Taking inspiration from two distinct styles of eateries found on the opposite side of the Atlantic is a new restaurant on the Manchester block. Influenced by the informality, accessibility and hospitality that you’ll find in American diners and Parisian bistros with a menu centred around dishes ‘you know and love to eat’, Medlock Canteen offers elevated comfort food and more.
Located at Manchester’s Deansgate Square, Medlock Canteen (named after the neighbouring river) is an informal, laid-back space from the team behind Madre and Liverpool’s Belzan. The canteen welcomes diners from dawn until late and locals can take a seat for as long as they desire with bottomless coffee and an all day menu to keep eaters, drinkers and workers fuelled.
To kickstart the day, diners can enjoy a sit-in breakfast menu made up of a classic English breakfast, duck-egg hash, millennial eggs (smashed avo and poached eggs), breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, oats, beans on toast and a crab and Gruyère omelette. Whilst a take-out offering serves residents on the go a selection of smoothies and overnight oats.
At lunch diners can enjoy what Chef Patron Sam Grainger describes as a “strong sandwich game”, including a Roast Beef Sandwich with caramelised onions, Gruyère, jus and a Grilled Cheese complete with Gruyère, cheddar and mozzarella and pickles. For dinner, you’ll find hearty dishes like coal-fired steaks and fish of the day sit alongside lighter options and fresh salads as well as the all day snacks menu which includes everything from anchovies to duck rillettes.
Notable mains include their turkey schnitzel with duck egg, capers and salsa verde and grilled onglet steak or grilled bone in sirloin both served with a jus. As for sides, there’s French fries, peas, with leeks, parmesan cream be sure to order their 50/50 brown butter mash potato – that’s half potato, half butter, and it’s pretty dreamy.
However, the focal point of the menu centres around the rotisserie chicken oven, emitting that signature roast chicken aroma you smell on the streets of Paris through the restaurant. By lunch the chicken will be served in baguettes, with butterhead lettuce, pickles, chicken mayo and jus, at dinner half or whole with a choice or sides and throughout the day you can pick up a chicken in a bag to enjoy at home, on the tram or wherever you like to eat yours.
Inside Medlock Canteen, the décor offers a contrast to your typical skyscraper shell with wooden panels, yellow formica on the tables along the side, a station clock sticking out from a concrete pillar and burgundy American-style leather booths. With these interior features you won’t feel like you’re in Manchester anymore instead you could be anywhere in the world allowing the restaurant to offer a slice of escapism to go with that deep fried rhubarb pie and custard for dessert.
Describing the concept of Medlock Canteen, owner Chris Edwards said: “Picture your typical canteen; a spot where everyone and anyone can gather. On one table you have a group of friends catching up over dinner, two colleagues are sitting at the bar enjoying a post work drink, a worker pops in for a coffee before their night shift and a couple swing by for dessert en route home from dinner. We want people to come as they are, use the space as their own and eat and drink as they desire.”
Co-owner Owain Williams added: “Medlock Canteen is inspired by American diners and French bistros. In these venues, everyone is always welcome for unfussy, traditional, everyday faire. The British equivalent of these spaces has always been the pub but the community bond created by these spaces has become collateral damage in the UK’s reframed relationship with the pub. We still want the community, the accessibility and the prices, but it needs to exist in a different atmosphere suitable for the city dwellers of Manchester.”
📍Medlock Canteen, 5 Owen Street, Deansgate Square, New Jackson, Manchester, M15 4YB.
🍽️ Book a table here.