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Restaurant Review: Kimos, Liverpool

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Kimos Cafe – Brilliant Bargain Breakfasts

Kimos Cafe is perfect for Liverpool students looking for reasonably priced, often healthy lunches around the corner from campus. In my student days, Kimos’ breakfasts provided the crucial first steps of brutal hangover recovery – literally saving my life – on a regular basis. Thanks to Kimo-therapy I struggled through. Frugal tourists staying in surrounding hotels would be well advised to visit here first thing.

The Mediterranean Breakfast has long been a personal obligation, setting me up for the day ahead with a smile. I felt smugly cosmopolitan with my fresh orange juice, feta, pickles and falafel, perfectly content watching the weird and wonderful walking passed outside.

Kimos’ servers are consistently friendly and bring hot plates of food frighteningly quickly. The multicultural environment provides an informal and inclusive atmosphere. It makes a refreshing change to see all demographics coming together in a genuine manner free of corporate or government gloss.

Kimos’ music is dated, verging on bizarre, while their furniture is ergonomically designed for dwarves or NBA players. Although fixtures and fittings are rough around the edges, as Kimo’s is the same price point as bland, greasy-spoons, the interior design works wonders.

The food’s not all brilliant. Breakfast aside, Kimos’ menu is nothing but predictable. The burgers and chicken dishes are OK but uninspiring; it’s the salads which surprisingly provide more excitement.

Kimos Cafe Review Summary

Atmosphere 7/10    Cost 10/10   Quality 5/10   Service 7/10

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Bar Review: Keith’s Wine Bar, Aigburth

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Keith’s Wine Bar – Loveable Lark Lane

Keith’s Wine Bar is nestled on Lark Lane – the best street in Liverpool. Lark Lane was a hipster enclave before anybody knew what one was. Keith’s Wine Bar provided the ideal spot to watch artsy students, old-fashioned cabbies who define ‘scouser’ and shadowy alcoholics shuffling about in fine fettle. Lark Lane has managed to avoid Pret-A-Manger and Zizzi moving in, but I fear it’s only a matter of time. Nearby restaurants ‘Belly’ and ‘Meat Factory’ provide a sense of the neighbourhood.

Keith’s Wine Bar is about as unpretentious as a wine bar gets – which is no bad thing. That said, 1/5 score from the Food Standards Agency probably is a bad thing. The holes in the walls were not the idea of an interior design agency. With bohemian artwork and rough wooden tables set with dripping candles teetering from wine bottles, this is as shabby chic as Liverpool gets. For a moment I mentally drifted off to the continent until I overheard: “That’s a boss Pinot, that lad”.

The staff were approachable and provided the natural, witty rapport that Liverpudlians are genetically predisposed to offer. Contrary to reports, Keith’s Wine Bar isn’t dirt cheap, but it’s certainly reasonable. The wine selection is robust, with craft beers also available.

As Keith’s is, of course, a wine bar, I expected the cheeseboard not to be sourced from a dinner lady supplier. There was at least plenty of it, so much so I had nightmares for weeks.

Seek Keith’s out (but don’t tell anyone else).

Keith’s Wine Bar Review Summary

Atmosphere 8/10    Cost 7/10    Quality 5/10    Service 8/10

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Restaurant Review: Australasia, Manchester

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Australasia – Subterranean Spinningfields Chic

After several visits to Manchester’s Australasia, my opinion of Living Ventures (the operating company running Australasia) in general are consistently reinforced. The restaurant provided a solid niche which never failed to deliver. Unfortunately, Australasia’s niche was ‘where to take your soon-to-be high-maintenance girlfriend on a first date’. It’s a tricky genre to capture. Plenty try and fail. Australasia nailed it.

Located at Number 1, The Avenue, Spinningfields, Australasia’s the G-Spot of Manchester’s W.A.G circuit. Australasia’s calming neutral furnishing matched with tranquil, coral-reef finishing was captivating. It’s the kind of restaurant where you want to steal the hand soap and moisturiser. The attention to aesthetic detail running through the fixtures and fittings, to the glassware and crockery is wonderful, although “art” consisting of tiny fish with a knife (no, really) was odd. Australasia calls itself “a stylish sanctuary, hidden under the heart of Manchester”, which I can’t disagree with.

I was greeted with a broad smile and fluttering eye-lashes by a smartly dressed host straight from central casting. Australasia’s bar had elegantly tall, stylishly lit, well-stocked shelves all kept spotlessly clean. The trendily minimal menus listed drinks all sounding sexy and exotic – think lychees, hibiscus flowers and girly purees. I loved the swapping of Prosecco for Australian sparkling Chardonnay and oriental curiosities like jasmine foam and galangal.

I liked the menu. The Mrs loved the menu. It felt like the menu was written by a bitchy marketing manager, and corroborated by focus groups of skinny girls with their boyfriend’s wallets. It’s all pretty pieces of tuna, avocado, scallops and things on little skewers. Perhaps I’m just cynical…

Overall, Australasia provided healthy, small-portioned, sharp-flavoured, beautifully-presented food to peck at; paired with light, citrusy, floral cocktails crafted from premium products. Don’t get me wrong, these are good things. Unfortunately, the clientèle are similarly small portioned, beautifully presented, citrusy and floral – giving a slightly obnoxious atmosphere – sometimes rubbing off on the otherwise well-organised staff.

Australasia Restaurant
Review Summary

Atmosphere 8  Cost 5  Quality 9  Service 8

Australasia Spinningfields Manchester Bar Review
Alan Partridge’s Favourite – Ladyboy Martini
Australasia Spinningfields Manchester Bar Review
“Art”

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Australasia Spinningfields