Chorlton Green Brasserie

Us teachers get stick all the time for our long holidays, while those 'ladies who lunch' always seem to get off scot free. I think I'd get pretty bored if I was a lady who lunched particularly as I wouldn't actually have anyone to go to lunch with. The summer holidays are enough for me, I get to rest my weary bones and sort my life out for six weeks before getting back into the busy school routine which also genuinely makes me happy.

This doesn't mean that I don't like to partake in a few typical ladies who lunch activities in my six weeks off - the odd spot of shopping, baking, flouncing around Chorlton, that sort of thing... Last week I met up with my fellow teacher / ladies who lunch (six weeks-per-year) friends Sam and Charlie for exactly those types of activities - a mooch down Beech Road and a delightful lunch. The location for the ladies' luncheon? Well it had to be somewhere truly fabulous, dahling; we decided on Chorlton Green Brasserie as somewhere none of us had been but we all wanted to try. The Brasserie itself is a very pleasant location for a ladies' lunch - cosy, homely and inviting.

First port of call, a ladies' drink! The wine list at the Brasserie is confidently organised into three sections: 'Good', 'Great' and 'Brilliant'. Being Spanish teachers and all, we were OBVIOUSLY going to be ordering a Spanish wine. Sam wisely chose us a bottle of El Tesoro Verdejo, swayed by the description of "fruit salad in a glass". This was an absolute treat and we all loved it - if this is what a bottle out of the 'Good' section tastes like, I'd be rather keen to experience something 'Brilliant'!

I have to admit I was less impressed by the lunch menu on offer, which, in comparison to the lip-smacking evening menu I've often drooled over, seemed to be a bit of a less exciting selection of sandwiches and pies. Soo unladylike dahling. Both Charlie and I went for sarnies whilst Sam ventured to the specials board for some mussels in red wine.

The sandwiches were great - proper big'uns with serious thick bits of good bread accompanied by a decent tasting side salad, a tasty coleslaw with fennel adding an unexpected aniseedy 'twist' to proceedings and freshly fried homemade parsnip crisps. Lovely. Mine was packed with thick smoked salmon and dreamy creamy avocado. The butter was salty and delicious but maybe a little too much of it for me, although I don't eat butter often so am quite unaccustomed. My fellow lady lunchers were pleased with their choices although don't think Sam was 100% sold on the red wine + mussels combo.

I'd forgotten that I'd also ordered a side of potato salad. This was OK but did taste a bit like the uber-healthy Slimming World potato salads I sometimes make. Charlie's side of chips were also OK too but a bit too fluffy in the middle she thought. Sides not as great as mains.

A ladies' lunch without dessert is not a ladies' lunch. So when we were offered the dessert menu we all did that polite "Oh, well we could have a look I suppose..." thing when we all KNEW we were totes getting a dessert. Charlie and I were intrigued by the Tasting of English Strawberries and both went for this. Ladies LOVE tasting strawberries don'tcha know. 

In appearance this really was the perfect dessert for ladies - SO pretty to look at, I almost didn't want to eat it! We loved the taste of the dessert too, beautiful little chocolate covered straweberries were fun to eat and the strawberry salsa topped with cream and gorgeous biscuity bits was compared by Charlie to "angels dancing on my tongue"! 

The only bit we weren't too taken with was the strawberry 'soup', which tasted a bit like weak strawberry water to us, but we let it off because it came in the cutest cup known to man. Overall though, a special dessert that I felt probably reflects more what the evening menu would be all about.

As you'd expect from a ladies' lunch we spent our time in Chorlton Green Brasserie relaxing, eating and gossiping about all kinds of ladies' things (OK, fine, just teaching) and the food, drink and atmosphere provided us with the perfect backdrop for a very pleasant experience. The member of staff who served us was very nice with us too (she understood the needs of us posh ladies very well). 

Seeing as I don't get to go for ladies' lunches very often, we were really pleased with our choice. I know that there are lots of places on Beech Road to choose from but I think I would definitely go back for lunch again, particularly as I only spotted the biggest scones I've ever seen on my way out of the Brasserie. However, before I do that I would really like to go back and try the evening menu. 

So if, like me, you are a only an occasional lady and want to go somewhere that you know will serve you decent food and a good bottle of wine in relaxed and very friendly surroundings, I would definitely recommend Chorlton Green Brasserie. Now, to go and get myself into a very unladylike panic about how close we are to September...