoats, a fast-developing district of boozy and edible promise, where the industrial past has been repurposed for the service industry present.”

He begins with ‘an impeccably French and impeccably dense’ ham hock terrine with lightly pickled blackberries, alongside yellow courgettes and taramasalata. “It’s a moment of the Mediterranean, here amid the falling Ancoats dusk,” he eloquently quips.

Next on the menu for Jay are pork chops, served with cavolo nero and