When former MasterChef winner Simon Wood announced his new venture last year as the "UK's first" fine dining restaurant dedicated entirely to CHEESE it certainly got people talking. For the cheese and wine bores among us, Homage was possibly the most exciting new launch of the year.
But some strange folk (presumably vegans, those with dairy intolerances and pregnant people) did not sound all that keen. As someone falling squarely in the obsessed with cheese camp, though, it was most definitely music to my ears.
What could possibly be better than a whole night feasting on rare, unpasteurised, ewe's, cow's, goat's and mould-veined dairy products? Well, a night where every course of artisan cheese is perfectly matched with some of the world's finest wines, of course.
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Homage is actually more of a restaurant-within-a-restaurant - it's the upper room tucked inside 2015 MasterChef winner Simon 's much-acclaimed fine dining restaurant Wood on Manchester's Jack Rosenthal Street. The room itself is what you might describe as "intimate", with rather grand candelabras greeting you upon entering and crushed velvet curtains around the windows.
We were guided to two comfy sofa-esque seats with a great view looking down to the restaurant. On our Wednesday night visit it was great to see the main Wood restaurant so busy with diners, although when we headed upstairs we were the only ones in Homage.
It didn't bother us as we were there to have a good old catch-up and just enjoy our own little cheese and wine bubble. And being separated from the rest of the venue also became quite convenient as our moans and groans of pleasure crescendoed with each new cheese treat delivered to our table.
Because let me just say at the outset, if you would in any way confess to being a lover of cheese, you will simply love this experience. It's just brie-lliant, like really, really gouda... (erm ok, even though neither brie or gouda formed a part of this menu).
You can choose from an a la carte selection of cheeses (from £5.50 a portion) all with a suggested wine match. Prices for the vino range from £8 right up to £98 for a 75ml glass of vintage Madeira if you're really pushing the boat out.
Or you can do what we did and opt for the five-course taster menu, where you get a curated selection of cheeses with a wine match. Here you can choose from the "favourites" at £40 per person or the "classics" for £60 each.
It's not cheap, but it's also quite unlike any other dining experience in the city which, for my money, makes it entirely worth it for a special night out. I won't go full cheese and wine bore on you (who am I kidding, of course I will), but I can say from the off that we enjoyed a quite dazzling array of really unusual cheeses.
We learnt that with cheese tasting, you're best to start off soft, then work you way up to hard. And then you leave the good blue stuff right to the very end.
Our first course, was the creamiest slab of joy you could wish for. A Brillat Savarin au Truffle that Homage custodian/sommelier Michael described to us as "like Vienetta but with truffle instead of chocolate", teamed with a glass of Rheingau Riesling of dreams.
If Vienetta did indeed choose to go into artisan cheese production, I'm pretty sure the results could not be more perfect than this. The rind-edged slice, with its bubbling triple creamy edges, was served with two plump pillows of bread just to add to the heaven-like status of our first round of cheese.
Next out was a Tunworth, the British style of Camembert, served with a moreish blob of bacon chutney. Served with a Californian Chardonnay that makes you rethink all of your previous wine choices in life.
By this stage my pal was in raptures about the whole thing. "It’s so much more fun than dinner... it’s like shots for adults," was his assessment.
I mean it was hard not to have the occasional Alan Partridge moment and yell "smell my cheese", particularly when the more pungent trio of sheep and goat milk treats arrived. And this particular course did present the ONLY cheese I wasn't all that keen on during our visit - a Cerney goat's cheese that I found a tad on the powdery side.
However, the pave cobble it was joined with was everything you could possible want from a ewe's milk cheese and more. Each course was served with a different accompaniment - like the Mrs Kirkham's Lancashire with a circle of onion and tasty braised ox cheek.
And the finale was a divine Hebridean blue served with a sort of deconstructed Waldorf salad, teamed with a rich almost oud-like dessert wine from Austria.
The only negative I'd have about the experience is that after the first course served with bread, all the other courses were served with the same crisp flatbread. I wonder if it might have been more in line with the experience to mix in some other carb textures along the way.
I know some of you will read this and sniff: "Why don't you just buy some cheese and eat it at home that would be cheaper". But how do you begin to try and find some of these unusual styles of cheeses to serve up on your own cream crackers?
You ain't finding them down Aldi that's for sure (although they do do some fabulous world cheeses right now like their lovely Gruyere). No, you're left with Google to help you on this mission.
And when I looked to see if I COULD buy some of these cheeses afterwards - like that show-stopping Brillat Savarin aux truffes for example - you're talking £18 via a specialist website.
Anyway, it's not up to me to defend restaurant pricing. It's up to me to tell you my genuine opinion on the experience. And for my friend and I I can say it was worth every penny of our £120 bill - and something really different for a night out that we're still chatting about now.
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