"As we're based in the same building, above Choice in Castlefield, we should apologise to Jon, the owner, for not visiting anywhere near enough. Running a restaurant guide moreorless means eating out every night all across the city and it's the restaurants closest to home that you tend to ignore. It's for that reason that we were extremely pleased Choice was voted 'Members' Restaurant of the Year' at the Pride Of Manchester Awards 2008 and prompted us to book a table for Mother's Day.

The Pride Of Manchester Award is just another in the already bulging trophy cabinet that Choice boasts. This place has won more awards than Sir Alex Ferguson and it's no surprise why! The service was as professional as ever, the impressive wine list (with most available by the glass too!) is matched by an equally impressive beer list and the ambience was spot on, as always! The selection of dishes on the a la carte menu, all made with locally sourced products, was superb, with many regional favourites to choose from. Although it didn't affect our visit, the Sunday (and Mothers' Day) menu is a bit restrictive if you don't like your red meat, but at just £12.95 for two courses is arguably one of the best restaurant offers in Manchester.

For starters, the North West Terrine was worthy of mention, if purely for the fact it expertly combines Bury Black Pudding with Cumberland Sausage and Cheshire Ham. The mustard dressing was a little overpowering though and would have been better served as an accompaniment rather than artistically drizzled over the top. For mains, The Roast Lamb was cooked to perfection and, together with the Roast Beef, is one of the best Sunday dishes to be found anywhere in town. The Steak Burger, covered in Lancashire Cheese, is also very nice on the taste buds, if not the waistline. And the same could be said for the desserts, one of Choice's biggest selling points - each of the desserts are even more a work of art as the main dishes and we're still to have a better Sticky Toffee Pudding anywhere in town.

Away from the superb value daily set menu's, prices are a lot higher (starters and desserts around £5.50 with mains around the £17 mark) although when a chef can produce dishes as good as these, even the tightest of tightarses would begrudge paying. It's no surprise that Choice won more votes from our Mailing List members than any other restaurant in town. It's a faultless operation that's well worth many a repeat visit and, we've promised to ourselves, to visit on a more regular basis too! " - Manchester Restaurants 3/1/08 (visited on mothers day sunday)

"This restaurant was a huge disappointment. We wandered in at 8:30pm on a Friday evening and were surprised at the emptiness of the dining room (about one third full). We should have taken that as a warning sign. My partner's starter of Goat's Cheese was beautifully creamy, but she couldn't comment on its flavour as it was overwhelmed by an unpalatable melange of strawberry jam and balsamic vinegar. The cheese was much improved by scraping the sweet globs of sugar to the side of the plate, but the cheese alone was also curiously homogeneous in texture. Perhaps some variety in the form of a crunchy melba toast may have helped. My Terrine of Bacon, Black Pudding and Cumberland sausage was pleasant overall, but spoiled by a honey and mustard dressing that was hot enough to sear the back of the throat. Now, I like mustard, but I do not appreciate it setting fire to my sinuses as it did in this dish. Once the offensive dressing had been removed, the terrine itself was rather nice, but couldn't make up for the initially poor taste.

Unfortunately, the mains were not much better. My Vegetable Crumble was topped with an unpleasantly greasy mess, and its tomato sauce tasted more of Campbell's soup than the promised tarragon. My partner's Belly of Pork was worse, as a nicely presented dish was ruined by a sickly honey and cider sauce. It was so sweet it made our teeth hurt, and I had to return it to the kitchen. To the credit of our waiter, he was immediately apologetic and promised to take it off the bill. We didn't request a replacement main course, but instead ordered the cheese plate to finish. Three cheeses (or possibly two, as two had almost identical flavour) came with plain biscuit and a delicious walnut relish. The relish was the high point of the evening, and we would certainly have it again. Unfortunately, my Eton Mess tasted less of fresh strawberries than the same strawberry jam that had been foisted upon my partner's starter, and I couldn't finish it.

The service was adequate. Our waiter meant well, but several delays - we were waiting a long time for water, it took a while to get attention to return my inedible main course, and port to accompany the cheeseplate had to be asked for twice - rather ruined the evening, In summary, we won't be back until they hire a chef that can exercise some quality control before plates leave the kitchen. Sweeter is not necessarily better, and even someone with the palate of a sugar-fixated ten-year-old would have issues with the current menu at Choice!" - dermot, manchester 20/4/07 (visited on a friday evening)