Thomas Restaurant & Bar

Whilst traversing the Northern Quarter, a random impulse brought me into Thomas restaurant to take advantage of their £13.95 for two courses lunchtime deal.
This place is a modern, high-​end restaurant and bar with lots of glass, stainless steel and wood, plus some funky-​coloured sofa in addition to the normal restaurant seating — it’s a good-​looking space.
As a vegetarian, I don’t expect too many favours from a ‘Modern British’ type of restaurant like this, but there were just enough choices for me to find something suitable. Soup of the day was leek & potato with chili — obviously someone looking to shake things up a bit there, although the waiter told me it was just a hint of chili in that dish. But I plumped for asparagus mornay tart. From the menu description, I was struggling to envisage the dish due to my total lack of experience of this type of food, and the young waiter helpfully described it as a bit like a quiche. Imagine a rich pastry tart filled with asparagus and mornay sauce and then baked, giving the sauce a pleasantly dense texture. The tart came with rocket leaves on the side and a dollop of apple chutney on top, and given the flavours and the type of place Thomas is I would guess this was a homemade chutney. I liked the tart well enough, and although I wouldn’t have wanted to be chewing my way through a huge amount of pastry for a starter, I somehow wanted something more from it. Such as more asparagus, given that there only seemed to one spear’s worth in the tart. Also, see the photo, the edge of the pastry was burnt in my book which at £6.95 for the full menu price is really not on, given that Greggs are charging a lot less for pastries which never seem to be singed at the edges! (And I had another burnt pastry experience the following week in a West Disdbury bistro — what is with the burnt pastry?!)
Main was pumpkin, pine nut and goats cheese filo parcel on a bed of spinach, roast parsnips and honey roast carrots. What a huge novelty for me to admire the artfulness of the plating! (see photo). This was a very wholesome, balanced and well-​executed dish.
In conclusion, I do like the venue, the staff were friendly, attentive and fairly knowledgeable and I only have very minor quibbles with the excellent food. And it was so nice to see proper extra virgin oil showing so green on the plate — I certainly felt the better of the quality ingredients after the meal. However, the whole short menu cooked from scratch tends to push vegetarians into a corner choice-​wise. As in, three vegetarian choices of mains, ending up as one choice as I don’t do mushrooms or salad. And whilst there is a soup of the day, rotating the menu otherwise seems to be a big deal here, taking place every quarter, AFAIK. And none of two vegetarian pizza, one sandwich option or any number of puddings serve to fully resolve the problem. Having said that, I’ve just noted on the desserts menu tarte tatin and vanilla crème brûlée either of which would be interesting to see what they come up with. But I think I need to head over to Greens in West Didsbury to see whether I have better luck at an all-​vegetarian restaurant.
At £13.95 even on the lunchtime deal, this place is a bit steep for me to enjoy regularly. I’m glad to be familiar with this place in case of need to impress, and I will keep an eye on how Thomas refresh their menu with a view to returning. But I’m also going to keep an eye out for ‘bistro’ pricing elsewhere, with the benchmark being Brasserie Blanc — 2 courses for £11.50; 3 courses for £14.00. And that is on the dinner menu as well as lunch. (Note: to date, BB has only reached as Leeds in the north.)

Unilocal Passport Challenge 1^st pudding stop.
After visiting Dough for a pizza, we wandered round the corner for an indulgent pudding at Thomas. We got here at 7.05pm and there were about 4 tables occupied by couples. We chose to sat in them crazy wobbly (be careful not to wobble out of them!) green chairs in the window to watch the world go by and we ordered our puds and coffee.
It took about 5 mins for our coffees to arrive and about 30 seconds for them to disappear, they were great, the best coffees we have had in a restaurant for a long long time.
7.30 came and went.
7.45…
7.55 (50 minutes after ordering) our desserts arrived by the very apologetic waiter. Me and Adam. Y are impatient at the best of times, and we were just about ready to leave when they arrived. However the Vanilla Crème Brulee and Chocolate Black Forest Parfait were WELL worth the wait. SO beautiful and creamy and tasty and obviously homemade and perfect, they single handedly put a great big smile back on our face and agreed to come back for a three course meal!
The waiter kindly gave us our coffees for free — thanks mate!
I think the reason for our delay on this occasion was there were only two waiters on and the restaurant suddenly became full after 7.30pm.
Like I have said we will be returning (hopefully with better service).

The first time I ate here, some time ago, I thought the place was alright, but nothing particularly exciting. My other half ate more recently and came away impressed, so for NYE we booked an early table for 5. Early since we had other plans, and they do a fantastic value 13 quid for two courses.
I had a very good experience here, especially for that price. A simple starter of mushroom on toast was garlicky, like I like it, though it’s possibly hard to get it too wrong. The main though, a chicken supreme in a honey and lime dressing, with cous cous and vegetables, was very enjoyable and nicely cooked. The aubergine was just right, and I’ve eaten enough soggy aubergine in my life. The flavour combination worked for me and it was all seasoned well. I didn’t eat the courgette, of course (vile beast).
There’s too few mid-​range places with pricing structures like Thomas that actually execute their food properly. Good on them.

Okay. So I was originally going to deduct Thomas a star for taking so long with our food, but three things prevented me from doing so. 1) An apology for the delay from the waiter. 2) Said waiter was lovely and friendly. 3)… The food was orgasmic!
So Bex T and I rocked up here last night pre-​Jurassic Park re-​release visit (incidentally, wow — they’ve changed the Odeon muchos, look what I’ve been missing out on sticking to Didsbury’s Cineworld!) for a bit of munch, making the most of these bizarre alfresco warmtimes. We chose our table for the balmy evening and were attended to almost immediately. Thomas’s menu isn’t the biggest thing in the world, and that always comforts me as it means they focus intensely on what they actually do. Boy, did this prove to be true. Okay, so there’s only one veggie option, but gosh that strudel looks awesome. We chose to split some warm fresh bread to start, and I swear, it tasted like it had come straight from the oven. The oil and balsamic vinegar was genuinely all it needed. I’m so glad we kept it simple!
Our mains were a lemony chicken for my companion served with cous cous, and I opted for pan-​fried sea bream atop a cloud of mashed potato with a surrounding decorative delight of clams, tiny pieces of shallot and delectably little shrimps. Everything complemented everything, and the fish was cooked to sheer perfection. I kept having to stop talking to make stupid noises.
I look forward to returning to Thomas. It’s a great sleek addition to the raggedy chic of Thomas Street, but far from pretentious or out of place. It’s just one of them proper reet nice Manchester restaurants, and proof that we can do stuff up here just as well as those cool cats down in Londontown. Favourited!

Summertime on a Saturday night and you’d like to go have a drink with some friends… Have you made a reservation?
This will be the first question you are asked on arrival by a waiter and a concerned look will be given as to whether they can find you a table — but if you’re lucky and charm the hell out of them, you’ll be sat down with a menu in no time :)
More than a reasonable price for drinks but it was OK for a Saturday evening after work! Nice atmosphere and very modern décor inside, lots of silver and glass!
Yet to try the food…

Came upon this place by chance looking for somewhere to eat after a brief trip to PSBH. and I’m glad I stopped by.
Reception was pleasant and welcoming.
Menu on a Sunday semi-​restricted menu, but I don’t class this as detrimental it’s Sunday I’m fine with that and for a restricted there was still lots of choice.
Starters really nice good size for a starter had smoked salmon parcels very pleasant with brushectta and shared with ‘she who just be obeyed’.
Main had roast beef, Yorkshire pud was a little burnt but everything else was really tasty, had abit of m’ladys salmon fillet which was tasty also.
Dessert I did not partake, but the group did and were very happy with the Eton mess and cheesecake.
Beer because that’s the most important at a meal, had an American craft beer called blue moon, wheat beer really nice definitely good with good flavour without being overpowering a really pleasant orange taste went well with the food.
All in all happy with the place, would be on my lists of places to eat in the Northern Quarter

We had a meal at Thomas as it was recommended to us. On first glance it looked quite cool and wasn’t too busy. The décor was minimal but nicely done to still be comfortable. The menu was full of good classic dishes and a small cocktail list. The wine list also was on the small side. The food was lovely, lots of flavour and I couldn’t fault it. The thing that let the overall rating down was the service. It wasn’t too welcoming and we didn’t feel valued.

Thomas Restaurant is a relatively new addition to the Northern Quarter. Opened in March of this year, it has some rather impressive backing behind it. It is a joint venture between Paul Astill, Nicky Rybka-​Goldsmith and Yvonne Goldsmith-​Rybka who between them own Cord and The Bay Horse as well as being the co founders of the Soup Kitchen. Essentially, imagine the best of the Northern Quarter eateries distilled into one stylish whole.
I visited Thomas’s earlier this month as part of Gastro Club, a dining club organised via Twitter which specialises in unique food experiences. Upon reaching Thomas’s, I was immediately impressed by how elegant it was — an ambience built around big glass windows, mood lighting and comfortable seats tailor made for intimate conversations. However, I couldn’t help feeling slightly confused by the reasoning which made them place two huge sofas right in front of the bar. This made ordering drinks decidedly tricky — at one point, I had to climb onto the sofa just to get the bar man to notice me which isn’t an easy thing to do after you’ve had a few drinks.
The food itself was excellent — simple and delicious without being unpretentious. I would have preferred the dishes to be slightly larger, but this is a minor gripe. Also, it should be kept in mind that I am a massive glutton. For me, the stand out dish of the night was a fennel purée in a tomato consommé. The consommé was beautiful — rich and punchy with a real kick of tomato unlike that I have ever tasted before. It provided the perfect counterpoint to my main of Venison and Pigeon, both of which were cooked to perfection.
Thomas Restaurant offers the kind of high end dining environment that the Northern Quarter sorely needs. And for that alone, it deserves to succeed. However, they should really think about moving those sofas away from the bar though — as then this place would be practically perfect.

The Northern quarter continues to attract new business and with increased footfall comes demand which is closely followed by new outlets. The latest addition adds a contemporary twist to this bohemian canvas.
Within a week of opening I managed to catch a glimpse of a very busy restaurant. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought it had been there for a while. The décor is very modern and chic complimented well by the high ceiling, and some cool art pieces on the walls.
The food isn’t bad either. I being so original tried the fish and chips and wasn’t disappointed. I think Thomas inception will create healthy competition within the northern quarter. As the choice to dine out here increases individual restaurants will have to up their game. Already Walrus have relaunched their menu.
What Thomas has done is given Dough a run for its money in terms of providing a cool dining experience. Plus they have seating area outside to boot, admittedly we all know this will only probably be used for a month of the year, but still.
I definitely would like to Unilocal Thomas !!!

Recently opened, Thomas needs to be forgiven for its unpolished look as building and renovations continue. Despite the rough edges, Thomas has everything in the right place. A simple menu of wholesome (if slightly pricey) meals, boasts chunky burgers and other pub favourites cast alongside some tasty fish and chicken dishes. There is a great selection of light bites and a well stocked bar for those looking for a stop-​off dinner and drink or a boozy lunch.
The newly renovated restaurant has a warm but modern look split across two floors, with a glass frontage and plenty of seating space outside which blends the interior and exterior effortlessly. The outdoor seating is great for those who might fancy a smoke and a pint, or just to enjoy the warm evening air as spring finally begins to thaw out Manchester.
Service at Thomas is good, if a little clunky, but this is only to be expected for a newly opened establishment. Warmly recommended, I’d give the place another month to settle in, but time your visit right as once this Thomas gets rolling I think it may be difficult to jump on board.