One of my little pleasures pre-pandemic was to nip off on an afternoon, telling everyone in the office that I was off to “a meeting”, to head down to ERST in Ancoats for a bit of scran and a few glasses of wine.
The food was always excellent, with a constantly changing and adapting menu, with each deliberate element lovingly (and sometimes painstakingly) created in-house by an extremely talented and dedicated team.
Not only was the food on point, but the range of natural wines on offer was always rather astounding, and it was the perfect place to discover your newest tipple and favourite bottle.
Sitting down for their Set Menu with a couple of glasses of vino was hard to beat – and I can’t wait to get to it again once they re-open.
In the meantime though, they’ve (finally) launched a couple of new Meal Kits, offering up a selection of small plates to be designed to be shared between two people. There’s their Meat version (£55) or their Vegetarian version (£45) available, each with the following…
ERST Meal Kit for 2 (£55)
Lardo flatbread x 2
Pickles
Potatoes and yeast sauce
Salt cod, turnip, black olive and blood orange
Fermented pork, fennel and chilli sausage, braised onions and fried bread
Blood orange posset, Yorkshire rhubarb and blood orange jelly x 2
Vegetarian Kit for 2 (£45)
Gremolata flatbread x 2
Pickles
Potatoes and yeast sauce
Bitter leaves, blood orange, black olive and salted ricotta
Fennel and butter bean stew, fried bread and green sauce
Blood orange posset, Yorkshire rhubarb and blood orange jelly x 2
I think it’s also worth mentioning that ERST are also still continuing their excellent Online Bottle Shop, flogging some of the best natural and low intervention wines that will ever pass your lips.
A bottle of 2017 Costador Metamorphika Muscat Brisat (£29) will make even the most depressing lockdown days 1000x better.
Head on over to the ERST online store to order…