SANTÉ Didsbury — Restaurant in Manchester

I only write reviews at either end of the spectrum. I've dined here on two occasions. The first was good, we sat downstairs, quick service, food reasonably priced and had a good evening.

Unfortunately the second was quite the opposite. My group were sat upstairs (perhaps this made the difference). We ordered every item from the first section and took advantage of the midweek deal and proceeded to order a mix from the second half of the menu.

Plates started arriving in dribs and drabs, which was as expected at a tapas style restaurant. However it soon became apparent there would be significant delays for a lot of what we ordered. It was a shame it took them half an hour to communicate to us. And even then, only after prompting.

When the last plates of our food arrived, they were incorrect. We'd seen the staff write our order, they hadn't mistaken it at this point. We were told the kitchen was shut, so we could take these as an apology and they could see if our original order could still be made. Not wanting to make a fuss, we accepted these plates and insisted they didn't have to make our original order.

The manager came to apologise. We were told we'd missed a deal because of the mistake, so they'd take an equivalent of a deal off and 10% off the bill. Seems reasonable.

They then offered us a free bottle of wine, so we asked for an extra glass for a friend to partake. Instead we got given a single glass of wine and no bottle (admittedly, the whole situation around the wine we didn't really care for).

When the bill came, we'd been charged for the plates they had brought us which we hadn't ordered. Significantly more expensive than the deal. The 10% off was the service charge - not a surprise given it was only the service at fault.

We challenged the bill given we hadn't ordered the extra plates and frankly wouldn't have accepted them if it had been communicated we'd still be charged. Their response was that we got better quality food and a free glass of wine so that should be ok.

This place has a lot of potential, the chefs are great and the menu is tailored well. But slow and subpar service means we won't...

Giving three stars which is generous because this place has gone down hill since it first opened. The level of cleanliness is abysmal. I watched the woman server set a dirty table with clean cutlery and plates and just wipe the crumbs off with her hand, instead of giving it a proper wipe down. Tables stay dirty for ages, even though there's plenty of quiet time between serving for waiters to give the entire place a quick go around, it's not that big! Going out to eat is meant to be a treat, but things like this just make it less of a pleasant experience and make you want to stay at home. I also got served a cocktail in a dirty glass with a lipstick mark on it and noticed too late. This isn't good enough. What if the person who drank before me had a coldsore? Food was alright but not as good as it used to be either. The flatbreads have changed, says they come with garlic and chilli and they came plain and not as nice as before. The prawns are too fishy, not a nice flavour to them. The padron peppers, patatas bravas are nice and the Seabass is something you could easily make yourself at home. The sauces and dips are tasty, but overall the food is just alright/good. Its the cleanliness that would prevent me from coming back though. Tell the female server with brown hair to stop being so lazy and just go round with a cloth and spray. It will take 5 mins. Maybe then we will come back and try the breakfast because it looks good but until hygiene improves, we won't...

Santé was a surprising find and the food is really very good and good value. I would especially recommend the lunchtime deal of three plates for £15 me and my friends shed six plates between us and I'm more than pleasantly surprised at how good the food was in the portion sizes were great.

Between us we had the Hummus, Salsa Romesco, Croquettes, house fries, Gnocchi and Squid. The stand outs for me were the Salsa Romesco, Gnocchi and Squid all of which were outstanding. The squid came with a wonderful sauce and these crispy little chickpeas that we could not get enough of. The Gnocchi was Beautiful and tasted amazing. I can't say how good this was it's so worth getting I would add this to my top five Gnocchi dishes and I eat in Italy a lot. I think the portion sizes were really very god too me and my friend left happy not to full but ready for an afternoon snooze our our sofa's.

The staff were lovely too, this is such a good addition to Burton Road, there are some very overrated places on Burton Road but this is not one of them. I think the menu is the right size and there are a significant choices to make but given the six dished we had I am pretty sure anything you get here...