Restaurant Review : Bill’s Veganuary Menu in Manchester*

So its January 2020!! Or should I say Veganuary as we have come to know it over the past few years.  As many of us have noticed there is a push to encourage people to take up veganism or eat less meat during the first month of each year. Many people over the past few years have converted to this method of eating whether it be for health reasons, ethical reasons, or climate reasons, each seem to believe it is the way forward to make the Earth a safe and sustainable place to live.  Although I am not a Vegan and have no plans to become vegan any time soon, I really love vegan and vegetarian food. A foodie at heart, I love how vegan food challenges what we class as ’normal’ food and turns it into something super tasty, and often puts flavours together you may never have thought would work. The same goes for the New Veganuary Menu at Bill’s in Manchester, that we were asked to review. For regulars to the blog, you may remember we reviewed their Veganuary 2019 menu too.

Bill’s has also noticed a definite increase in the sale of Vegan foods in its restaurant and in 2018-2019 there has been an increase of 162% of the sale of their most popular vegan dish the Vegan Carrot Wellington. Bill’s focus on fresh and local produce, fits perfectly with their adapted Vegan Menu, that is full of tasty vegetables, pulses and grains. For their Veganuary Menu, they have a selection of eight starters and nibbles, five mains and four desserts. All of which are varied enough to suit most palettes. Plus all this they have a great little offer on when buying a main meal after 5pm, you can add a dessert for just £5 and this is available until 31 January this year.

The Bill’s restaurant we were invited to is in the Spinningfields district of Manchester. Which is a new location for Bill’s in Manchester. Its located in Hardman Square a small gardened area, which is surrounded by classy offices and eateries to match. When entering the restaurant you feel as though you are walking into an old Victorian Garden Room, with its plants trailing the walls and green Willian Morris style wallpaper. With marble style statues dotted about the room. Its a small venue seating only 130, but I have to say this for me makes it all the more pleasing as you know when you come you won’t be drowned out by the chatter of noise that bigger venues can create.

We chose Mushroom and Tarragon Suet Pudding, and Bill’s Beetroot Steak. These choices were specialities for their Veganuary Menu, and are only available for this time. What I loved seeing was the twist on classic restaurant meals, as opposed to it being strictly vegan inspired. So someone who has perhaps recently become vegan can really get their teeth into these hearty options. For those that would like lighter choices, don’t worry they have those too.

Mushroom and Tarragon Suet Pudding

This arrived set on the centre of the plate surrounded by a white bean cassoulet. Unlike a traditional suet pudding this pudding seemed to be oven-baked, which actually gave it a nice crisp texture. When cutting open the pudding, the mushrooms poured out and made for an amazing bite. You could clearly taste the tarragon that paired really well with the mushroom and the cassoulet was light in flavour and was the perfect accompaniment to the pudding. My only critique with the cassoulet is that (being half french) it wasn’t quite cooked enough. A cassoulet should have soft melt in your mouth beans, whereas these still had a slight bite to them, that being said it was still all delicious.

Bill’s Beetroot Steak 

This was the one I was most worried about. I love steak, and I also really love beetroot, but when you consider that this steak contained no meat, and yet comes out like a slice of steak, it has your mind slightly confused for a moment. The steak was made from beetroot, quinoa and paprika. It had more of the appearance of minced beef steak and the textured was a little more like this. But the flavour was pleasant. It had the saltiness you would expect from this kind of meal and the heartiness. It is accompanied with a béarnaise vegan mayo, pea shoots, and tiger fries – which were basically potato and sweet potato fries with sweet sliced chillies. The whole combination was so yummy, and so filling. The softness of the steak with the crunchy fries and the tasty sauce all worked really well together.

Desserts and Drinks 

To accompany our meal we chose from the Veganuary Menu, two drinks. Firstly we went with the Blackberry and Lavender Cooler, which was flavoured with blackberry, and apple cordial, cloudy apple juice and rhubarb puree and then topped with sparkling water. This tasted light and fresh and went really well with the Beetroot Steak.

The second drink was Golden Glow, fruit juice, with Carrot, Apple, Orange and Ginger – the colour was fabulous. It was bright orange and with it tasty really zingy and earthy. This was a perfect accompaniment to the Tarragon and Mushroom Suet Pudding, as the freshness of the juice broke through the robust flavour of the mushrooms.

For dessert, we choose the Sticky Chocolate pudding with a scoop of coconut ice cream. This was dark, bitter and gooey. It stuck to the roof of your mouth, with its chocolatey goodness. However, the first bite we chose not to eat it with the ice cream and the syrup and chocolate made for a slightly bitter bite, but our second taste was with the coconut ice cream which broke though the bitterness and made it a really delicious dessert.

The second dessert was the Frozen Amoretto Parfait, this was raved about by the staff who all thought it was a great option, however, for us, we both felt that although it tasted pleasant, it wasn’t our favourite selection. The crunch/crumble element was really scrumptious, but the parfait itself lacked in lustre, and the almond element, was flavoured using extract as opposed to almonds. We both felt that the texture of the dessert was luscious, but would have preferred it to be a vanilla dessert topped with real almonds. But this is a personal preference and other people in the restaurant felt this dessert to be fabulous. So make sure you try it and make up your own mind!

What impressed us the most about the meals we ate, was how substantial they were. When reviewing last year’s menu, which was also really tasty, the portion sizes were smaller and the meals were lighter, being more salad, soup and stew based. So in comparison, these were much more filling and felt very equivalent to what you would get on the regular side of the menu. Which for me was essential in convincing me to make this kind of change for the month of January. So for all those new to Vegan eaters – get yourself to Bill’s for a hearty and tasty treat this month for just £5 if you are heading there after 5pm.

What does it cost? 
The starters range from – £3.25-£6.25
The mains range from – £11.25 – £12.95
The desserts range from – £4.95 – £6.50

For this month (until 31 January) you just need to pay £5 for the main course and a dessert from their Veganuary Menu which is available after 5pm).

Where is it located?

Bill’s Restaurant
3 Hardman Square,
Manchester M3 3EB

If trying to locate from a SAT NAV we suggest putting in the Ivy Manchester, as its just across from this location and unfortunately, as they only moved to this spot 3 months ago, the SAT NAV tends to take to their old address, just off Deansgate.

About Bill’s

Review by : Lex Ward

You may also want to read this:

Restaurant Review: The Botanist in Knutsford, Cheshire

Spend Valentine’s Day at Chorlton’s New Hip Vegetarian Restaurant

We reviewed Barristers Restaurant and Bar in Knutsford

*Disclaimer: We were invited to sample the food at Bill’s, all opinions are our own.