Press
Manchester Confidential
The Soup Kitchen: the monthly special
Colette Bernasconi enjoys a meal that’s anything but utilitarian at the pared down Soup Kitchen
“Last Saturday, The Soup Kitchen dimmed the lights, closed off the canteen and served up an outstanding menu in what promises to be a delightful monthly event.
The only elements from the daytime Soup Kitchen that remained unchanged were the affordable prices, casual atmosphere and the communal seating. These combined with an excellent menu by new chef Gareth Phillips made for a thoroughly enjoyable dining experience. Candles were lit, and the kitchen was closed off by stencilled blinds and red velvet, adding an incongruous but pleasing style to the canteen.”
Hot Line - Virgin train magazine
“This is a Soup Kitchen as imagined by the Sunday supplements rather than Shelter, a cool eclectic space which encourages communal dining with there large over sized benches and fresh home-made food. The menu revolves around a daily assortment of between five and six daily soups ranging from the value options (£2.75) to the more expensive option (£3.45) In addition you will also find two bowl foods which are more hearty meal options (£4.50) which cater to the meat lovers and also the vegetarians. Or you could choose a hot plated special which might be a full-bodied cottage pie or the fragrant Thai green chicken curry, if you fancy a sarni they do a great selection of doorstep sandwiches from (£2.75), or grab a salad box if you want something a bit lighter. Also check out their daily quiche or tart with pesto. Black olive and tomato quiche are among the selection. You can wash all this down with a coffee or nice cup of tea. Cans and juices are also available. And if you have a sweet tooth you can treat yourself to one of their homemade cakes.”
The Guardian Guide
“It has some bars and cafes, but Manchester’s Northern Quarter lacks places were people can meet up for a chinwag, eat good, cheap food and run. Enter Soup Kitchen, a stylish canteen with communal benches and simple menu for people on the move. Quiche is eggy with punchy juicy tomatoes; the salad bar, with it’s dressed prawns sprouting beans, impressive. The Kitchens French onion soup, full of melting onions and fragrant with thyme, is a lighter lunchtime version of the rich, overbearing 1970’s classic, while even there chocolate cake, often a heavy disappointment elsewhere, is moist and airy. Those with bigger appetites, meanwhile, can get stuck into hearty daily specials like bangers & mash. Always busy, arrive early to avoid disappointment as once it’s all sold they close for the day!”
Manchester Evening News
“SOUP Kitchen has been around a while as the self-styled Northern Quarter canteen. Co-owner Nicky Rybka-Goldsmith has stakes in other cool NQ haunts – shabby chic Bay Horse in Thomas Street and re-vamped Cord in Dorsey Street.
Casual, affordable dining at shared tables with benches, chalked specials, soups (naturally), salads and squidgy cakes are matched by a boho atmosphere with bookshelves full of art mags and walls featuring local artists. It may even open again at evenings towards the weekend with candles and velvet drapes, if achingly Hoxton-in-exile meets Big Apple bar Noho just opposite lures more folk to Spear Street.
Global twists - Our reason for revisiting was a new head chef with impeccable credentials.Gareth Phillips has served his time with Simon Rimmer at Greens in Didsbury and with Atul Kutcher’s Michelin-starred Indian Benares in Mayfair.Hence the description of his new Soup Kitchen menu as ‘traditional British with global twists’. Which is what we got. Cream of mushroom soup (£3.10) for my partner, butternut squash with smoked bacon soup (35p more) for me were both substantial satisfrying broths In truth, with accompanying bread, these could have made a meal in themselves but sipping a small and full bodied house red wine, we forged on to mains.
Vast helping A leek and stilton tart (£4.75) for my partner was quiche by any other name and the assortment of accompanying salads ‘spake canteen’ loudly, but was tasty all the same. I succumbed to a global twist, a vast helping of chickpea and tomato curry (£4.50) with rice.I craved more so all in all well worth a visit!”
