I came across Banyan when I was trying to find somewhere near the Manchester Arena for food, as I was going to see something there. I knew that the Corn Exchange had been refurbished and lots of restaurants have moved in. Owing to the warm weather in Manchester at the time, I decided that somewhere that served salads would be a good option, and settled on Banyan. With my partner in tow, we headed inside.
I actually quite like the inside of Banyan. The mixture of wood and metallic elements alongside soft furnishings and plants gives it a very warm feeling. I really like the greeny blue colour going through the interior from the colour of the bar to the menus. The windows are really large so they let in a fair amount of sunlight. There is also ample seating outside if you manage to catch Manchester on a sunny day.
I originally wanted to order a Mango Tango but was informed that they ran out of mangoes, how disappointing. I haphazardly ordered a Revitalise, which contains kiwi, blueberry, raspberry, passion fruit, apple and lime. This was nice enough but not as nice as the Banyan Blushing Mexican, which contained guava, almond, blueberry, cucumber and lime topped with ginger. The latter was sweeter and appealed to me more.
The bang bang chicken salad contains chicken breast, shredded vegetables, cashews and peanuts, drizzled with a lime chilli dressing. I always tend to like Asian style salads as they mix sweetness with sourness and saltiness perfectly with sometimes a hint of heat; this salad fits all those categories. It's a shame there isn't a lot of it on the plate. Salads aren't known for their bulk, so more vegetables would have been nice. Artisan does a better version of the bang bang chicken, and it's advertised as a small plate.
I ordered the grasole porcini mushrooms & garlic ravioli with black truffle and porcini foam as it combined two of my favourite things, mushrooms and garlic! This item was on their specials, so it's not normally available. This plate looked small initially, but it's actually quite filling. Their ravioli were generously filled and they were not shy with the garlic either. I did find this dish too salty, though.
It took us ages to get our drinks and even longer to grab someone to place our food orders. Once you did grab the attention of someone, the service was quite decent. I would probably not visit again. This place is an upmarket pub, so maybe if you want drinks with ok-ish food, but I feel like you could get better elsewhere for the price. read more