(Lil Wayne)
Dough – NQ Manchester
Dough is another restaurant in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, sitting at the junction of High Street and Thomas Street, across from Hunter’s on High Street and ‘Bluu’ on Thomas Street. Being West of High Street puts it on the edge of the Northern Quarter, with only a few bars further ‘out’ (Apotheca, TV21 and Trof). They’ve been in the building, a former jewellery wholesaler’s showroom for over five years and are, to say the least, well established.
Dough, Manchester
The restaurant is light and airy, with vast windows that look out over the High Street/Thomas Street junction. It’s a pleasant enough place to sit and watch the world go by, although on one occasion I witnessed a ‘Big Issue’ seller engage in a fight with a local beggar.
I digress, Dough has a wide selection of pizzas, with a few pasta and salad options available. But it’s mostly pizza, ranging from the ‘standard’ Margarita, through to ‘Breakfast’ whose toppings include Bacon, Sausage and Egg. On a previous visit they had a ‘Fish and Chips’ pizza that featured mushy peas and tartare sauce, but I figured that was probably a pizza too far.
On this occasion a crowd of us went for a lunchtime trip and my palate was tempted by Dough’s ‘Honey Spiced Chicken pizza’, which the menu described as ‘Tender pieces of chicken marinated in sweet honey and hot chilli, with mixed peppers, sweet corn and chillis garnished with a drizzle of sesame seed and coriander oil’ – what’s not to like about that?
Honey Spiced Chicken Pizza at Dough, Manchester
It arrived on what Monty Python would describe as ‘a waffer thin base’, with large pieces of chicken that were accurately described as ‘tender’. The sweet honey (is there any other sort?) and hot chilli (likewise) were well balanced taste-wise; the whole thing tasted delicious. If one were to criticise, I might suggest that either the sweet corn or the sweet peppers were perhaps superfluous, but all in all it was a tasty, imaginative and well-made pizza.
Others in my group tried the goats’ cheese salad, the mushroom pizza, the ‘rustica’ pizza and the smoked salmon tagliatelle, all declared their meals delicious, and at just under a tenner per pizza, not stupid value for a well-respected venue in a thriving part of a major city centre.
Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle at Dough, Manchester
Mushroom Pizza at Dough, Manchester
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