The Living Room is a luxurious bar and restaurant located in the heart of Manchester on trendy Deansgate in a great location for shopping and nights out. There are lots of other bars and restaurants surrounding the Living Room (including places such as Est, Est, Est, Pizza Express, Cafe Rouge etc) and it is only five + minutes walk away from Victoria train station.
What's there?
As you enter on the ground floor you are in the bar area which is known as the living room. Here you can eat during the day (you can also opt to eat upstairs in the dining room, but you tend to need to book more often than not to eat upstairs) as well as enjoy the wide range of drinks and the great coffee (I love the cappuccino here). The prices are pretty much in line with most other city centre bars.
Upstairs is the dining room which is fitted with spacious tables as well as smaller, more intimate booths of white leather (there is not an awful lot of room at these and although they are comfortable to sit at I would say that three people is the maximum that could comfortably eat sitting around one of these). The dining room is very light and airy with large skylights and it always makes me imagine that outside is a Caribbean beach rather than smelly old Manchester. It is a very relaxing room in which to eat, calming and cool.
On the second floor is the Study which is a private members only club: before you ask I am not a member and have never been here (boo hoo!!)
The decor:
Cool and contemporary is perhaps the best way of describing the decor of the Living Room. Throughout the whole restaurant there is lots of wood and pale cream colours that give the whole place a feeling of space and tranquillity: it seems to me to be styled around a Caribbean apartment with modern twists. The whole effect is great and works really well in my opinion as it is not overly fussy but equally not too modern or clinical.
My experiences?
I have had drinks in the Living Room on many occasions as it is one of 'the' places to go. It used to be one of the favourite hangouts of David Beckham when he played for Manchester United (it's only about 3 ish miles from Old Trafford).
Although it is a nice place inside the drinks they serve here are no different to any other bar and the prices are comparable with other similar city centre locations. My main bug bear with this place is that it is always so BUSY in the evenings and at weekends and that you can sometimes have to queue for ages to get a table (they have not very friendly looking bouncers either!) I wouldn't personally say that it was worth battling to go in when it is busy as there are lots of other less trendy bars that are just as good in Manchester, although there is always a buzz and an atmosphere inside.
I have always found the staff in the Living Room to be excellent, well educated, helpful and knowledgeable about the service and food they provide (although I did have one waitress who couldn't make her mind up whether she had given us the right order and swapped it twice, although it was her first day!!)
The food?
The menu here is quite varied. For lunch time offerings they have a range of sandwiches and salads. The Caesar salad (around £7) is great and comes served with a poached egg and bacon as a bit of a twist. They also do a very nice range of burgers (proper, meaty burgers: no McDonalds knock ofs here!!) as well as more classic dishes such as bangers 'n' mash, lasagne and cottage pie.
The menu changes here very often so it's a good option to try new things if you eat out a lot.
They also offer an extensive wine menu with a bottle of house wine starting from just under £11 which is really good for this type of place.
The portions are not huge, but they have a good range of side orders to help you fill up (also to help you to spend more as these ten to be £4/5 each so it is easy to get a bit carried away and create a bigger bill!)
The dessert are also great and all seem to be home-made: my favourite is the hot sticky toffee pudding and Belgian waffles: I'm making myself hungry!!!!!!
I think that they menu is really varied and will suit most people. Although you will find most of the things on the menu in other places, the Living Room is good at putting their own little twist on things!
The wait time for food is quiet good, although I would recommend booking a week or so in advance if going for dinner as they do get VERY busy.
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Having my Christmas meal at the London one! Hope it's as good as the Manchester one sounds. Google The Living Room - they have a website and they have a list of all the venues, they are all over including Edinburgh and Glasgow.
helencbradshaw 15.02.2007 21:08
I ate in the Nottingham one recently. I didnt realise it was a chain..
sue.51 31.01.2004 19:37
One to keep an eye out for next time I am in Manchester.
Sue
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Jan 26th, 2004
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