Opus One

The Free Trade Hall’s 2004 reinvention as a corporate hotel has never won over diehard rock historians, but Opus One bar/restaurant certainly makes good use of the venue’s ornate frontage & impressive proportions. The dining room is a cross between a bento box & a bordello – all shiny in red & black – but the menu has a modern European slant: seared pigeon breast with pancetta crackling & parsnip flavours to start, followed by braised shoulder & cannon of lamb with potato & a shallot & Merlot jus. After dinner, nurse a digestif at the window & watch Manchester’s nightlife – red in tooth & claw – from a safe distance. Opus One is markedly classier than the rest of Peter Street.