"After wandering by, I've noticed the Jean Christophe Novelli inspired menus being advertised in the window, but have never paid a visit until now. A casino isn't usually the kind of place that we would consider specifically visiting for a meal, but we jumped at the chance to see why Restaurant 110 sits proudly near the top of Manchester's most highly rated restaurants (Feb 2009).

The restaurant itself is situated at the back of the casino area, and the two are separated by a curtain, so you don't ever really feel as if you're in a restaurant unless looking away from the casino area. The décor is fine, but has a slightly cheesy feel about it due to the casino views, its quite noisy and the booths are very large due to the inclusion of video screens, in case you fancy a flutter whilst at the table. It was fine, but never really felt like a proper restaurant.

Service was very friendly and semi formal, and our orders were taken promptly. The wine arrived very soon after, and was a perfectly acceptable, zesty Chablis, which paired well with the majority of our courses. We didn't see the option of wine per glass, so I'm assuming that its not available? The wine list on the whole was quite good though, with plenty of good value on there too.

We waited a fair while for our appetiser of bread, balsamic and olives to arrive, and eventually had to ask a waiter about it. They soon arrived, but unfortunately, the olives were bland, the balsamic slightly too harsh, and the bread was cold in the middle and semi burned on the outside, I assume as they were cooked too quickly after being forgotten? Consequently, our starters arrived just after we started the appetiser. We were already starting to suspect that the 'JC Novelli influenced menu' marketing, was simply that.

I opted for the Thai crab cakes, which were fine and well cooked, although the chilli mango accompaniment, and lack of any obvious lemongrass, fish sauce, galangal, or anything typically Thai, made them feel more Indian. My other half's Carbonara was huge, and would have made a decent main course. Despite being billed as Carbonara, it was more like a ham and mushroom Penne, with not too much flavour, but at the same time, not offensive either. Overall, very disappointing considering the rave reviews that this place has, along with its claims of being 'Fine Dining', which are unfortunately, so prevalent in Manchester's dining scene these days. During our starters, we were asked 3 times, by 3 separate waiters if everything was OK, which, as friendly as it was, gave a very disorganised feel to the service, especially after the forgotten appetiser.

We waited around 20 minutes for our mains, which I have to say, when arrived, were actually well worth it. My Crispy Duck on a bed of greens was well cooked, extremely tasty, and a few Chinese restaurants could learn a lot from the chef in this instance. The only gripe was the unusual sweet chilli-esque dressing, which didn't really fit, and I feel would have been a better match as Hoi Sin or Plum? My better half's Haddock on White Bean Mash, was superb. Lovely fish, well cooked, on a brilliant tasting bean puree. I'm meat obsessed, but was hoping that the Mrs wouldn't finish it, but she did unfortunately for me. The side of mixed veg was unremarkable, and the courgette was overcooked to a mush. I've got to say though, a side order wasn't really necessary as portion sizes on the mains were huge!

For desserts, we settled on Toffee Banana Fritters, which were OK, although a tad greasy, and the cheese board, which was a very disappointing, yet inoffensive mix of decent smoked cheddar, bog standard brie, and la roule. There was no sign of the blue cheese that the waiter mentioned before ordering, but nevermind. By this point we had already lowered our guard, and realised that this was nowhere near a fine dining establishment, so our critical minds had relaxed, and we were just enjoying the night out. The fact that the wine had been drank helped too, no doubt!

To sum up, this is indeed a very good eatery for one based in a casino, and the Hi Life card makes it great value, as is always the case wherever you use it. However, once again, as is becoming increasingly too common in our great city, this is nowhere near fine dining, and I really don't understand why so many places try give themselves this title. £40 a head and a man dressed in chef whites doing the cooking, doesn't constitute this title. Restaurant 110 is fine, as in acceptable, OK, decent, in almost every aspect. Still, our preference when paying around £80 for a meal and decent bottle of wine, is to eat in a real fine dining restaurant, and I don't see us returning unless it's for a flutter. Even then, without the Hi Life card, there really are handfuls of better, and 'finer', places to eat in town, for pretty much the same money.

Food 6/10 - Service 6/10 - Ambience 5/10 - Overall 6/10" - Chris Handley, Salford ~ TRUSTED REVIEWER (2/2/09 - visited on a saturday evening)

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