Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote

I love French cuisine. And steak. So obviously a French restaurant serving only my favourite carnivorous treat is a sure-​fire ‘love’. However, I was underwhelmed. It’s a very kitsch place and if you don’t think about the fact you’ve just walked in off King Street, the interior gives off a sort of mini-​Parisian vibe.
The actual price of the meal was very reasonable (salad and two portions of steak & chips with their signature tarragon-​y sauce). Charged for water, and wine was meh (bottle had been opened a bit too long). Service was prompt.
I think Manchester has better steak offerings even if they are a bit more pricey than Le Relais. The restaurant just felt a bit tired/​dated. If you want a quick place to eat before going to the theatre, then this is recommended.

Hello there. My name’s Emma, and during Christmas of 2011 I became a carnivore. Those of you who follow my reviews (who are you, and why do I keep bumping into you outside restaurants, you stalkers?) might have noticed that before this point I’d only eaten the flesh of water-​dwelling folks for twelve years. Not that I’d been on Unilocal for twelve years mind. It hasn’t existed for quite that long. Anyway, get to the point woman.
My sister-​in-​law says one of her proudest moments was ‘bullying’ me into eating bacon that Christmas, but after drooling over said pork product as well as chorizo and pepperoni for about 6 months before that point, it wasn’t like she had to use threatening language or anything. She’d made awesome devils on horseback, and I never looked (horse)back. I consumed my first steak the following January and instantly labelled it a food favourite. Having begun with something as amazing as Gaucho, I ruined myself, and only ate the best of the best of the best. I refused to slum it in the steak world, and have only nibbled the likes offered by Grill on t’Alley and posh pubs.
AND THIS.
L’Entrecôte effortlessly combines two of my favourite things… French chic and great cow meat. It’s one of those places that when you first enter, rather like Yo Sushi, Wagamama and Nando’s, that makes you think, good grief, what exactly am I supposed to do here? The seating arrangements are odd. Like Wagamama benches you might find yourself uncomfortably close to other couples like Anne Hathaway and Topher Grace in that guiltilywonderful movie Valentine’s Day. But hey, it’s all French and stuff. Just roll with it. The other confusing thing? It’s a set menu. Nope, not just like Pizza Express when Kylie Minogue’s playing at the Arena, all the time. Starter’s green salad with walnuts and a dressing. If you think that doesn’t sound exciting, you simply haven’t tasted it. Salad never felt so decadent. The dressing’s cheekily mustardy and the bread it comes with rocks my socks. (I totes disagree with John L’s review on this point.) Then there’s only one main item — steak frites. Thing is, the frites are out of this world and the steak yields to your knife and teeth like butter. If you order it anything other than rare, don’t speak to me. The sauce it comes with is heaven, even for my purist fiancé who thinks putting anything other than salt on steak is blasphemous. He ordered extra sauce in fact. What does that tell you?
The best part? You eat your food, and then, they serve you your other half! So arrive hungry, because the portions are mighty generous, and you want to fit in pudding too.
So why no fifth star? Well, we had a voucher for 50% off, and were told that was for drinks too. But then there was a disagreement and either we’d been misled or someone had got something wrong somewhere. Either way we had to pay full price for my other half’s beer, and it wasn’t the end of the world but he’d deliberately ordered that beer because it was on the list of drinks included in the 50% off. Oh well! The only other stinger was that because we enjoyed 50% off, we ummed and ahhed over whether we’d be willing to pay full price for the whole experience. The steak alone would prompt me to. But once you’ve had that great value, you might resent around £21 each.
To the puds, and I’ve eaten here twice and devoured two different ones. Myself and the mister shared both times — first was lemon tarts, curd so wonderfully sharp with such buttery pastry, we couldn’t speak. And then on our second visit we had an incredible tower of meringue, hazelnut and vanilla ice creams and hot chocolate sauce. Good grief, that was pure indulgence and class on a plate. I was in love.
So I’ve celebrated here twice and I’ll be dragging friends, family and the loved one back here for more dates. It’s entered my Manchester top ten, and I can’t fault the food one bit. Just a shame about that voucher/​beer debacle!

Rather an odd place.
We were here on the recent-​ish half-​price deal. They were happy to cater for us and the accompanying baby, in fact I would say they went out of their way to help; a great intro.
The place feels how I would imagine a French bistro to feel. Whether that’s at all accurate is rather a moot point.
We had a bottle of the house red, and a bottle of the white. Both were actually surprisingly quaffable. Maybe it was that half-​price deal, given it also included the booze, but I don’t think so.
So, the «starter». This is about as basic as you can get: some green leaves, a few walnuts, and a overly-​mustardy dressing. It’s not in the least bit interesting; if I were to choose just one salad, I definitely would not choose this.
The main: a good steak, good frites. Initially I wasn’t at all sure about that strangely thin, overly vinegary «special sauce». But boy is it a grower. By the time the second round of steak and chips arrived, I was mopping up every last bit. It’s addictive.
Too full for any of the desserts, we took our leave.
This was amazing value at half-​price, and I’d still recommend it at full price. This is not the place for a blow-​out or a special occasion, but a quick early dinner or something? It’s ideal.