Gino D’Acampo My Restaurant

They’ve only been open a couple of weeks, and that over the Christmas period. We’d normally give a new restaurant a month or more to work out their teething issues but the reviews on TripAdvisor were good (all 5*) so we went for an evening meal. Hopes were high after a particularly poor experience at another celebrity Italian restaurant in town. That used to be a bank.
The newly opened Gino D’Acampo My Restaurant has a great feel — the staff are very welcoming and the service couldn’t be faulted all evening. They know their menu and drinks and are perfectly happy to engage and offer advice and recommendations. Cocktails to start arrived in reasonable time and were well prepared and presented.
Starters were alright. Plain tomato bruschetta was decent enough, tomatoes well marinated, not huge portions but not so small as to cause offence. The arancini were a touch on the dry side, not the sumptuous gooey balls of cheesy flavour that you can get elsewhere.
Mains were a mixed bag. The lobster spaghetti was very tasty — a generous portion presented on half of the crustacean’s shell. At £17 it’s one of the most expensive items on the menu but justified that price. The recommended glass of white to accompany it was a perfect match.
The aubergine parmigiana arrived obviously burned. How it made it over the pass I’m not sure, but cutting into it revealed a rock hard bottom later, rigid edges and a dryness that didn’t appeal. It was sent back. The floor manager visited us to explain that the replacement would be black around the edges, too. A few minutes later the second portion arrived and was obviously another section of the original bake, reheated. It was also dry and burned at the edges but clearly as good as this dish was going to get. With the original tray so overbaked, the dish should simply have been taken off the menu.
All in all, a pretty average experience with highs and lows. There are so many options in Manchester that it’s unlikely we’ll be back.