“It’s all tummies, bald heads, tattoos and heat”
Pip restaurant inside the new Treehouse Hotel Manchester on Deansgate (Image: Simon Brown)
It’s only been open a matter of weeks, but a Manchester restaurant helmed by one of the city’s most esteemed chefs has won over a national food critic.
Pip, the new restaurant from acclaimed chef Mary-Ellen McTague, opened inside the £25m Treehouse Hotel on Deansgate in March and has already picked up a number of glowing reviews.
The Telegraph’s food critic, William Sitwell, was the latest to pay it a visit and described it in his review as having charm, finesse and refinement. Overcoming his concerns over portion control, the food writer was impressed by dishes including hot pot, charcuterie, herb-fed chicken and caramelised apple trifle and gave it an almost-perfect score.
“Bravo, Pip. Pip pip”, the writer and broadcaster wrote in his four-star review of the new all-day restaurant, which champions seasonality and low-waste cooking, and features a menu of locally sourced ingredients from suppliers like Littlewoods Butchers, Cinderwood Market Garden and Organic North.
Trying out a number of the chef’s dishes, he was impressed by the “fabulously good” Lancashire hot pot, describing it as a “elegant version” of a classic dish, and a “gorgeous” wild garlic soup, while the apple trifle pudding was labelled as a “gift from heaven”.
Dishes served at Pip, a new Manchester restaurant (Image: Supplied)
However, it wasn’t such a good day for another city centre venue. Sitwell had originally been planning on using his column to write about a restaurant down the road – one that underwent an extensive rebrand late last year.
Stopping off at Kaji, a Japanese-inspired restaurant, formerly known as MUSU, on Bridge Street, Sitwell, who described the place as “big screens loud tunes and tall flames”, was left wanting a lot more from the experience.
The restaurant describes itself as bringing together ‘advanced’ grilling techniques with ‘bold’ flavours inspired by fire. It was launched in October 2024 and offers a number of menu options including a nine-course tasting experience, which costs £120 per person, and features ‘culinary delights spanning all pillars’ with food from the sea, the land and the ground all covered.
“It’s all tummies, bald heads, tattoos and heat”, Sitwell wrote before explaining his dismay at the “overbearing” cooking that he reckoned “cheapens the noble name of Japanese cuisine”.
While he commended the service and sashimi as showcasing the “excellent” fish on offer, he was left frustrated at the nori seaweed crackers filled with “sickly sweet” kimchi ketchup in a “vulgar fist-fight” with cod’s roe.
The first part, KAJI, brings together ‘advanced’ grilling techniques with ‘bold’ flavours inspired by fire(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“Some fried oysters (always a terrible concept) drown in a dump of mayo and hot bonito sauce, and lamb chops fail the tender test and are properly wrecked sitting on a vulgar pond of sticky “tomato ponzu”,” he went on.
He was also left baffled by the drinks menu: “And Kaji is a Japanese gaff without sake. Which is like opening a British pub in Tokyo and forgetting to put an ale on tap.”
In contrast to the “brash (pricey) torture” as he describes it, he then went down the road to the newly unveiled Pip, which he branded a “great-value tonic”.
It will be music to Mary-Ellen’s ears, after years of heading up some of the North West’s finest dining spots.
With over 20 years of experience in hospitality and as a restaurateur, she has worked alongside chefs including Heston Blumenthal at his Michelin-starred restaurants and launched three of her own restaurants, Aumbry, 4244 and The Creameries.
As Sitwell summed up: “Her menu distils elements of local food culture, bringing them to the table – via great charm by the way, as the staff are a dream – with considerable finesse.”