Don't serve windsor soup , pie n mash , pickled walnuts , egg butees or jam butees . Twas gud .

That's the best anewsr of all time! JMHO

After a long anticipated visit to Abode with fiends for a VERY special occasion we all came away completely and utterly dissapointed. Portion sizes were tiny and double the price of most restaurants in town. Apart from the bar area, which was cheerful and nicely finished, the rest of the decor was poor and lacked class. Service was slow and lacked clear communication. The waiter brought the wrong dishes - twice! chuckled at his mistake and swapped dishes a la Fawlty Towers after my guests had started to eat their meal! Totally bizarre!
I was expecting so more than this. Will the restaurant be there in a year's time? - I doubt it. Not on this performance.

Ok.... Here goes - Sorry Michael!
Six people for a doule birthday celebration. At least three of the party are serious bon-viveurs and eat at fine places on a regular basis.
Review...
Food: Creative, but not enough!
Wine: Good, although the full winelist did not appear until we were on the cheeses.
Price: Michael is having a laugh.
Atmosphere: Drapes hiding tatty walls... Hmmmm.
Staff/Service: Pleasant but talk too much and don't understand English too well. Plates were served to the wrong diners.
Overall: Over-hyped, overpriced. There are many restaurants in Manchester which knock the socks off this one for half the price (and price is not an issue here - it's price v quality. I won't be visiting again.

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I visited the cafe bar and grill for lunch yesterday with my husband and son. I had booked in advance for the 3 course tasting menu because it was a treat for my son for his 15th birthday. When we arrived we were told that we could only have the specials or brunch. My son had a burger which he enjoyed, my husband and i both had pheasant. The pheasant was tiny, not much bigger than a starter, the potatoes were brought out late because the chef had forgotten to add them to the plate. Dessert was delicious but again tiny. The food was very enjoyable but not enough of it for the price. I think my husband summed it up when he said i have never paid so much for so little. When the 12% service charge was added to the bill i did mention that although what we had eaten had been very nice i was disappointed that we were unable to have what we booked for, the response was that they had never served the tasting menu on Sundays and that he did not know who was answering his phone because all the staff were aware. To add insult to injury he suggested that this was a good reason to return again soon. Needless to say i will not be making the trip from York again.

Went out on Saturday with my husband and we are both really disappointed,

The Starters (Scallops and Crab Rav) were nice but not more than that, the mains even more average - my steak was poor in fact - over cooked, not great quality, and cut up for me (how kind!) the flavours and textures were . . . well okay is the best praise I can offer ... desserts equally disappointing - I don't think that chocolate and red peppers work and it wasn’t a clever or original twist on Chilli and Chocolate. The Crème Brulee wasn’t really Crème Brulee

A £190 bill including wine and 2 glasses of Champagne . . .

Fine Dinning? I don’t think so

We booked a table at the Michael Caines restaurant in Manchester, as a special birthday celebration for a work colleague on Wednesday 8th April 2009. We chose the Abode as it was No 3 on the top 10 list of places to dine in town. Like all the other good people who have posted reviews, we were very disappointed with the portion sizes too. There were six of us and we opted to order grazing dishes from the Al La carte menu, as the set menu was very limited with little choice. Upon the arrival of the chosen dishes, we quickly realised we should have (a) brought along a magnifying glass (b) eaten dinner before we went out and (c) applied for a bank loan!
In fairness, the food was well cooked and very tasty, but it's difficult to understand why someone going out for dinner would actually enjoy eating 'like a sparrow....We all came away hungry, but the bill was ?219.00 and all we were drinking was sparkling water!
Another huge disappointment experienced was that messages don't seem to filter through from the person who takes the table booking to the staff on the actual night..I had specifically asked for the table to be dressed for a birthday party, we arrived and it was bare..... the maitre d did attempt to blow up some balloons (after I expressed my displeasure at this obvious error) but failed, saying there must be something wrong with them.

The restaurant manager decided to waive the cost of the glasses of champagne to say sorry for the lack of table decoration(or there would have been another ?60 on the bill for those!



We found the whole experience rather pretentious and 'old hat' and couldn't believe how packed the place was, considering we are in a recession and everyone is looking for good value for money! There are so many other 'up market' restaurants with great food, service and atmosphere (AND with live music)to choose from, we will not be going back for second helpings(pardon the pun) Adding insult to injury they put 12% service charge on our bill.We found the service a little slow, lots of staff but all looking the 'other way' when needed..

Bear in mind also, there are two flights of stairs going down to this basement restaurant and no natural light and anyone above a size 8 will find the toilet cubicles ridiculously tiny, mind you, eat in the restaurant every night for a couple of weeks you will probably drop two dress sizes....

All in all,it was an experience none of us is eager to repeat....my advice to the owners, if they're at all interested is.....Lower your prices, increase portion sizes and be aware there are numerous other very fine dining establishments who are offering far better value than you are.

We went to this restaurant as part of our annual trip to a decent restaurant. Last year we went to la gavroche in London which was fantastic. The meal tonight was the polar oposite and at ?100 per person was a travesty.

We arrived and ordered an apertif drink- which arrived during our main course. We had the tasting menus which did not have a selection of wines, slightly strange. Or waiter did choose some wine for each course which was ok but only because we had a large party. There was a party of women who appeared to be on a hen do at the retsurant who got drunk and strated singng football songs in the restuarnet, before smashing glasses on the floor and vomiting in the mens toliet- which the staff didnt clean up

The service was very poor. The maitre de was ok but the bar staff in particular were rude and slow. The food was mediocre at best, with the dessert being particularily bad. The rest of the food was ok but certainly not up to the standards that one would expect paying ?100 for a meal.

So the combination of vomit in the toilet, football songs being sung, mediocre food and rude service makes this restuarnt one to definately avoid, with any luck the credit crunch will cause this place to close down.

we went on saturday evening and tried it - pretty disappointing.

If you are going to try nice tastes and flavours then this will be a hit, if you actually want a meal then i suggest having dinner before you go.