JAMIE OLIVER'S ITALIAN: UK EDITION

To be honest I've never considered trying Jamie Oliver's many restaurants. Mostly for the fact that I had never seen any of his shows and hadn't cared if I dined in one of his franchises. So I suppose I was pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. It left me feeling a little foolish of how I thought of all of Jamie Oliver's brand. Maybe there was something to the phenomenon of his success, of his fame and the popularity. 

The Italian restaurant in Manchester is different in every city. Though save the menu, their location and ambience isn't the same as the one in Brighton. 

The Manchester's Italian had high ceilings, open wide spaces and sort of an elegant mood to it. Fairy lights and a cool looking bar. 

I got a super health food salad. It had qunioa, beets, broccoli rabe, avocado, seeds and poached egg. It was definitely healthy, tasted so without any of the salad sauce to it. But you know how they say if it's good for you, it ain't suppose to be tasty. It isn't bad tasting, just for those who hadn't had any of theses sort of lentils and rice sort of salads before it's tasteless unless added with salt or sprinkle of parmesan. 

 We had some fried palenta with salt and pepper. Rosemary added to it, made it smell delicious. Like french fries, except thicker, tastier and fragrant.

Squid ink pasta and seafood. Chilli, mussels, squid. It was tangy and mild spiciness but definitely aromatic and tasteful. The sauce brought out the squid ink pasta and combined the seafood together beautifully. 

Turkey with egg. The turkey was cooked with breadcrumbs and sprinkled on with cheese and black truffle. It was really something I was surprise by at the beginning at the appearance of the turkey meal. I thought it would be thicker but it was overall a fuller meal than I expected. 

Lastly some dessert, brownies with caramel popcorn and vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. The popcorn was still crunchy and helped with the richness of the chocolate brownie. Cold and hot is a favourite theme of mine. I mean imagine, ice cream and apple pie or ice cream with brownies. It's something that needs to be brought along to every restaurant. 

 I really like Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. I would be out looking for more of his franchises, hoping for more pleasant surprises.

OPENING TIMES: MON-THURS-12NOON-10,30PM
                                 SAT-SUN-12NOON-11PM
                                 FRI-12PM-10PM

LOCATION: MANCHESTER
                      100 KING STREET
                      M2 4WU