I put a small amount in my mouth, chew carefully, and taste, well, not much. I take a piece and squish it, observing it bounce back and dampen my hands. I cut the meat, the serrations on the knife shredding it into strings. After a few minutes, he places the dish before me. “Kind of a classic,” Davila says.ĭavila works for Upside Foods, a start-up disrupting the world of animal proteins from its base in Berkeley, California. He lets it rest, chars some tomatoes and scallions, and throws together a beurre-blanc sauce. “Today, you’re going to be having our whole-muscle chicken filet,” Daniel Davila tells me, searing the morsel. T he chef presents me with a nugget of raw meat, tinged yellowish gray, then takes it back and drops it in a pan. Neither the chips nor the fries at Manzi’s are any good.This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Out of greed, I requested a side of French fries too. Out of curiosity, I also ordered Manzi’s fish and chips, which comprises haddock goujons fried in breadcrumbs with wedge chips in a large paper cone. And while the Arbroath smoked haddock soufflé was no picture, it was rich and creamy and came with the perfect little gem heart salad. The whole sea bream was a hefty specimen that had been filleted and topped with a couple of florets of broccoli. If this is a timeless classic, I’m calling time on it. Weedy strips of leek in a yellow-green vinaigrette with devilled eggs on top. Served alongside was our starter of leeks mimosa. The scallops, in particular, were tepid and felt like they’d been sitting around on a counter before being ferried to the table. Which is to say disappointing because shellfish should always be sensational. We started with Jersey rock oysters, Newcastle brown clams and roast scallops. Monkfish Wellington with sauce américaine © Manzi’s Soho The mains are predominantly seafood (with specialties including monkfish Wellington and cioppino fish stew), though vegetarian and vegan options feature alongside roast lamb, rib-eye steak and roast chicken. It includes a large selection of crustacea, sandwiches (such as shrimp burger and fish finger sandwich) and raw, cured and smoked fish among the starters. I wonder, then, if he would have endorsed the full-size taxidermy marlin wall-mounted in the foyer, the large-scale alabaster Poseidon presiding over one table on the ground floor and the four verdigris mermaids propping up the bar on the first floor? King wanted the new Manzi’s to retain the fun and frivolity of its forefather. In hospitality circles, the question of WWJHD (ie, what would Jeremy have done?) hangs portentously over Manzi’s 2.0, a project he was unable to bring to fruition and the first new venture from Wolseley Hospitality Group since his departure. The restaurants now operate under the Wolseley Hospitality Group, owned by Minor International Public Company Limited, the investment partner with whom King and Corbin fell out.īanquet seating on the first floor of Manzi’s © Manzi’s Soho But, in April 2022, he and business partner Chris Corbin left the company under fraught circumstances. King and Corbin were responsible for launching and operating such cherished institutions as The Wolseley, The Delaunay, Brasserie Zedel, Fischer’s, Colbert, Bellanger and Soutine. But is nostalgia enough to relaunch a restaurant, especially when the man who conceived the project is no longer at the helm? London restaurateur Jeremy King first initiated the concept and secured the location at Bateman Buildings off Soho Square. All I have to fuel my enthusiasm is other people’s nostalgia. Manzi’s platter, including Atlantic prawns, steamed whelks and Palourde clams © Manzi’s Soho White-washed walls feature a mural from Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea plus a full-size wall-mounted marlin taxidermy © Manzi’s Soho Former restaurant critic John Lanchester noted in 2011 – when the premises was taken over by St John Hotel – how the once historic restaurant had “like many a historic restaurant before it, become historically terrible”. Manzi’s closed in 2006, after years of decline. In its heyday, it attracted figures such as Joan Collins, Kingsley Amis and the Kray twins, along with ordinary punters who came for fish supper after the panto and, of course, denizens of Soho, in all their glorious guises. The original venue opened in 1928 off Leicester Square and ran for more than half a century. Manzi’s is back and I have mixed feelings about it.
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