This neo bistro located in Manchester’s Chinatown enclave is a permanent version of a pop-up of the same name that ran for four weeks in early 2020 before Covid reared its ugly head. Run by Joseph Otway, Richard Cossins and Daniel Craig Martin, who met at Dan Barber’s renowned New York restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Higher Ground shares much of the same ethos as Barber’s restaurant with a focus on regenerative farming and local produce, of which around 90% is sourced from Cinderwood, the trio’s partner farm in nearby Nantwich.
Otway, who has previously led the kitchen at Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In and cooked at Copenhagen’s Relæ, creates thoughtful and experimental dishes that can include acorn-fed pig cooked in milk; pea fritters with Quicke’s cheddar; a superbly tart dish of thinly sliced celeriac with salted blackcurrants and bay leaf; house-smoked beetroot with brill roe; and fried pig’s head with lovage mayo.
The wine list, meanwhile, is made up of small-scale, low-intervention European wines with a strong selection of grower champagnes as well as pet nat and crémant and a large range of skin contact varieties.
Higher Ground is modern and minimalistic without being austere with a long island that runs along one side of the room that serves as an open kitchen, pass and bar, as well as a counter where people can sit and eat and drink. A proper neo bistro then.
Otway, who has previously led the kitchen at Stockport restaurant Where The Light Gets In and cooked at Copenhagen’s Relæ, creates thoughtful and experimental dishes that can include acorn-fed pig cooked in milk; pea fritters with Quicke’s cheddar; a superbly tart dish of thinly sliced celeriac with salted blackcurrants and bay leaf; house-smoked beetroot with brill roe; and fried pig’s head with lovage mayo.
The wine list, meanwhile, is made up of small-scale, low-intervention European wines with a strong selection of grower champagnes as well as pet nat and crémant and a large range of skin contact varieties.
Higher Ground is modern and minimalistic without being austere with a long island that runs along one side of the room that serves as an open kitchen, pass and bar, as well as a counter where people can sit and eat and drink. A proper neo bistro then.
