The River Restaurant — Restaurant in Salford

Sunday's don't get much better than this.

Late autumn Sunday and it's clear skies and sunshine. My first trip back to The Lowry Hotel since my time as a volunteer driver for the Cricket World Cup. A voucher for Sunday lunch from a friend. Allons-y!

Parking is a pain as much of the city centre is closed, so we walk up across the Albert Bridge right on time.

Automatic temperature cameras at the doors, one-way systems, handwash a plenty and Test & Trace to scan before we're sat at regulation spaced tables apart.

Service is efficient, but unobtrusive, there's a whiff of tagteam as with the exception of the polished charm of Sherman, the other staff blur with every item placed or removed and query taken.

Eschewing the wine list and other drinks lists, we go for cocktails because I saw Makers Mark listed so it had to be an Old Fashioned for me and a mojito for my companion. Both have been made with the heavy-handed use of spirits. Nish.

We went off-piste for starters as the choice of dishes without cheese or fish wasn't ideal, so the kitchen rustled up a healthy green salad with honey dressing. I had the fishcake.

From the first stab through the heart of the poached egg and chipstick potatoes, through the hollandaise robe and golden crust of breadcrumb into the fishy flesh, I'm at once both eager to devour and reluctant to finish.

I added a touch of black pepper without tasting and mocked my impatience. It was all seasoned perfectly and all the tastes and textures balanced with equal expertise. As the egg yolk and hollandaise combine, the emulsion coats and softens the chipsticks and gives the fishcake an almost chowder-like appearance.

Plates whisked away and two Sunday roasts arrive, one beef, one pork belly.

Both have a single carrot and parsnip, together with cabbage, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes.

The beef is served much pinker than I could achieve, I suspect a water bath is used, and melts in the mouth. The pork belly has been rolled with whatever crackle there was melted into unctiousness.

It's hard to find fault with any of it, but that could be the Old Fashioned talking.

Time to talk desserts and it's not a long list. Malteser cheesecake, ice cream/sorbet selection, sticky toffee pudding or cheeseboard. The ice cream/sorbet flavours sound good. Yes please. And Malteser cheesecake for my companion.

Minor niggle, my palate reckons that my three scoops were vanilla, vanilla and mango sorbet. Tasty but I had hoped for something more adventurous. But it was a tasty treat to round off the meal.

Bill summoned and an offer to validate the free on-site parking. Bother, I'd parked off-site and it cost me £20.

Other than that, it was great value, even if the voucher didn't work. But that's just an excuse to...

experience from september 2022: visited again with my mum and this time it was a lot better than back in may! The whole experience was as great as it was during my very first visit. The sunday lunch menu changed slightly and had an asian twist to some of the dishes. Overall VERY nice and the gentleman who served us, Denilson, was lovely as usual. He served us the very first time we visited and he's by far, one of the best staff members in the entire restaurant. Polite, friendly, always have a smile on his face, caring and attention for detail. If you can pick, I would definitely suggest have Denilson serve you 😉.

soup of the day: I believe it was courgette and cheese. Lovely soup served with a piece of bread and butter. monk fish for main: a lot smaller than the normal pork belly main I order but still lovely. This dish is a fusion (asian) dish and it was something I've never experienced before, but definitely tasty. sticky toffee pudding: the sticky toffee pudding was served warm which is always a bonus! the sticky toffee sauce is served on the side of the sponge and you can control how much sauce you want, so if you dont like it too sweet, you can use less sauce.

experience from May 2022: Came back to the restaurants in May 2022 and the service was a lot worse. ALOT of issues:

1. it took the restaurant 50 minutes before got our starters. if the lady who served us didnt go and check, I think we'd probably have to wait 3 hours before we got our soup and prawn cocktail.
2. The cauliflower in my main dish was grey and didnt look fresh at all. Nothing happened after we told them about the issue. Finally managed to speak to the manager at the end and he offered us another meal on the house so that we can enjoy our meal properly next time. Will update again after next visit.

Experience from october 2021: went for a sunday lunch with family, had a 2 course meal with glass of wine. The menu didnt have much variety but the food was pretty nice. I got the roast belly pork and the pork wasn't too fatty or too lean. The pork skin was roasted really nicely and it was crunchy and not hard at all. Only complaint I would have was the tenderstem broccoli being a bit hard but besides that, everything else was lovely. For dessert, I had the date cake and it was a lot nicer than I expected. The cake was warm, combined with the vanilla ice cream, wasn't too stodgy or too sweet.

Atmosphere wise, the restaurant looked quite new and everything was in good condition. Pretty nice place for a date or...

We visited for the vegan afternoon tea. TL;DR: don’t.

We arrived & were greeted politely by front of house who asked to take our coats - this is as there was no coat storage near the seats. If you do this, get a ticket as it later took FoH 10 minutes to find our coats. We rang twice previously to ensure we would get the vegan option only & were presented with a vegan menu. When we ordered drinks, the waitress forgot the milk for the breakfast tea and brought dairy milk later. When we ordered the meal, the waiter Denilson asked if there were any problems with the menu or any allergies, no the menu is fine - vegan written all over it - and 1 peanut allergy.

When the food arrived it wasn’t vegan. I had to ask the waiter what was this grey stuff inside the sandwich? It was tuna.

He almost seemed angry that we weren’t pleased with this - it’s been 8 years vegan and we ordered specifically off the vegan menu - and took all the items away, speaking to FoH as he went.

The replacement meal arrived a good half hour later, it seems we were bumped to the bottom of the queue for their mistake.

When the food arrived, the inside of the sandwiches were cold - refrigerated meal-deal style - and there was a thin layer of dust on the afternoon tea tiered tray. I didn’t complain because I already felt we were on thin ice with the staff. They offer refills on the coffee and tea but the coffee honestly tastes like filter coffee or something. The cakes were nice but I appreciate a quality savoury spread, which this wasn’t. The scones were nice but plain with no raisins. I assume this is so they can easily tell the difference from non vegan scones which had raisins (we were given them before).

Overall I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. I expected a bit more from a restaurant in a 5 star hotel but the atmosphere was poor with grime ground into the edge joints of the table and music playing too loudly at the front, along with FoH forgetting where our coats were. Combined with the mashed tuna fiasco I would not recommend paying £30pp for...