Food critic Jay Rayner had given his seal of approval to another Greater Manchester eatery - a Hong Kong style cafe located on an unassuming Salford shopping parade.
Sakura, on St Stephen Street, is described by Rayner as a "true taste of home" for Manchester's Chinese students, serving up comforting dishes for little more than a tenner. In his latest review for The Guardian, Rayner heaps praise on the 'tiny' cafe, where he finds diners "finding familiar comfort in rice bowls or steaming tureens of soup noodles".
After initially heading towards the Cheetham Hill restaurant of the same name - an all you can eat buffet where robots assist the waiting staff - Rayner realised his mistake and redirected his taxi to the Salford cafe, which opened towards the end of last year. Despite some menu options being unavailable due to the head chef's absence - no sweet and sour pork or no yang chow fried rice on this occasion - Rayner found plenty to tease his tastebuds.
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For £10, he gets the beef brisket and beef tendon curry, described as "rich and profoundly comforting". He writes: "The brisket is falling apart into the depths of a sauce which has clearly been the product of hours of slow reduction."
Roast chicken with homemade sauce arrives at the table as "big nuggets of the best fried chicken spritzed with chilli oil, on a bed of rice straight out of the rice cooker". Other dishes tested by the critic include boneless pork cutlets, instant noodles with spicy sauce and mapo tofu that comes served alongside some "very good" chicken wings.
When it comes to Sakura's sweet offerings, Rayner highlights two of the menu's comforting desserts. The first is a triple-decker French toast, which he calls "the full Elvis". Peanut butter is sandwiched between the layers of white bread and the whole thing comes "drenched in butter and syrup".
The second is a barm cake, toasted and spread with butter and condenced milk - "the kind of joyous thing your nan might have given you when you came in from playing footie on a cold winter’s afternoon".
While Rayner is clearly impressed with the food - summing up his experience with "it's all delightful" - he also notes that for the city's Asian population the cafe is a clear reminder of home, with one customer telling him: “This place really is just like Hong Kong”.
Sakura joins a number of other local hotspots that have impressed Rayner in recent months. Cocktail bar 10 Tib Lane received a glowing review last month, while he's also praised Pho Cue, Peace Garden and Another Heart To Feed.
Sakura can be found at 8 Salisbury House, St Stephen Street, Salford.
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