Higher Ground Review

Higher Ground is a restaurant that's already been able to generate a considerable amount of buzz since launching in central Manchester in February 2023. That buzz has no doubt been fuelled by a number of gushing local and national reviews, and indeed a prestigious Michelin guide listing which arrived in September 2023. But is this a place really worthy of all the hype? I was very much looking forward to finding out as a I rocked up for lunch with a friend, on a miserable November Saturday.

We were about five or six minutes late for our reservation (thanks Northern Rail) but the welcome on arrival was very warm and we were shown to our table in the main restaurant area. It's a bustling airy space with the full length open kitchen really adding to the atmosphere. All the staff (nearly) throughout our visit were very smiley; it did feel slightly forced at times but that didn't really bother me, it's always a plus to be served by happy people. Having said that, I'd made a clear note when booking that my friend has a shellfish allergy but that didn't seem to have been picked up. They checked again of course before we ordered, but if you want to position yourself as providing great service, you've got to read the reservation notes.

On offer at lunch is a pretty sizeable menu with a good number of choices across small and large plates, and there's the option to choose a surprise sharing tasting menu also which is what we opted for. The wine list here is impressive with a substantial range of interesting choices; we enjoyed a bottle of Jason Groebe Bergkloster Resiling with our meal.

Lunch began with some pea fritters topped with cheddar cheese. These were fine but for me the pea filling was under seasoned and rather bland. Then followed the rapid delivery of other vegetarian dishes including some so-so bread; these were tasty enough in the main, the highlight being a delicious bowl of squash with goats curd and sea buckthorn. The other dishes weren't as strong, but I did feel we probably missed out on at least one fish dish due to my friend's shellfish allergy.

The initial menu pacing was far too quick in all honesty for a comfortable lunch, but things did fortunately slow down a little before the arrival of our hogget meat course, served on green lentils with chestnut mushroom and parsnip, and accompanied by a little bowl of salad leaves. It was a very nice dish, the meat cooking in particular was spot on. My only issue was it was described when served as being cooked over charcoal, but that charcoal flavour was too subtle and could (and should) have been taken up several notches for me.

We opted for the optional cheese course next which consisted of three very enjoyable British cheeses served with some carrot chutney. Lunch finished with a pretty uninspired bowl of ice cream with fudge shavings; it was perfectly edible but lacked any hint of taste excitement.

And so, a perfectly enjoyable lunch came to an end. The bill was delivered automatically without asking at the end of meal; I don't really have an issue with that although it didn't help the feeling that we were being rushed out the restaurant. As smiley as the service was, the automatically included 12.5% service charge did feel too high though for a little table of two in this kind of casual dining venue, but that's just the way of the world now I guess.

Overall, there was definitely some good cooking on show here although not all the dishes were as good as I'd hoped. But the venue is great and the service is strong too, so I for one would be very happy to eat here again in future.