Post Footie Dinner: The Wharf, Castlefield

On the weekend I was lucky enough to be able to see Manchester United thrash Norwich at Old Trafford (yes, I like football) as Mr B and I wrangled our old season ticket seats back for a game - it is a complex tale I won't bore you with :-)

As we were travelling up to Manchester from Oxfordshire we knew we would need to book somewhere for dinner to satisfy our hunger pangs after the game, so we decided on The Wharf, a gastropub we used to frequent when we were residents of the north (I like to think we are part 'Stark').

We booked a table for 8:30pm as the game didn't kick off until 5:30pm and we had to walk the couple of miles back into the city from Old Trafford. However we arrived a bit early and were shown to our seats; they were on the balcony looking over the bar section of the pub.

The Wharf was very busy, especially with a few large groups of diners - this can be expected on a weekend but I ended up having to ask the waiting staff to take our orders as we were getting quite hungry and thirsty! In general, the service wasn't great throughout the evening, but luckily the food that came out of the kitchen made up for it in some regard.

It was a bit disappointing as I have had lovely meals in The Wharf before with attentive staff, however the lower than usual service standards on Saturday won't put me off returning if I'm in the area again going forward.

Staff attentiveness aside, the food I ordered was loveeeeely. I had a Thai sea trout curry (£13. 50) and Mr B had a good ol' classic burger (£11. 95). Alongside this we had a couple of drinks: a glass of Pinot Grigio for me (£4. 80) and a pint of Cheshire Cat for the fiancé (£3. 60). I had a dessert which was apple sorbet (£4. 95), just to end the meal with a little sweet something.

This was the first ever sea trout curry I've eaten, and it was absolutely sublime. The fish had a crispy skin and the flesh was soft and tender. The textures were matched perfectly by the vegetables which had just the right level of crunch. The smooth curry sauce only added good things to the dish which was awash with fragrances and flavours.

I'd love to recreate this dish at home this year (maybe one day I'll be on Masterchef?) so I'll be trying to source some quality ingredients to use to do it justice. Now if The Wharf could get their levels of service to match this kind of food, they will hitting the big time in the gastropub world! Have you been to pub before? What did you order? I'd love to know so please leave me a comment below...