This review was carried out in collaboration with Adam!  The views expressed are generally a combination of the whole team along with Adam, whose specific views are highlighted in bold!

On arrival it feels like a speakeasy if you enter via the front door; in this case a non-windowed metal security door with a bell button to gain access.  It initially feels a far cry from the entrance of a reputable place to eat well.  There's a car park to the back which has a nicer entrance, but the front door is where most people will land and form that first impression.

But once that metal door swings open and you're greeted, the whole experience changes no end.  Aircraft hangar-esque arched ceilings, with light and bright furniture are miles away from that first impression.  It's just a lovely space, and the lack of windows is overcome with clever internal lighting and neutral colour schemes.

Lighting around our table was moody but not particularly good for taking shots, as you can see.  But that’s not a bad thing.  Food is to be eaten, not photographed.  But unfiltered is how we do things around here.  No SLRs, no embellished shots, no blogger lights.   Just the food, as we had it, and crucially, how you'll also get it.

The slightly dodgy neighbourhood on the fringe of the city centre, combined with that stern-doored welcome, may be a bit offputting to some.

The bill for 3, including a ton of food, a decent bottle of Gewurtz and a few other boozy bits, came to a very reasonable £225.  So there's definite plusses to said neighbourhood which no doubt keeps the rent down in comparison to more centrally based units with nice glass frontages.

In short, it was very solid value for the quality on offer.

Service charge was added for you, and as we've said a million times, we prefer to make the call ourselves on whether or not that's done.  

Plus in world where hospo staff now broadly work 40 hours a week for a salary akin to many other hard-working industries (in this part of the country at least), is 12.5% added service charge now a dated industry concept? The days of working 60 hour weeks on 35 hours of pay are all but over, unless it's for people who truly chose to do just that.

It was a subject which the table debated after a bottle of wine on the evening!

Food was tasty with a small-plate style, and the name of the game here is all things Swabian and Eastern European, with a nod of the Mediterranean.  Dumplings, pasta, noodles etc, tempered with slow cooked/roasted proteins.  It's just a massively underrated cuisine in our opinion.  Perhaps embarrassingly, I've been known to book a flight to Poland just to eat dumplings for an evening.  Sorry Greta.  Blame Wizz Air for charging less to fly to Warsaw than Uber charge for a taxi into Manchester!

Our lovely server suggested ordering a respectable 3 dishes per person, so 9 in total, but we clearly decided to order more than that.  This is why you should never trust the word of a svelte food writer any more than you'd have faith in a stocky long-distance runner.

Olives (£3.75) and Focaccia (£4) landed in tandem, serving as a pre-dinner nibble whilst we settled in and properly surveyed the menu's offerings.  It didn’t take us long to decide, largely because as suggested above, we ordered most of the menu as to remove any indecisions.

We started with a menagerie of Spain and Italy in the Chorizo Gnocchi (£13.50).  Perfectly formed slices of gnocchi, cooked wonderfully well and then doused in a richly smoked chorizo sauce, which was studded with little cubes of crispy chorizo to add some all-important texture to things.  An absolute flavour bomb of a dish.

Pappardelle Bolognese (£15) probably had to be included in any pasta section of the menu, and I'd bet it's one of the most heavily ordered items.  And we certainly didn't regret ordering it.  Thick ribbons of pasta, doused in a complex, slow simmered ragu which exuded confidence.  More simple quality.  We'd started to detect a theme here already.

An obligatory option on the menu was the stellar Kase Spätzle (£12.50), which was again simplistic in vibe, but summed up The Sparrows to a tee.  Sturdy strands of noodle carrying the right amount of bite, dressed in a cheese sauce which was clearly elevated beyond your bog standard bechamel based cheese sauce.  It's a classic for good reason, and The Sparrows are doing it properly.

There's a clear focus on wine here too, in fact the general boozy offering is both comprehensive and well measured, with some real quality available.  We went for a bottle of 2023 Cantina Tramin Gewurtz to tie in with the edible goods as best possible.  A few cocktails and cheeky Amaros may have disappeared too.

We moved onto Poland vicariously via the next dish, which was Sauerkraut and Mushroom Pierogi (£13), which are some of my very favourite forms of foodstuff.  These were pulled off delightfully well with casings carrying the right thickness and chew, with a splendid filling, steamed to perfection then finished with a delicate pan sear.  Excellent work.

Side wise, we ordered up the Dill Fermented Cucumbers (£4) which came in a huge portion, and carried great crunch, a far cry from the often overly soggy pickles that frequent menus.   Raspberry Tomato Salad (£5.50) was also hearty in measure, with lovely quality tomatoes which were just what they said on the tin, as much as these 100% didn’t come from one.

Pork and Beef Pelmeni (£13) took us to Russia, and without dropping any easily lined-up yet wholly inappropriate political quips, it was one of the standout dishes of the evening.  Little ravioli-esque bites, crumbed and deep fried to a wonderful crisp, loaded with flavour and a dish which none of our table had tried before, which is always a reason to order something.  We will order this again too.

Without question, particular skill was shown in the pasta/dumpling offerings, which suits us perfectly as general carb lovers, but we felt the need to explore beyond the pasta/dumpling section.

Goulash (£22) suited the dismal Manchester climate outside, sporting huge chunks of stewed beef and a rich paprika infused gravy with more unexpected pickles adding as garnish.  Fortunately, we had some bread left over to deal with the delicious sauce.

Smoked Sausage (£12.50) was a must order, as much as we were full at this point.  Even our sausage-shy Editor appreciated this one though.  Slashed to create edges that crisp up when grilled, garnished with ubiquitous sauerkraut and pickles, as you expect if you've ever spent any time in Eastern Europe.  Supposedly it tempers the vodka/beer's impact.

We moved onto the final phase on dinner, and one which we never skip, the puds.  Daz's Wife's Brownie (£6) was a solid effort.  Rich, gooey, loaded with chocolate, and served simply.  To the point, no messing.  You did well there Daz.

Tiramisu (£6.50) was stated as just that on the menu.  To the point once again.  The Sparrow's iteration of the world's current favourite sweet course is served in a glass, so simple on the prep by banging them all out ahead of time, so that they are ready to go when that cheque lands.

And finally, we had to order the Cinnamon, Brown Sugar and Butter Spätzle (£6.50), since spätzle is what The Sparrows do.  This was more well-made noodle, coated in a properly balanced caramel/cinnamon sauce.  That brown sugar especially gave the plate bags of oomph, finished with a smartly turned out rocher of cream to add a Cheffy nod.

But; The focaccia lacked that typical bubbled crumb structure and chewy crust.  The fermented pickles fell short on acidic punch.  The tomato side dish was a bit flat, also crying out for both salt and again acid.

And generally with the sides; let people know that some main dishes already come with the side you've ordered, as to avoid doubling up as we did on pickles, which were sadly a bit of an anti-climax as touched on above.

Watch the OTT chopped chive garnish.  Sure, its generic and works with everything in terms of flavour, but it was on literally everything, bar the puds!

And desserts, whilst generally tasty, weren't as expected as per their (lack of) description.  We somehow expected a different prep on the spätzle.

We genuinely couldn’t ask for much more based on the formality and ethos of the offering.

Promptness tapered off a bit towards the end of service whilst the venue was being turned around for the next day.  It's a common thing which mars service levels at all but the very upper echelons of dining rooms.

Generally, we really enjoyed our visit.  There was an underlying quality offset with a neighbourhood venue-esque charm and accessibility, and it's easy to see why The Sparrows is such a local favourite.  The food is simple, well cooked, and at the core of things is broadly delicious and very well executed.  It's also very good value for money too, especially considering the evident draw of that little red Michelin Bib Gourmand plaque/sticker in the kitchen window, ie a lot of people aside from us were highly dressed up for a bowl of pasta and some dumplings on a grey Wednesday night.

As with anywhere in our city which does a solid job, things do get amplified a bit in the local media, of course, as we do love a bit of OTT self-praise don’t we?  One particular write-up recently declared The Sparrows as being 'world class', aka one of the best in the world at what it does, which is clear overpitching regardless of how much you enjoyed your meal.  95% of my favourite dining rooms on the planet are not world class when measured with any valid point of reference, but that doesn’t mean that they aren't great at what they set out to achieve or that you won't have a blast whilst there.  No matter how much you love food or how loaded you are, almost all the time you just don’t want a world class dining experience, just dinner.  Somewhere you can just rock up to and enjoy a solid meal without it being a big event or something fancy.  The Sparrows delivers that in spades, as much as many diners chose to make an occasion of it, as mentioned earlier. 

So looking at things using a balanced measuring stick, there's no doubt that The Sparrows is doing lovely things over on Red Bank, and it should 100% make it onto your list of places to visit in town.  And if you’ve been already then go back!

And at least I no longer feel the need to jump on a plane when that pierogi itch crops up in future.