WOOD Manchester by Simon Wood

It must have been the best oyster I’ve ever had! It took it from a 4 to a 5 star. The dessert as well. Great combination taste wise and beautifully presented. Through those two dishes I was in heaven. The rib of beef was good and well presented as well, but the wild mushrooms on truffled toast was a bit too heavy for my liking. It was too cold in the room, and the service could have been better. It didn’t seem that coordinated or interested in their guests. Though the guy at the entrance was really friendly. This was in June.

Went to Wood for my birthday dinner, when we came in we were greeted by staff and they were very pleasant and friendly. We were seated in the waiting area while we waited on our table and ordered a bottle of wine, the table we were sat at was very wobbly and the wine was shaking out of the glasses as it was being poured. Little things I usually wouldn't take heed of, but with the higher pricing of the wine and food I feel it's noticeable as part of the experience. My partner and I are vegetarian so decided to order several of the vegetarian dishes to share as we didn't fancy one of the vegetarian main courses. I must say I can't knock the food on flavour, everything was cooked exceptionally and the ingredients were truly used to extract the best from them. I will however say the portion sizes are extremely small for the price of the plates. The Pomme Anna was four very small sticks in a jar, the broccoli side was in the smallest container and although extremely delicious there was very little of it to enjoy, and the cous cous/rice portions with the courgette main were tiny. Another thing to mention is most of our food was quite cold nothing was hot. I really did enjoy the flavours but I don't think we would rush back, it lacked in areas that you expect more of from fine dining.

Partner took me here for my 30th birthday tonight and booked seats at the chefs table where we had the tasting menu. A really nice mix of food where I tried some new things i wouldn't normally have ordered - favourite dishes were the lamb rump and the jersey jacket. Great to watch the chefs work from our seats - definitely adds to the atmosphere and we got to speak with Simon a few times through the evening. The real stand out of the evening was the staff/service which made it a really special and enjoyable evening. Nothing to fault with any of the staff, and a special thanks to Dan and Ciaran.

Dinner located opposite Manchester's Home complex. There's quite a choice of restaurants in the city to choose from. Looking at various menus online we decided we liked the look of here and booked it last minute.Have we chosen the right restaurant? For those that don't know,it's run by chef patron Simon Wood who won Masterchef back in 2015. After walking about 20mins across the city from where we were staying,we were warmly greeted at the door.Inside a beautiful,modern,spacious dining room. . There's Chef's seasonal tasting menu or A la Carte. We decided to pick and choose our meal. Four starters to share between us. Cornish squid,Rag pudding,The best bit of the chicken and Sticky glazed short rib.They were all delicious but the short rib was on another level and very moorish. . For mains,a beautiful Halibut fillet with rich, sticky ox cheek, diced smoked ox heart and tongue bound with bone marrow, finished with fume and Buddha's hand Oil with sea vegetables. A Poached Lemon Sole & Caviar Fumé,cream sauce with keta and caviar, baby fennel and a lovage and fennel salad. Served with a side of Deep Fried Pommes Anna. OMG, like no other we have ever had before. Also a side of Blacksticks Broccoli Tips. For dessert we shared BBQ Peach & Kombucha Cheesecake .A set cheesecake cream, blackberry compote, BBQ Kombucha, peaches and oat clusters. Did we choose the right restaurant? Of course we did. This was one of the most enjoyable dining experiences we have had in quite a while. The staff were all friendly and hospitable, especially our lovely, smiley server Maddie. Not forgetting the very talented Simon and his team. A night we will certainly remember for a long time.

Amazing place to go to with some stunning food. Ordered off the main menu and was blown away by each course. The eel was a new food for me and utterly delicious The mains of fish was so fresh and creamy at the same time, with the surlisong show stopper being the broccoli a dish I assumed to be so simple but was extremely morish and I highly reccomend it as a side. We also both very much enjoyed the Lotr inspired 'elven bread' as an extra side. It definitely needs to be added to the full menu 😋 The ice cream at the end came wirh a selection of sweets that you can choose to put on, some of the nicest ice cream I've had The service was wonderful with friendly amd knowledgeable staff who made sure we were well looked after. There's also some great options for both drinkers and none drinkers alike giving a decent selection of well thought of mocktails 10/10 and would love to visit again to try thr tasting menu

What a place! The location, the decor, the welcome, the staff, the service and of course the food all out of this World. Warm welcome, knowledgeable sommelier who exudes positivity and tells you a fabulous story about the wine, I could listen to him all day. The food is served and explained and is of an exquisite nature. I often don’t even read the ingredients and just try it - and I’m never disappointed. You’d be surprised how small dishes can fill you so much. A fabulous place, and a credit to Simon Wood. We will be back again and again.

I’ve given some real thought towards posting this as I rarely leave negative reviews and understand the impact they can have. However, there were several elements of our experience that I feel should be highlighted. Firstly, we did receive a very warm and kind welcome from the front of house staff who saw that we were celebrating our engagement. Sadly, it was downhill from there. We were seated at 8pm and it was almost an hour before anyone even came to take a drinks order despite our attempts to catch their attention. I’ve never been to a restaurant of any standard with service this slow. There was also no apology for this. In terms of the food - enjoyable, but the portions were SO small. I’m no stranger to small plates at higher end restaurants but we left so hungry that we had to get a second dinner elsewhere. Fair enough for the starter portions/bread, but we ordered two vegetarian mains and they were both absolutely tiny - particularly the celeriac shawarma (see photos). I really don’t believe that this can or should be classified as a main. I’ve wanted to come here for ages and this could have been a really special experience, but overall the service and portion sizes really let it down.

I really enjoyed it. The team were top notch, from the booking, through to the call beforehand and arrival, the passion from front of house and presentation of the dishes by different team members. It was a real experience. The food was delicious, full of flavour.