Dishes that make you go 'ohhhhh' - the homely, accomplished tapas found in Salford

Porta does it right...

By Thom Hetherington | 12 January 2025

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Manchester is finally becoming a true restaurant destination. By which I mean people are traveling, often nationally and increasingly internationally, purely to eat and drink in our city. Ask award-winning restaurants like Higher Ground, mana and Skof, not to mention the glitzier places like Fenix, Louis and Sexy Fish, and they’ll all tell you they have the data and anecdotes to demonstrate Manchester’s widening geographical appeal.

But what about if you live here?

Where do the 80,000+ residents in the extended city centre like to eat? Because frankly one cannot dine at destination restaurants alone, buffeted on every side by hyperventilating gastro-tourists. What these urban locals surely need is their own suburban-style restaurants – casual places they can eat at on a regular basis, without needing to save up or dress up.

I’m thinking of the places which European cities seem to do so well, bringing a low-key but high-quality vibe to prime locations. And my mind turns to Porta, whose owners, Hispanophiles Ben and Joe Wright, are past masters at this sort of thing. They opened their first restaurant in Chester, followed by sites in the heart of Altrincham, by the market hall, and then on Salford’s Chapel St. They recently took over the old Greens site in leafy West Didsbury.

I have a soft spot for their Salford restaurant, which sits in a four-story building on the corner of Bexley Square, not least because I helped persuade them to take the site during a consultancy project back in 2018. “I’m telling you”, I said, gesturing with a sweeping arm at the expanse of derelict wasteland across the road. “This will all be lovely new residential developments soon, and those residents will want somewhere to eat.”

And lo, there are indeed now thousands of new residents right on their doorstep, alongside the area’s longstanding communities and artistic enclaves. Admittedly they also got broken into on their opening weekend, which wasn’t in the brochure, but hey, no one ever said opening a restaurant was without its challenges.

A return visit felt long-overdue, so along I went with Al and Al, a pair of black-clad visual artists and filmmakers who had regularly passed the restaurant without visiting, and whose award-winning career has spanned the globe. They also attract the most fascinating of coincidences. One small example? They only realised long after meeting that Al Holmes’ grandfather, an inventor, had created an automatic pie machine for Al Taylor’s grandfather, who was a prize-winning Wigan baker.

We were there for a mid-week lunch, with the open kitchen providing bustle and animation. The fit-out is a nicely handled refit of one of those handsome Portland stone bank buildings, conjuring cozy intimacy out of a previously austere room. Wintry sunlight streamed through tall windows framed by heavy drapes, warming the dark wood fixtures and fittings anchored to the pleasingly foxed parquet floor.

A mezzanine has been added, creating a snug but surprisingly capacious seating area above the ground floor bar, and at peak times, depending on the weather, guests spill over into the additional upstairs dining room or the al fresco seating under the mature trees in the square. It’s an agile set-up which ebbs and flows effortlessly around the whims of diners and the passing of the seasons.

The menu, shaped by executive chef Jose Garzón, is quite simply tapas. Traditional, but delivered with crisp descriptions and a deft touch. 

There are no shocks or twists here – though rabbit features in one dish – and no need for the waiter to squat down on his haunches to breathily introduce their ‘concept’. Take the pan con tomate; nicely crisped bread with sweet, sharp tomato pulp and a slight prickle of garlic. Or the croquetas del dia, hand-rolled every morning, we were told, with a shell as delicate as a gull’s egg and a creamy bacalao – salt cod – and béchamel filling inside.

For drinks, there were sherries both sweet and dry, and beers including Estrella Galicia, which is actually brewed in Spain so consider it the anti-Madri, alongside local ales from Manchester indie Track. There’s also a small, carefully considered wine list, available by glass, bottle and carafe. A carafe of tempranillo from the highly regarded Sierra Cantabria Rioja house (“Shall we get a bottle?”), as well as an additional glass each (“We should have got a bottle…”), saw us through.

Patatas bravas had the obligatory nose-tickling paprika-spiked sauce and garlicky aioli, but more importantly the potatoes were crispy rather than soggy, a texture which seems beyond so many Spanish restaurants. The potatoes appeared to have been ‘broken’ apart using a short knife, like shucking an oyster, rather than sliced. This technique creates pleasingly irregular chunks, meaning more edges to crisp in the heat of the pan.

Seafood was up next, and squid came as lightly battered rings and frilled crowns of tentacles, served with more mayo and a quarter of lemon, pithy centre sliced away so the juices flowed freely. That understated attention to detail again. Wild Atlantic prawns, slick with ajillo dressing, were grilled in their shells. 

Or not, as I’d foolishly come out for tapas wearing a white shirt and having seen an adjoining table wrestling the crustacea from their carapaces, flicking oily sauce everywhere like spitting cobras, I feared it would be a reckless choice. 

The waiter, with no hint of a sneer, suggested serving them ready shelled, as you would for a small and cautious child. I gratefully accepted, we all tucked in, and the only reminder of the prawns’ existence was an empty plate.

Then, a collective “Ohhh” from around the table, prompted by a shallow earthenware bowl crazy-paved with perfectly cooked slices of fudgy potato, each topped by a disc of tender octopus. A curl of tentacle sat at the centre like a question mark, though we had no notes for this dish. Described as ‘Galician-style’, it was liberally sprinkled with paprika and looked and tasted fantastic.

The abanico Iberico – pork loin, correctly served pink, with a zinging mojo verde, and the grilled chicken thighs – skin on and deeply flavoured, accompanied by mojo picón, maintained this high standard. For foliage we had a generous sprig of tenderstem broccoli, draped with a thick girdle of romesco and toasted almond flakes. An all-seasons riff on the classic calçots dish, the famous Catalan spring onions which emerge in the winter. Each main element was beautifully cooked, and all three sauces came out swinging with haymakers of flavour.

Essentially this was exactly what anyone, local or tourist, would want tapas to be – small of stature, big on flavour, and easy to share over good wine and animated conversation. But look deeper and there is a level of thoughtfulness running through the entire operation. The fact that it feels both quietly accomplished and effortlessly accessible is no mere coincidence.

Petit Fours

  • On a recent night out, two friends and I left Schofield’s declaring ourselves in need of a feed. “Café Istanbul?” Dan Schofield enquired as he ushered us out of the door, and indeed that was exactly our plan. A top tier kebab with soft breads, fresh salad, and punchily flavoured chicken shawarma. This self-contained takeaway, next to the main restaurant on Bridge Street, is a hospitality industry go to, but it should be on everyone’s list for late night sustenance in the Deansgate end of town.
  • The Schofield brothers also recently launched Atomeca Wine Bar on The Avenue in Spinningfields and it’s a great place for a light lunch or informal evenings, featuring small plates and excellent wines. Kaji and Stow are also now ticked off my list, and coincidentally both are on Bridge Street and both feature open fire cooking, albeit with differing approaches. Kaji has chef Steven Smith at the helm, and the cooking is Asian-inspired, technical and delicious. Stow is the new place by Matt Nellany and Jamie Pickles, who have also reinvigorated Northern Quarter stalwart Trof, and leans towards modern British and gutsy. It reminded me of a cross between Erst and Brat.
  • Circle Square is the name for the development on the old BBC site on Oxford Road, which combines luxury student living and world class offices with a swathe of public space. After a challenging start, its developers Bruntwood have quietly amassed one of the best food and drink line-ups in the city, with Federal coffee bar, Half Dozen Other, the all-conquering Onda, Detroit Slims from the team behind Ramona and Diecast, and Sam Grainger, the man behind Madre and Medlock canteen opening both Doug’s burgers and music venue Amber’s. That’s a cluster fit to rival Kampus or even Ancoats, and I think the district will really blossom in 2025.
  • Anyone who understands the rhythms of hospitality knows that January is its own version of ‘the hunger gap’, where footfall can dry up just when operators need it the most. Hospitality has been disproportionately battered by both Brexit and Covid, whilst remaining a force for good for both local communities and the wider economy. Unfortunately, the last budget delivered another blow, with national insurance costs extended to part-time staff at a level which will be devastating for your favourite places to eat and drink. The government is being pressured by trade body UKHospitality and others to reconsider, and I hope that they listen. In the meantime, do support your favourite venues through early 2025 if you possibly can.

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