Open Fire Dining Club: Pho Cue x Tartuffe

Pho Cue are leaving Chinatown behind for the weekend and heading to the edge of the Peak District, joining Tartuffe for the next Open Fire Dining Club.

One of those Manchester restaurants that doesn’t really need much selling, Pho Cue has built a loyal following for Vietnamese cooking that’s informal, generous and consistently very good. Jay Rayner called it “everything it should be” when he visited in 2021, while it remains a regular fixture on chefs’ Chinatown recommendations.

For Open Fire Dining Club, the team are taking things somewhere slightly different. Across 22 and 23 August, they’ll work with Tartuffe on a menu that brings together traditional Vietnamese fire cooking, Cue’s more modern approach and some of the French influence that still runs through parts of the cuisine.

The menu starts with a Carlingford oyster dressed with fermented mango, mint and smoked soy, followed by cá tái chanh made with chalk stream trout, fruit, mustard and rong nho — the tiny sea grapes found along Vietnam’s coastline.

There’s lobster congee too, alongside a small tasting-menu take on lobster and beef pho. It would be strange to invite Pho Cue and not let pho make an appearance somewhere.

The grills really get going for bò lúc lắc, or shakin’ beef, with Cheshire ribeye smoked and grilled over the Big Green Eggs before being finished with oyster emulsion and a sharp black pepper and calamansi dressing.

Then there’s bánh tráng mè with nước chấm and whipped pâté, followed by a sharing seafood course bringing together Cornish squid, grilled sea bream and Morecambe Bay cockles.

The main event is Tartuffe’s take on gà kho gừng. Whole Cumbrian chickens will be hung over the coals, glazed with caramelised ginger, onion and beer, and served with wok-fried rice and morning glory.

Dessert turns one of Pho Cue’s best-known finishes into something built for the occasion: Hanoi coffee with dulce de leche, chocolate namelaka and espresso jelly.

Campari will be handling the drinks, with a Campari Spritz on arrival, classic Negronis available from the bar and a French Negroni served alongside dessert.

It’s Pho Cue away from its Chinatown home, Tartuffe cooking firmly in somebody else’s world, and a menu built around the point where Vietnamese flavours and live-fire cooking naturally meet.