Sitting on the ground floor of the famed Beetham Tower, you’ll find Podium, tucked away inside Manchester’s iconic Hilton Hotel. Podium is a modern, fine dining restaurant serving seasonal menus created by executive chef Dave Ashton, using produce sourced from the North West.
While dishes are elegant and refined, you won't find any tasting menus here. Rather, Ashton has created a seasonally-changing a la carte, featuring starters, mains, grills, and desserts.
Examples of starters include pork belly with pickled shimeji, crackling, pork broth and lemon verbena, and goat's cheese with rye bread, roasted baby beetroot and candied walnuts. If you fancy a snack with an aperitif before you start, make sure to order Podium's signature Lancashire cheese custard, with sourdough, onion tea and salted butter.
Mains showcase high quality produce and seasonal vegetables. Think rump of spring lamb with wild garlic and morel mushrooms, as well as pan-fried stone bass with asparagus, sorrel, samphire and crispy potato. Podium also offers a selection of grills and steaks, which are dry aged in house for a minimum of 40 days and cooked on the barbecue before being glazed in homemade beef butter. Or, choose one of its expertly cooked skewers, which are served with a potato rosti and spring salad.
With Podium finding home inside the Hilton, you’ll be dining in the same building as the iconic Cloud 23 bar, found on the top floor and holding the trophy of highest point in Manchester - it’s worth booking in for a drink after your meal to soak up the city views.
If you’d rather stay for dessert than go for a drink, you can choose from a small but delicious selection, including banoffee fondant with caramelised banana, peanut butter parfait and salted banana caramel, or baked lime cheesecake with pineapple salsa and Thai green sorbet.