Butter Bird Launch

There’s been a bit of a rotisserie renaissance happening across Manchester for a while now.  The first that we can think of is the superb Tartuffe down on Quay Street.  Then a little further out of town you have The Trading Route, whose chickens have become a thing of local legend.  And heading right out of town over to the relative sticks out in Ramsbottom, you have Wunderbar whose Bavarian style rotisserie is super delicious.

But a couple of weeks ago saw this tasty trend continue to blossom down in arguably the city’s premier food focused postcode, and that is of course Ancoats.  Bang in the middle of Cutting Room Square to be exact.  We were invited down to take a look.

Butter Bird showcases their signature brand of rotisserie which is backed up with a strong Crémant menu to add a bit of a USP.  For those who don’t know much about Crémant, then it's a more affordable cousin of Champagne which is made across France using local grape varieties, only with the same production method as Champagne itself.

In short, it's a great way to get your lips around some top-quality juice without paying the largely marketing driven premiums which come along from the Champagne region.

But getting back to the food, Butter Bird offer rotisserie chickens, and aubergines for those who prefer it, along with a choice of flavoured butters including lemon, thyme & pepper, or tarragon, mustard & honey, or even a chermoula butter for those who prefer a spicier kick.   We kicked off with some chicken fat popcorn and a couple of glasses of wine whilst making our picks.

We eventually went for a half chicken each, one with the classic lemon/thyme flavour profile, and one with the slightly less traditional chermoula, just to explore a different theme for flavour.  And we were rewarded in both cases with superbly juicy chicken, and both butters were fantastic too.  We added some house made chicken fat hot sauce, which was the table's pick in terms of a pure flavour hit.

Sides included some stunning rotisserie potatoes, a traditional ratatouille made with exceptional tomatoes, and the table's favourite which was an outrageously decadent mac and cheese.  Oozy and rich with an outrageous amount of cheese.  It was as delicious as it was pretty as per the photo.

At this point we feel that Butter Bird's wine and of course Crémant list should be highlighted.  The trained eye quickly spots that Butter Bird's wine is provided by the stars over at Morgenrot, who've been serving Manchester's wine needs since 1970 so clearly know a thing or too about compiling a wine list.  That’s also the case here, with something for all tastes and price points.

As our mains and wines all sadly disappeared, we both agreed that the chicken fat hot sauce 100% needs bottling up for takeaway sales!  It's also great to see the guys making good use of a bi-product from the Rotisserie in creating something that's absolutely delicious. I'm a huge hot sauce fan and go through bottles a month, but Butter Bird's was still easily enough to impress me.

But before we headed of it seemed only right to try a dessert, to share based on how full we were following on from the rotisserie goodies!    The option we eventually went for was Butter Bird's Sticky Toffee Sundae with it's many layers of deliciousness.  Chunks of a lovely sticky pudding, with good quality ice cream, served in a a generous Kilner jar.  It was the perfect end.

So, it’s a super tasty and crowd-pleasing product at the correct price point for the current market.  And what's not to love about a well roasted chicken?  It's a bit of occasion with delcious food, for not a lot of money at all, so we left feeling like new found fans.  If Flat Iron did chickens, then it would be Butter Bird!

** Our experience was gratefully comped **