Last week end my mom came to Manchester for a little visit from France with Love 😉
So I planned a lot of things, especially going to nice bars and restaurant. My Cheeky Monkey (boyfriend) decided to take us somewhere without telling me the name of place.
I was a bit like : ” Hum I hope I am going to like the atmosphere of this restaurant, because if not…. (you can imagine the rest)”
Anyway after getting all pretty and stuff, direction Manchester!
And the Taxi dropped us infront of
REFUGE by Volta
What is this place?
Well apparently it opened few weeks ago and when you look at the building you wouldn’t expect this at all.
This a very big building, and could be seen as a bank from far away 😉
When we got inside… oh my gosh, I was like blown away by the decoration, the amount of people, the lights, the smell…. Overwhelmed by everything around me.
This place has different area inside. So when arrived you get firstly to the bar.
The Bar
It was very crowded, when I went on Saturday night, probably a good sign isn’t it? But we didn’t stop there and went directly to… the garden/the dining room.
The Garden/Dining
This is situated in the middle of the restaurant and woaw I really love this. I definitely think that the charm of the place comes from this area. I am not sure you can eat in the “garden” or only have a drink but if you have the chance to get a table under the trees… GOGOGO.
The rest of the dining room is also very nice a bit old fashion and vintage as I like! Our table was just outside from the garden which was nice, as I had best view of the restaurant!
Also there is a Den where you can play Pool and Watch football game, very nice when you are a group of 5-10 people.
What to have at Refuge?
If you are coming with friend or your lover, I would advise you to try some “Voltini”, it’s like small plates to share. We were three persons and we took 5 voltinis, it was definitely enough, I believe we didn’t finished everything!
I loved what I ordered which was: The crispy lamb, The Fig Halloumi, The smocked feta beetroot, The volcanic tomatoes and finally the bigger plate the Hanger Steak (OMG if you are a meat lover like me, you will love this!)
I don’t have any pictures becauseeeeeee…… My boyfriend just destroyed the decoration of the dishes by eating it right away… or maybe it was me, can’t remember 😉
But here is a nice one from their website:
If you want to check the menu, you can find it HERE.
Anything else maybe….?
The waitress was very nice, telling us what was really good and the service was pretty fast I thought. I can also say that the music wasn’t too loud, so you can actually have a normal conversation (not possible everywhere ;).
Don’t forget to reserve early in the week, because it’s booked pretty fast… My little tips: they have some table just for people who walks in, but it’s first come first serve… so be quick 🙂
I would definitely recommend this place because of the atmosphere, the decoration, the service and of course the quality of the dishes!
So next time you go out in Manchester don’t forgot to go check this place out, even if it’s just for a drink!
Enjoy and Smile
Camille
Hello! Cool post, amazing!!!