Food Review: Liquor and Burn, Manchester

Luck, Lust, Liquor and Burn (or Liquor and Burn, even L&B for the acronym hungry) is one of three love children from mastermind Beau Myers, the other two being the infamous Almost Famous and Home Sweet Home. Although all three have different themes there is one common denominator - dirty, tasty food inspired by Americana. Saying they do it well would be an understatement.

At L&B the theme is Mexi-cali, a hybrid of the spiciness of Mexican cuisine with the greasiness and largeness of the portions you find north of the border in California. L&B explain how they became inspired, “We drove from Vegas to Mexico in a frenetic haze of food, booze and all the naughtiness the Golden State has to offer.”

Cue a daydream picturing ourselves driving down Route 66 in a convertible Mustang, taco in one hand balanced by a margarita in the other (not that we'd ever promote drink driving or anything) 

On entering L&B the red lighting leaves you feeling like you’re in the red light district of Amsterdam and someone is going to start singing The Police's ‘Roxanne’ (above) to you, but then the wonderful smell of cooking burgers and burritos hits you and nothing feels seedy. This is what we imagine is permanently in the nostrils of Adam Richman, the dude from Man vs. Food, and if we're right, he leads a charmed life.

Walking up the stairs to where the main restaurant is, our eyes are drawn to the impressive graffiti decorated walls. One piece reads “too weird to live…too rare to die” and it instantly reminds me of the graffiti outside Almost Famous, “burgers get you ripped” and oh we wish they did. It’s clear to see the team behind L&B have a sense of humour with other signs reading “Jesus loves tacos” and the décor feeling very relaxed and dare we say it, hip.

L&B isn’t a new offering in Manchester and it’s certainly earned its name as one of the top spots to go in the Northern Quarter of the city. Like many new restaurants you can’t book, but L&B sometimes has waiting times of two to three hours on weekends – proving they are popular and for good reason. They are now serving up a new menu that was launched at the end of October, bolstered by even more goodness than before.

In our eyes, L&B succeeds its bigger, better known brother Almost Famous purely down to the choice on the menu. There quite literally is something for everyone. Veggies? Don’t fancy spice? Want something small? Or something big? They’ve got it covered. 

We decided to give the cocktails a go, although we did find the font on the drinks menu really difficult to read, plumping for a Californication. It was a great combination of bitter and sweet and strong enough for you to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth, and the transition to beers once the food arrived was seamless.

We began with the Volcano Nachos, which came with drenched in beef and chorizo chilli, taco sauce, chipotle sour cream, guacamole, mayo, pico de gallo and jalapenos. It was a great combination of ingredients that paired nicely with the crunchy tortilla chips, the chilli was gloriously beefy and smokey but, if we're in a nitpicking mood, we would have preferred a little more chorizo.

For the main event we chose the Midnight Cowboy Steak Dinner (above) – the idea was to try something different from the usual burrito/taco offerings and we're really glad we did. At first, the thought of melted cheese, bacon, grilled onions, ranch and BBQ sauce on top of a steak sounded a bit sickly, and it felt like it could’ve been something straight off the menu of a Harvester, but we were proved resolutely wrong.

The saltiness of the cheese paired with the sweetness of the BBQ worked well with the juicy, pink steak with the added bonus of creamy ranch and crunchy onions. It also came with BBQ spiced fries and a little pot of their ‘wonder butter’ (bbq, smoke, garlic and butter), although the dip was a little strong and overpowering.

This would have been enough, but there a nice surprise when we tucked into the mini-saucepan full of coleslaw to be greeted by pulled pork at the bottom (if you're eagle eyed you can see it on the image, winking subtly at you). Who doesn’t love it when there is pulled pork hiding under their coleslaw?

We also tucked into a Triple Threat burger (main image) and a Chicken’ Lickin’ burrito which are both originals from the old menu. The burger combined pulled pork and bacon alongside sundried tomato alioli, with the Burrito boasting coriander pesto which was delicious. Both left the recipients looking extremely happy with their choices and clean plates.

Be aware that if you visit L&B you’ll need an elasticated waistband, a good sense of humour and eyes bigger than the biggest of big bellies. Combine that triplet though with a love of good food and you're onto a winner.

For more information on the restaurant head here. For other places to eat in Manchester, check our guide.