Maida Grillhouse, 38 Liverpool Street, Salford M5 4LT (0161 312 9772, maidagrillhousesalford.co.ukStarters £2-8, other dishes £5-8.50. Unlicensed.
Even in this age of rapid digital proliferation, Britain still has its own distinctive regional dishes. I would call them delicacies, but they are rarely called delicacies. Middlesbrough parmo, a deep-fried schnitzel the size of a pizza box topped with béchamel sauce and cheese, is delicious in many ways. Delicacy is not one of them. It’s the perfect way to end a hard Friday night out, and it’s packed with carbs, fat and protein. Leaf scratching, made from pig’s visceral fat, is so big in a few square miles of the Black Country that it sells for very little anywhere else. Neath Market has gravy-glazed faggots, a homage to the custom of eating nose-to-tail long before the custom was established, and Wigan has its own unique pie.
Then there’s the exalted Rice & Three. If you know what this is, it’s because you’re from Greater Manchester or have lived there for a while. Probably on a budget. There, it’s very common, pointing to the patterns of migration from Pakistan to the city and the workers’ need for stable food options. Just as Balti House in Sparkbrook, Birmingham, began as a diner for single men from the Indian subcontinent who were far from comfort but needed a stable taste of home, Manchester’s Rice & Three curry house has always prioritized practicality over eating out. You want to fill your stomach. Here you can enjoy a heaping plate of piping hot rice with your choice of three curries, and still for well under £10.
What’s most impressive is its staying power. Manchester is in the midst of vibrant change: new apartment blocks and cutting-edge office towers are constantly being built, some loved, some hated. Its red-brick blocky streets are shifting from an industrial past to a service-sector future filled with small-plates bistros with extensive natural wine lists and places serving stacked smashburgers and puffed sourdough pizzas. And yet through it all, the curry house serving rice-and-three remains an innovation allegedly invented in the 1860s. Arekore Cafe The shop, which opened in the Northern Quarter some 40 years ago, is still open today, and while it’s true that the area that was once home to Pakistani second-hand clothing stores isn’t exactly packed, a few still operate, and they make the rounds on business trips to places like Cheetham Hill and Salford.
If all this makes me seem knowledgeable, it’s because I’m copying my friends’ homework. Tom Hetherington He’s worked in Manchester’s hospitality industry for many years, and if you’re a journalist and want to know what’s going on there, ask Tom – and there are many of us who do – and he writes a monthly article that’s always interesting. The best of Manchester It’s on the website. A recent article was about the culture of rice and three dishes. I asked him for a guide, and he directed me to Maida Grill House, which explains why it’s been popular for only two years. Rice and three dishes don’t hire publicists. They don’t do marketing. They just open. The square building sits alone on a bleak strip of Liverpool Street in Salford. It seems isolated, but the location is clever. Across the road is a big Holiday Inn, always full of weary travelers looking for something more than a bad Caesar salad. On one side are a cluster of new apartment blocks, and countless Just Eat accounts at the tap of itchy fingers. On the other side is a huge industrial estate, where some of the traditional Asian customer base is found.
The grill is named after Maida Kosar, who sits with her husband Hussain both at the glass-fronted counter and in the kitchen. The dining room is a square, functional white space with a fridge full of soft drinks, including the famous Mango Rubicon. There are tables with jugs, glasses and squeeze bottles of mango chutney, sweet chilli sauce and more, and a small number of dine-in seats are offered. A takeaway leaflet listing the daily specials is also the main menu. It must be said that Maida is tasty and cheap, and cheap is great because it is. After lunch for two, we decided not to have dinner later, paid the bill of £32.50 and declined a tip because “this isn’t the place”. As Tom says, “I could pay that for two in ready-to-wear.”
On Mondays, tarka dal is £5 a portion. On Wednesdays, keema potatoes are £6.50. On Fridays, lamb biryani is £8.50. Some of these dishes are even on the white board next to the counter. At midday, the dal is just made and maida is preparing the white board. Order at the counter and they will deliver. Four smoky lamb chops are £6.50, the meat is sliced so easily it falls off the bone, and the bits are black and crispy from being charred in a chilli marinade. The chicken tikka is a chunk of breast, charred over charcoal, stained yellow with turmeric and spiced. Today there is lamb karahi, cooked on the bone, with the fat glistening with the best flavour as you spoon it into the rich gravy, sweetened with onions. Occasionally, a tough cylindrical piece emerges, allowing you to suck out the marrow. We tear off slices of hot, bubbling, ghee-smeared bread, and occasionally tuck into chunks of crispy vegetable samosas, each a pound, stuffed with tender, spiced potatoes.Metal containers of freshly chopped ginger and green chillies are placed on the table for added spice.
So we ordered a heaping serving of rice and three dishes chosen from a whiteboard. The western side is a keema curry with peas, lamb mince as sweet as karahi. The northern side is a rich tomato-based sauce with a generous dollop of chicken masala. Finally, the eastern side is a deep yellow tarka dal. This is a dish of deep care and nourishment. It feels like home cooking pushed out into the public sphere, just like my visit to Somali restaurant Hooyos a few weeks ago. The dish is £8.50, which is the going rate for rice and three dishes these days. Of course cheap isn’t everything, but in these days of ever-increasing prices, sometimes it really does amount to something. After all that, you might want dessert. There’s a pile of Snickers and Mars bars in the corner of the cabinet. I love a sweet counter chocolate chilled in the fridge, but honestly, rice and three dishes was enough for me. It should be enough for you too.
Breaking News
Cardiff chef Tommy Heaney and Dave Killick, former head chef of Heathcock (which we reviewed favourably in this column in 2022), are teaming up for a new venture. The as-yet-unnamed restaurant will be located opposite Heaney’s, and will serve a menu of game, charcuterie and handmade pasta. “I’d like to say this has been a well-thought-out dream of ours,” Heaney said. Restaurant Online“But actually, I was drinking and then a lot of things happened and I’ve come to this point.” The restaurant is scheduled to open at the end of September.
Michelin-starred Whatley Manor has added an à la carte option to its £175-per-person tasting menu, although the price remains a fixed £120 for three courses. Several restaurants, including Pompadour in Edinburgh and Fana in Brighton, have recently added choices on top of their strict tasting menu structure (Source).
It’s not so much the end of a restaurant as the extinguishing of a flame, as Hackney restaurateurs James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy have announced they are closing Pidgin after nine years. The restaurant, which once held a Michelin star, became famous for its weekly tasting menus, which resulted in more than 1,000 dishes being served. It will reopen next month as a wine bar called Cesta, with current Pidgin head chef Drew Snaith in collaboration with current general manager Hannah Kowalski. Follow @sesta.dining Check out our Instagram for more details.
Jay Rayner’s cookbook, Nights Out at Home: Recipes and Stories from 25 Years as a Restaurant Critic (Penguin, £22) Guardia Bookshop 19.80 GBP
To email Jay email jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or follow him on X Translator
