King Street is becoming a little haven for decent food these days.  In a short window of time, many of the the fancy clothes shops which once populated the street relocated to Spinningfields, which created lots of empty units on Manchester's once finest retail stretch.  They were quickly filled with good quality, mid-range food purveyors, mainly starting at the very top of the gradual hill which is now an Italian restaurant hive, now spreading down towards the Deansgate end of things.  In addition to this, a couple of years ago, tapas, chichetti, meze, street food, call it what you will, small plate style dining hit Manchester in a big way. 

The bottom of King Street was then bestowed with a rather decent tapas 'bar' in the form of El Gato Negro, which quickly became a massive hit in the area, winning all manner of awards and getting bags of attention.  Such things will always prompt other people to follow suit.  Suri was announced and seemed like a similar theme, only in the middle east/Mediterranean line of cuisine.

As soon as you stride in, it's a stunning place and you feel happy.  Sadly though, our greeting was to be fair, a little less inviting than the lighting.  Akin to when you go into a nice shop to buy some new shoes without having made an effort to dress up, every so often you get a salesperson (who ironically usually can't actually afford to shop where they work), who assumes that you can't afford to shop there either, something which is very clear via their manner.  The greeting at Suri was reminiscent of that ranty analogy, sadly.  Anyway, we were shown to our table upstairs, which was very nice, overlooking the kitchen.  We asked for the adjacent booth instead, as that was nicer still. 

Our drinks order and a menu tour was provided by a bubbly and welcoming young lady, who promptly reversed her colleague's pomp, and gladly looked after us for the rest of the evening.

Now this is a Meze / Tapas style of meal, fast paced yet relaxed so with that in mind let's get down to it; the olives were as they said on the tin.  Scented with rose for that themed tie in.  But just olives.  Not particularly amazing for the £4 charged, but all OK. Persian Spiced Bread (£4) was excellent though, being well cooked, with great flavour, and great scratch made hummus, with a nice texture, being not too smooth, or not too grainy. 

Manchego Samosas were 3 well folded bad boys made with filo, filled with plenty of middle eastern delights such as honey, with white truffle oil.  I'm not sure if they were £7.50 good, but were absolutely enjoyable.  Crunchy Cauliflower (£5.50) was pleasant enough, but not at all crunchy due to being overblanched, which would make it pretty hard to get crunchy afterwards no matter what you did to it, Josper oven or not.  Still, it had good flavour, and overcooked cauliflower is one of my guilty pleasures in truth.  Childhood memories of my Mum's cauli cheese perhaps?  One of those things which you unapologetically love, even if it's not technically right. Like a Pot Noodle.  You know it's wrong, but you love it anyway. 

Blackened Hake (£13.50) was well cooked but aswell as a nice plump part of the fillet, also came with a scrag end which was way more cooked than the chunkier section, and also looked a bit naff on the plate.  But it was generally a good plate of flavour and texture. I'm not a massive quinoa fan, but it was well made on this occasion, doing my favourite fish justice.  Ox Cheek (£10) was a little stunner, something which the entire table agreed on.  Shredded, well spiced, cooked to perfection. We could have ordered a couple more portions of this without question. 

Lamb Chops, presented well with red onions, tzatziki and pomegranate, cooked pink, and went down a treat.  £12.50 for 3 little cutlets though, felt a tad ambitious?  Pricy stuff, but then I say its only expensive if you didn’t enjoy it, and we did.  Steak, the cut of which wasn’t mentioned (despite costing £14.50), but we suspect as being blade steak, was on point. Well cooked, aged without haste, bags of flavour, and came with a pretty snap jar of harissa hollandaise. 

Side wise, Za'tar Fries were sadly a bit undercooked in fairness, and for £5 a portion, in a city which loves its chips, was a bit inexcusable really.  The Za'tar flavour was a nice spin on the ordinary spud though.  Finally, Pickled Roots (£5) were excellent, being only lightly pickled which was great, with brilliant zing and acidity, which complemented the richer dishes that we sampled, especially the ox cheeks.

Puddings were OK, and all scratch made to boot, as is too seldom seen in even mid-range places these days.  Chocolate Brownie was tasty but badly under baked, with the centre being beyond goo to the point that it was indeed still batter, whilst the outside was cooked well with good mottled crust.  Our resident brownie queen pointed out that the oven was too hot when cooking this one.  We ate it all anyway and it tasted lovely. 

Pannacotta was pleasant, but as with many puds from certain parts of the world, it felt forced, and not really in keeping with the cuisine.  It was well made, had a nice wobble, and the fruit was fresh.  Simple stuff, but nice enough.  Finally we had the mixed fruit, which was again alright nicely roasted and presented in a snap top jar.

Whilst sitting and pondering things post-pud, the verdict was that we'd like to go back in a few weeks once the kitchen and front of house are totally bedded in, and things are flowing more naturally, without excessive unfamiliarity.  It's never really fair to judge a place on its first service though, as much as every food writer vies to get in there first to judge the new kid on the block and of course sample the delights on offer.

As the first service drew to a close and all the food orders had gone out, the kitchen staff embraced.  It felt like the start of something good on King Street.  There were undeniably a few cooking errors for sure, but generally we liked the vibe of the place and standards were promising.  Also, it's something new in the city, and let's be honest, punters on King Street won’t moan about paying a fiver for some fries, and most of them won't care if they are undercooked either. 

You could see clear passion in the kitchen though, so we have faith that such things will be ironed out before you can say fatoosh.  Experienced Head Chef Guy Callister paid a visit to every single table after service and gathered feedback, which was a nice touch too, as much as I don’t know if this will continue after the first service. Why not though, if he has time?  It's hospitable for sure, and few things make a diner feel more valued than some Chef chat.

We paid the bill, which came in at £140 for 9 tapas size dishes, bread, olives, water and a nice bottle of Shiraz…. plus the annoying added 'optional' service charge which London dining rooms are now ditching, and so should everybody else.  Our departure was handled well by the manager too, with a good genuine handshake to the gents, and a kiss on the cheek to the ladies.  Fortunately this left a better impression then when we landed. It was done, even if we were all dressed in accordance to having worked out of coffee shops and other dining rooms from 7:30am that morning.  I'll keep the nice shoes back for next time we head to King St, so might even get a kiss on entry then too? ~ Sandra Handley, Restaurants Of Manchester Trusted Reviewer (Friday 10th March 2017)