Slattery's Patissier and Chocolatier

Doyle's birthday and the perfect excuse to pay the famously brilliant Slattery's Patissier and Chocolatier a visit!

I've heard people banging on about this place left, right and centre since I moved to Manchester and we've always tried to think of occasions we could make the trip "up north" for some of their illustrious cakes, chocolates and baked delights.

So imagine our joy when Jeni told us she would be booking a table and that Doyle wanted to complete "THE Famous Chocolate Challenge". If there is one thing I love when I am going out for a good meal it is the added excitement of a challenge.

Slattery's Day was absolutely boiling hot but I wanted to make sure this didn't stop me from enjoying Slattery's treats as I would have any other day. Jeni and I both started our meals off with a nice herbal tea. The great thing about all our drinks was that they came with a large chocolate disk, yum. I went for Green Tea Passion which was lovely and refreshing, while Jeni went for Chocolate Orange Truffle which she wasn't actually sure about. I liked it but it did taste like Christmas.

For main I decided to go for a Greek Salad. I feared I may have been going for a bit of a boring choice but what with the weather a salad was just the ticket. When it arrived I couldn't have been more thrilled. It was a massive bowlful of crispy lettuce, veggies, olives, tasty red onions and absolutely loads of chunks of creamy, crumbly feta cheese. Delicious. On the side was a perfectly chewy pitta and some lovely houmous. What a great choice.

Jeni also went for a salad - Tuna Nicoise. She said that although this was a "harsh choice", she couldn't fault it. Her's was huge too.

Doyle had a Halloumi Bagel which looked insane with a gorgeous poppy seed bagel and mountains of salad - I got a bit of order envy over this one. I can't remember exactly what he said but he was a happy man.

Bailey ordered his all time favourite of a Club Sandwich. He bloody loves club sandwiches. This was no exception, much "heftier" than he expected with a creamy coleslaw and really nicely balanced. His only complaint was a bit of over-toasted bread here and there.

Bailey also made the excellent decision to order a side of potato wedges. I have to say these were one of the best things about the whole meal - again a really big portion, really crispy and really tasty - kind of like southern wedges. As it was such a big bowl we all got to get stuck into these which was great.

Of course it would be rude to go all the way to Slattery's and not have a dessert. I wanted to try some (more) of their famous chocolate but also some of their baked goods. Bailey and I decided to share a scone with jam and clotted cream, as well as Mrs Slattery's Cake Sampler of four chocolate cakes.

The scone was lovely and dense with tasty jam. The most impressive part of it was the clotted cream that was so rich and clotted, it resembled a dish of butter more than cream, with a hard, yellow surface with a thick, gooey texture underneath. Amazing.

The sampler was brilliant and we loved all four of the cakes. There was a type of rich millionaire's shortbread, a chocolate orange slice, a soft truffley one and a white chocolate and red fruit one. Adorning the dish was two chocolate cups filled with melted chocolate and whipped cream. Really delicious and I was very happy and surprised that every delicious chocolatey cake was as good as the other. My only disappointment was that we couldn't eat it all. I reckon on a winter's day we could have nailed it.

Jeni's dessert was Strawberry and Marshmallow Kebabs which our waiter recommended as one of the most popular. This also came with chocolate cups of melted milk and white chocolate for dipping. What a lovely pud.

Now onto the nitty gritty. Doyle of course went for the Chocolate Challenge.

A ridiculous amount of chocolate, it consists of a massive slab of chocolate fudge cake, three chocolate cups filled with two types of melted chocolate and ice cream, an even bigger chocolate cup filled with a pile of cream, a glass of hot chocolate and not forgetting loads more of those darned chocolate disks scattered all over the place.

I really thought that Doyle was going to be successful as I know he has quite the sweet tooth but unfortunately it wasn't to be. He started to struggle very early on due to the richness of all the chocolate and although he ate quite an impressive amount he had to give up with about half of the plate still left. Such a shame but a valiant effort!

Still, thinking about it since and looking at the menu again I think The Chocolate Challenge is a great dessert try even if you don't manage to eat it all or if you choose to share it between a few of you. It's certainly excellent value at £12 when a hot chocolate alone is £4.

Anyway, our visit to Slattery's was positively splendid. Everything about it was just great, including the atmosphere of the place (full of posh ladies what lunch) and the service provided by lovely staff who were so happy to talk to us and at no point rushed us out of our table despite the fact they had people queuing to get in. The price wasn't bad either at about £20 per head which would be steep for any other café type place but as the place was so posh, the food was of such an excellent standard and the portions were massive, they pulled it off.

We will definitely be returning to Slattery's for some more fantastic food and drinks. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a posh lunch and for all you South Manchester folks, don't let the distance put you off as it's very easy to get to and just a short hop off the M60. If I am rich in the future I will definitely be using them for all my celebration cake needs. A fantastic experience.