Food Review: Fazenda, Manchester

Image: Fazenda

The word ‘carnivore’ derives from Latin words ‘caro’ –meat and ‘vorare’ – to devour. These two words just about sum up the eating experience at Fazenda, Spinningfields.

Fazenda originated in Leeds, spread to Liverpool and has now opened its doors to the meat-loving taste buds of Manchester. The South American style restaurant aims to bring delicious barbecue meat to Manchester in a stylish, high-end setting and boy, does it succeed.

The ‘churrascaria’ restaurant looks modern and stylish from the outside and with high-fashion neighbours such as Emporio Armani and Mulberry, it is pretty hard to ignore. 

Inside, Fazenda make the food process simple but unique. You are given a card on your table and show the green side if you want meat for days, or turn to red for a well-deserved break. You are also given access to a gargantuan buffet full of cheese, cured meats, sushi and all the salad you could desire.

If you have not used the traffic-light system at a restaurant before, it takes some getting used to. After a brief but thorough explanation from a waiter we hit the buffet and opted for some tortilla chips, cured meat and spicy boiled potatoes. 

Buffets are often a disappointment, with reasons spanning from a lack of chicken drummers to depressing vol-au-vents. However, the buffet at Fazenda was another calibre. We could have quite happy just ate the Chorizo and Cheese Stuffed Peppers for the duration of the night. 

Sitting down with our buffet helpings, we switched our cards over to green. Anticipation was rising as we thought of what our first helping might be. Fazenda offer a total of 15 different meats and we were prepared for our meaty Russian roulette. 

Our ‘passadores’ (meat chef) came over and dished us up Barbecued Chicken wrapped in Bacon. The bacon was crispy – but not dry – and glistening. The chicken was succulent, juicy and flavoursome. We knew we were on to a winner!

After a few rotations of our cards, it became clear we were on a mission to sample as many different kinds of meat as we could. We sampled everything that was thrown at us, from pork ribs dripping with honey to mouth-watering gammon and skin-on fries. We were in some sort of heaven, and God was manning the barbecue.

Our personal favourite was the Pichana, a Brazilian speciality rump described by Fazenda as ‘melt in the mouth’. We can confirm this bold statement is true.

We accompanied our food with the Berry-Ade Mocktail. This tasted sweet concoction was the perfect solution for the designated driver! However, fine wine was in abundance and the staff really knew their stuff. They were also more than happy to make recommendations on what to go for from the truly impressive menu.

After round upon round of delicious meat, we had a breather and then decided to have a look at the dessert menu. Although this may be hard to believe, we took the plunge into ultimate gluttony and went for one.

Our weapon of choice was the chocolate mousse (check it out above). It may sound like something we picked up from our local M&S, but it was far from it. Our waitress advised us to “smash it up and mix it together” and we were but too willing to oblige.  The combination of the thick mousse and the shards of chocolate was to die for.  

The dessert rounded off a pretty spot on evening and it became clear why Fazenda is subject to many rave reviews. The service, the food, the décor and the drinks were all of the highest quality.

Our advice? Come here on an empty stomach - you'll need it.