The Refuge by Volta at the Palace Hotel

Having met Felix, far damper than I had imagined when posing the dress code suggestion, we sought out the The Refuge at the Palace Hotel. My last, admittedly vague, memory of the venue was a muddle of cheap red wine, ravioli and a primary school-esque disco—I was hoping that my second trip would provide something more memorable.

The Refuge is the second culinary endeavour from Justin Crawford and Luke Cowdrey, two DJ’s who were active in the Manchester clubbing scene in the latter half of the 90s and early noughties, curating a night called ‘Electric Chair’ (now no longer in circulation, r.i.p). Having opened their first restaurant ‘Volta’, known for its relaxed atmosphere and frill-free platters, in Didsbury in 2013 to critical acclaim, the ravers come restaurateurs jumped at the opportunity to curate the food and drink in the newly refurbished Palace Hotel.

Fortunately the restaurant was not in the same characterless, underground event room that my previous visit had lead me to. Instead, it was situated above ground, in a wing just off the rather grand reception, where the ceilings were the heavens…almost, and the large bull in the foyer of the hotel gave promise of tender meat and strong flavours.

We ordered four starters to share: Slow cooked ox cheek with egg and Sriracha, Serrano ham with olive oil and bread, Baby squid, ink, lime, and Tuna tartare with avocado and passion fruit, before being told that they would bring things out ‘as they come’. Now this seems to have become ‘a thing’ in restaurants over the last couple of years, but for the life of me I can’t work out why. I might sympathise if I’m eating cheap fast food, but not if I’m in a reasonably fancy restaurant; it seems to be an excuse for laziness, for not being able to plan and prepare meals to come out together. Perhaps its the result of a generation’s short attention span, a generation who want everything right here, right now—but hey! You wouldn’t rush an artist, so don’t rush a chef! Patience is a virtue, lets nurture it from time to time.

The ox cheek was beautifully cooked, it was tender and wonderfully accompanied by a runny fried egg scattered with spicy Sriracha. The tuna was disappointing, and while I love beef tartare for its raw, meaty texture, the cubes of tuna made me feel like I was eating small cubes of jelly, rather than what is generally a dense, muscly fish. The addition of the passion fruit was unnecessary, and I was also expecting the avocado to come mashed, with a little texture, it instead came as a puree made it feel like baby food, rather than a cleverly constructed accompaniment. The squid starter was more interesting, for the accompanying ‘ink’ was presented in the form of a black aioli, something that I’d never seen before, which gave the whole platter an interesting look as it offset the green of the lime and the yellowy deep-fried squid.

Felix and I spoke mostly of the food throughout the meal, moving from dish to dish and enjoying trying to describe why we felt the way we did about each one. When we moved onto the ham, olive oil and bread, he commented: “Ham is ham”—I agreed with him. Admittedly he went on to say that he thought it was sometimes exceptional when the kitchen cured their own meat, or had supplied it from somewhere special, but lets pretend he didn’t for the sake of his “it is what it is” quote.

We shared a belly stuffed whole sea bass with pine nuts, coriander and preserved lemon for our main course, accompanied by a side of ‘brocolini’, in this case a glorified tender stem with a sprinkling of fried garlic. The pine nuts and lemon complimented the often delicate flavour of bass, but the long thin sticks of ginger were overpowering and ruined the fish for both of us – Felix “subtly” squeezed his eyes at various points to deal with this.

‘The glamour of Manchester’, inscribed on the beautiful tiles encompasses the feel of the building, its high ceilings and pillars, dimly lit dining room, granite bar, red felt pool table, and its beautiful glass atrium. It all works to evoke the past of this historic hotel, while fusing it with the present day, with Volta, with contemporary food trends. The dishes need refining, but the taste is there in abundance, with Crawford and Cowdrey curating not just a restaurant but a milieu of class and style. It’s not an everyday student eat, but when Mum and Dad are in town, it’s worth a look-see.