Night and Day Bar review – for food

Once upon a half decade ago I took Brazilian MTV to Night and Day. Their presenter was the single most beautiful girl I've ever taken on a guided tour: that potent Samba mix of white, black, indian and god-knows what ethnic origins.

A band called Sonar Yen were playing and the lead singer was so transfixed by the MTV gal from Sao Paulo dancing to his tune, he dropped his mike and the rest of the band paused to watch. You really couldn't blame them.

The presenter's brother was the producer of the programme and got plastered. As he was being helped into the crew's minibus outside the venue, he was shouting in that sweet sibilant Brazilian accent the rhetorical question: “Ish thish the besht rock'n'roll bar in the world? Ish it?”

Well it may well be that. How do you define the best rock'n'roll bar anyway? But it's certainly a one-off in Manchester, a cross between something you might expect in downtown New York with something you might find on York University campus. In otherwords, gloriously free of marketing department bollocks. Random, as my kids would say.

Night and Day is all about the music of course with a giddy list of monthly gigs. It's so much about the music it might surprise you that it does food. Anyway after the encounter with Moon Under Water earlier in the week, passing with a friend, it seemed a good idea to see how Night and Day's basic bar food shaped up to Wetherspoons' mega pub menu.

My, my, how it shone in comparison.

I had the All Day Meaty Breakfast (£5.95), my buddy had the Night and Day Beefburger (£5.95).

The breakfast was fabulous. It had a perfect pair of runny fried eggs, Heinz (of course) baked beans, crispy-yet-soft-inside hash browns and a good solidly spiced Cumberland sausage and best of all some divine Cheshire dry-cured bacon.

This was a surprise. I'd imagined I was in for something stale and lifeless, a bottom-of-an-old boot breakfast selection, but no, here was British food in all its artery-clogging loveliness. Bless this fine nation I mumbled involuntarily pulling myself upright from a gut reaction to lick the plate.

There was even a certain charm about the four half slices of Warburton's bread and the Lakeland butter pads on the plate. The only downside was a lack of rugged Bury black pudding.

Now, I thought, I best turn my attention to the beefburger on the other side of the table. I was too late. The beefburger shimmered in my vision and then melted away in the seconds it took me to prepare the camera. “You hungry?” I asked. “Gruffmumpyardome,” said my friend with his mouth full, leaving an unphotographable mess on his plate and over his lower jaw.

After reading my paper for five minutes whilst the bolus of a burger slipped down his alimentary canal, I asked pointlessly if he'd liked it. “What do you think?” he muttered.

There are other interesting things on the menu. I quite like the sound of the Superfood Original Salad (£4.65) for instance, with 'broccoli, alfalfa, strips of cucumber, avocado, quinoa, toasted seeds, feta, fresh mint, parsley, lemon and extra virgin olive oil.”

Wonderful.

Toasted seeds. Oh the joy. Mind you the Moroccan meatballs don't look too bad.

The food was washed down with hearty Belgian Leffe beers. One quality in which Night and Day is way behind Wetherspoons is on real ale: they don't have any. This might indicate the age-difference in audiences between the gig-going feisty youngsters at the one venue and the cash-strapped older generations at the other. Still, there are loads of spirits and a basic range of wines at Night and Day which is better than that at Wetherspoons.

Overall this was a great cheap lunch. And sort of exciting too, with all the gig posters and the stage for the bands at the back of the room.

Not that Night and Day will be to everybody's taste. The food was good, but casual. Everything else is so rough around the edges you could use it as sand-paper: stained menus and tatty furniture.

There is one thing the management should have a word about. Half way through the meal I looked up to see the barmaid at one end of the bar brushing her teeth. Or rather I had to look twice as I couldn't believe my eyes.

I wondered if she was was being filmed for an advert for some type of toothpaste: an advert with the strapline: Clean Teeth Night and Day.

But no, she was just being stupid. The action following a vigorous teeth clean is toothpaste spit, which is something you don't want to contemplate half way through a meal. Unless of course Toothpaste Spit are on the posters at Night and Day, headlining next Wednesday week.

Bar Rating:	13/20
Breakdown:	3/5 food 3/5 drinks 2/5 service 5/5 (according to taste) ambience
Address:	Night and Day Cafe 26 Oldham Street City M1 1JN 0161 236 4597 www.nightnday.org

Venues are rated against the best examples of their kind: fine dining against the best fine dining, cafes against the best cafes. Following on from this the scores represent: 1-5 saw your leg off and eat it, 6-9 get a DVD, 10-11 if you must, 12-13 if you’re passing,14-15 worth a trip,16-17 very good, 17-18 exceptional, 19 pure quality, 20 perfect. More than 20: Gordo gets carried away