It's a great corner unit with bags of presence, sat on the main road edging Ancoats' food driven hub. There's seats outside for when the weather forgets that it's in Manchester, so it's a great spot for people watching and looking smug whilst passersby see you having a great as they get stuck in the Ancoats traffic.  The guys have done a good job of applying some personality to the unit which is a modern, glass dominated affair.

As you enter, there's a little takeaway deli area with a solid selection of Spanish wines and kitchen cupboard goodies to be had.

It's hard to make such a modern unit feel properly traditional Spanish.

The bill came to a very reasonable £186 for 2 cocktails, a decent bottle of Rioja, a hefty sharing steak, a handful of smaller plates, and a couple of puds plus service charge.  All in all, it was very good value, with that gigantic steak in particular being a real bargain. 

Absolutely no complaints. It felt like we'd paid in Euros. As much as the scorecard says 4, it's a 5 in our mind!

Spanish is my absolute favourite cuisine, as a whole.  I once lived there and even now spend a chunk of every year in Spain, discovering new culinary memories across the various regions which all have their own distinct go-to dishes and items of produce.  It's one of the world's truly great food cultures and there's just a sky-high base level of appreciation and subconscious respect when it comes to food, something which we just don’t have in Britain no matter how much we somehow consider ourselves to be a nation of 'foodies'.  Enjoying nice places to eat in comparison to truly appreciating the whole thing, are not the same realm at all.  So based on all that we tend to have lofty expectations for any new(ish) indie Spanish opening

We started our evening with a couple of drinks.  First up was Agua de Valencia (£11); OJ, vodka, gin, and a blast of Cava to give it some energy and a Summery hit.  It came served in a Schweppes branded wine/G&T glass which surprisingly had a stem and rim as delicate as a Zalto, making me feel instantly classy, you know.

But nothing screams pre dinner drink like in Spain like a Vermouth, in this case a Vermut Osborne (£6.20) from Andalusia.  A delicious red Vermouth that's a mix of medium dry and PX sherries, served with a splendid olive and orange wedge. Perfect.

Bread with Alioli (£4.50) was an obligatory start.  Simple, well-made and enjoyable.  Nothing says holidays to me quite like that iconic yellow pot of Alioli, so it always makes me smile. Having said that, I'm pretty sure that this Alioli didn't come from a tub!

Tabla De Embutidos Iberico (£7) was great quality charcuterie, all carved in house which is always reassuring and is the proper way of doing things.   It was served with some picos, more superb quality olives and a single guindilla.  Simple but delicious.

Croquetas Del Dia (£6.50), which on this particular dia were jamon; jamon Iberico to be exact.  You expect a sharp contrast of texture when biting into a croquetas, and this delivered, followed by that unmistakably musty punch of high grade Iberico ham.  We appreciated the little garnish of a tiny slice of jamon, to reflect the interior.  Exemplary and more use of great produce.

Just a few tapas in, and you could tell that quality produce is clearly a given at Maricarmen.  I could be wrong, but we sensed a strong presence from the amazing Basco Fine Foods over in Yorkshire, who are one of the country's top Spanish importers and don’t sell anything that isn't superb.  And as soon as we saw the wine list, we knew that it had been compiled by the ever-wonderful Barry from Morgenrot.  With suppliers like that, you'll always give yourself a great chance of success.

Gambas al Ajillo (£14) is a classic, which never fails to remind me of a famous bar in Madrid.  Circa half a dozen chunky prawns in a generous pool of garlic and chilli infused olive oil. Based on current market prices, the amount of olive oil alone was worth around £37.  This dish was made for dipping, and we'd gladly left some of the earlier bread to do just that.

But our main event was the Txuleton, which is the Basque spelling for Chuletón.  It basically means a bone-in steak taken from the upper part of the loin.  Chuletóns are Spanish bovine royalty and are any steak afficionado's destination of choice.  They are fattier than the lean cuts which us Brits unwaveringly lean towards, but all that fat and the bone adds massive amounts of flavour to the beef.  Maricarmen's Chuletón is a solid rendition and yet costs a mere £55 for what must have been around a kilo, so for the quality and quantity is obscenely good value.  You'd pay £100 for comparable quality at somewhere like Blacklock.

The beef was served with hand cut potato slices, Padron peppers, and a spicy Canarian Mojo Rojo sauce.  The latter of which is one of my favourite sauces on Earth.  Fried Artichoke with pancetta and foie (£12.50) were added spontaneously to go with our slab of beef, and boosted the beef with that hit of earthiness.

Our chosen wine of the evening was the always punchy Vallemayor Rioja, which consistently delivers well above its Crianza designation, and was priced at a super reasonable £35.  Another fine accompaniment for our beef.

It was lovely to see Tarta de Santiago (£8) on the menu, named after the patron saint of Spain.   And as if by fate, I'm typing this review on July 25th which is Santiago Day itself!  A lovely rich almond cake with a dusting of icing sugar, minus the typical stencilled St James's cross due to it being served in slices, served with a shot of equally sweet Moscatel.

And finally, a dish which I adore but gloomily hardly ever see; Torrija de Brioche (£9.50).  It's similar to French Toast, only better, usually infused with cinnamon, citrus, honey, or a various combo of them.  Maricarmen's spin on the dish came with a ball of salted caramel ice cream, which let's be honest, works on near enough anything.  Delicious.

Before we asked for the bill the guys came to our table with a tray of various liqueurs, as an on the house digestiv.  We forgot to picture these though amidst the chat and thank yous, but it's a lovely touch which more places need to do in my opinion.

But; the charcuterie slicing lacked fluency so was a bit rustic in places, some of the Chuletón was unevenly cooked/overdone for our taste in places.  And some of the gambas lacked firmess.

Charming, friendly and genuine, and no fuss made of our last minute reservation during peak service time! We felt instantly welcomed and our wine glasses were seldom left untended to!

Nothing at all to note.  All was perfectly aligned to a casual venue.

OK, so cards on table; we didn’t intend on visiting Maricarmen on this occasion.  We had a table booked elsewhere in the city but sadly received a phone call whilst 10 mins from town, letting us know that due to staff illness, the evening's reservation was off, along with a massive albeit unrequired apology.  We agreed to get booked in for a later date, wished the venue's staff a quick recovery, and then started to ponder what we could do to make the most of our hotel booking and a newly freed up evening. At this point I feel it pertinent to mention that I am married to our lead reviewer, so no Coldplay-esque controversy to be had here.

After going through our office's never-ending list of spots that we feel are in need of a closer look, Maricarmen came up in the chat pretty quickly largely since it was only a 5-minute walk from the hotel which we'd booked on the edge of Ancoats.

So, it's a great new(ish) offering in the neighbourhood.  There's an obvious use of quality produce in play, it's great to see some lesser-known dishes being served, the value for money especially for that headline beef, is exemplary, and the staff were absolutely fantastic.  It feels very much like a family run restaurant, which can only be a good thing in our view.

Sometimes, the places which you didn’t intend to visit, end up being the most enjoyable.