Tom Barnes jokes that there is nowhere to hide at his new Manchester venture. Taking up the entire ground floor of a handsome former textiles warehouse in the city’s Noma district, Skof takes the concept of the open plan restaurant to an extreme with only a small proportion of the 2,700sq ft site hidden from view.
Barnes is a huge talent having spent the past decade or so working for farm-to-fork maestro Simon Rogan. Expectations are therefore sky high for his debut solo restaurant project. Skof might offer a 15-course tasting menu, but it’s being pitched as something that is informal and energetic: a star-chasing restaurant for a city that likes to party.
Staffed by a young team, the restaurant is stripped back with exposed walls, parquet flooring, striking circular wall lights and mixture of free-standing and banquette seating shod in green and burnt orange leather. Dishes on the tasting menu include a lightly set miso custard with hen of the woods mushrooms, black truffle and mushroom dashi; steamed cod with whey, Cippolini onions, smoked eel and buttermilk; roasted duck with fig leaf, celeriac and wholemeal bread; and strawberries with jasmine cream, rose geranium and caramelised white chocolate.
While the food isn’t a million miles away from what Barnes was cooking at Rogan’s seminal Lake District restaurant L’Enclume, the young chef has put his mark on it. For example, the tiramisu that is served at the end of each meal is a homage to Barnes’ late father. Skof looks set to make a big impact in a city that has a pumping restaurant scene but is in general unmoved by fancy restaurants.
Barnes is a huge talent having spent the past decade or so working for farm-to-fork maestro Simon Rogan. Expectations are therefore sky high for his debut solo restaurant project. Skof might offer a 15-course tasting menu, but it’s being pitched as something that is informal and energetic: a star-chasing restaurant for a city that likes to party.
Staffed by a young team, the restaurant is stripped back with exposed walls, parquet flooring, striking circular wall lights and mixture of free-standing and banquette seating shod in green and burnt orange leather. Dishes on the tasting menu include a lightly set miso custard with hen of the woods mushrooms, black truffle and mushroom dashi; steamed cod with whey, Cippolini onions, smoked eel and buttermilk; roasted duck with fig leaf, celeriac and wholemeal bread; and strawberries with jasmine cream, rose geranium and caramelised white chocolate.
While the food isn’t a million miles away from what Barnes was cooking at Rogan’s seminal Lake District restaurant L’Enclume, the young chef has put his mark on it. For example, the tiramisu that is served at the end of each meal is a homage to Barnes’ late father. Skof looks set to make a big impact in a city that has a pumping restaurant scene but is in general unmoved by fancy restaurants.
