Not so much new Nordic as new northern, this is a procession of brilliance
Let’s get it out of the way from the get-go: Where The Light Gets In serves the most exciting food I’ve had in years. And it’s not in London, Copenhagen or Portland, Oregon; it’s in Stockport. Never have I trudged so dutifully to a destination only to exit at the other end quite so starey-eyed and evangelical.
Stockport: seriously? Before high horses are clambered upon, chef/owner Sam Buckley is equally wry about the location. It is, simply, not where you’d expect this kind of firecracker creativity in £65-a-head, tasting-menu-only format. Stockport boasts restaurants called Elvis’ Kitchen (“three-course luxury meal cooked by the ELVIS chef”, which, if I’m honest, appeals hugely). And the town centre is not, well, edifying. But here, around the old market building, there’s a pleasing, brick-lined moodiness, the air scented with malt from the Robinsons brewery. Finding this former coffee warehouse proves tricky: we teeter down vertiginous Rostron Brow (“famous for its 19th-century alehouses of ill repute”) more than once before we find the entrance. So far, so Lowry. Inside, it’s a different matter, not so much open kitchen as a vast, lustworthy actual kitchen with Ercol tables dotted around. It’s the ultimate, wood-burning-stove-heated loft pad with rooftop views.
Related: Mei Dim, Manchester: ‘What Chinatowns used to be like’ – restaurant review | Marina O’Loughlin
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