Masons — Restaurant in Manchester

We booked Masons for Sat (14th) evening as they were recommended in a article by The Mancs, 50% off throughout Jan. Only to find out on the evening we were there, it’s offer of 50% off is only valid from Sunday to Friday, but not all Sundays in Jan. So basically Mon to Friday for up to a party of 6. Very disappointed when the waitress who seated us told us there isn’t a 50% off tonight. As that was why we booked.

Food was nice, but not outstanding. Expensive and certainly not justified on portion size. My main course was £24 and titled Snapper and monkfish (with mussels, squid, prawns and samphire). When it arrived I was very disappointed, it was a bowl of stew. One small piece of snapper(bite size), one small piece of monkfish(bite size), 5 mussels, 4 prawns and 2 pieces of chewy squid ring in a tomato and samphire sauce. It was nice, but maybe it could have been advertised as a stew, and it could have been served with some bread, and spoon and a bowl for the mussels shells? It was a small main, and I was left bemused and hungry. If I hadn’t order a side of truffle fries, I don’t think I would have felt I’ve had a meal.

We weren’t impressed on this occasion, or the last time we dined here during the pandemic “Eat out to help out scheme”. Its a terrible shame as we have dined at Masons several times before the pandemic, but it seems to have lost its quality, atmosphere and high standard of service we experienced on previously.

Judging from our last two visits, I don’t think we will be back to Masons in the future. I don’t know if it’s changed chef or manager, but it’s definitely lost the customer service, quality of food, value...

Just amazing, we were treated to champagne when we sat down to celebrate our anniversary.

The food was amazing, we had the antipasti to start followed by the chicken and my husband had a rib eye steak. Everything was cooked and seasoned to perfection.

The only thing that was a bit bothersome which I removed a star for was the seating. I called up two weeks beforehand to ask if it would be possible to have a table in a corner or not with people either side of us, this was down to health concerns on my part so I wanted adequate space between us and other diners. I was assured they would make a note and try to accommodate this. I got a call a week later to take deposits for the meal and while on this call I mentioned it again to make sure there was a note on our booking about the table. Again I was assured this would be no problem.

When we got to the restaurant we were sat at a table with tables either side of us and I asked to move. We were eventually moved to a small table with still people very close on one side. We agreed to the table and assumed that they must have been expecting a lot of large parties in later on that meant there wasn't anywhere else to sit us.

About half an hour after we sat down another couple arrived and we led to a huge booth opposite us, we assumed more people would be joining them but no, it was only the two throughout their meal. At this point I felt really put out because we were made to feel like we were being bothersome in asking for a bit more space between us and...

We booked here for our Golden Wedding lunch with our family of 8 adults and 2 children (7 and 2 yr old). It is a lovely restaurant and our waiter, french I think, was really good, made us laugh and was very friendly and attentive. The children were well looked after. The food was pre ordered due to numbers and overall good. Child choices were very good. Starters and mains enjoyed by all. Just some minor issues. The table was booked for 12:30 and starters did not arrive until 13;10, which was surprising given that food was pre ordered and the restaurant was not busy. Desserts also took quite some time to arrive, another 40 minutes. A side dish of sprouts and bacon was smothered in a cheesy sauce that made it inedible. Some of the desserts did not match the menu description. Three of us ordered creme brulee, on arrival it definitely was not creme brulee. It was a chocolate mousse with berries. When questioned we were told that it was a vegan dish and more black forest than creme brulee ? We were told that usually it would be described as this when ordered at the table. However, as we had pre ordered(as requested by them) we were not told ! The rum baba with pear could not be described as rum baba, which is usually sponge soaked in rum, but no rum in this one and sponge was dry. Menu descriptions are lacking. Overall a good meal but more care needed with matching food to descriptions. The restaurant itself is lovely and the food was good. The four stars were due to starters, mains and...