Cardinal Rule: Is THIS American Fried Chicken sandwich the best lunch in Manchester?

We went put into Manchester to ask people on the street about their favourite lunches so that I could go along and test it out.

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to Manchester World. My name's Theo Huston-Burts and today I'm out in Manchester

00:03asking people one very simple question and that is where should I go for lunch? Now here in the

00:08northern quarter there are so many brilliant independent businesses that really deserve as

00:12much adulation as we can give them and living in the little news bubble that we do sometimes it

00:17can be easy for us to miss some of the better places in this city. So today I'm out asking

00:22people where their go-to lunch spot will be. The only thing is it's got to be under 15 pounds. I

00:26want to be able to afford it myself and we want it to be an independent or small chain somewhere

00:31that really means a lot to Manchester and really sums up the northern quarter. So let's go see what

00:35people have to say. I definitely say a lunch recommendation would be the Cardinal Row.

00:39I definitely would go there often. The sandwiches are just authentic and the quality of food is just

00:45really nice. It's a nice little pick-me-up too. There's like a pickle sandwich they have

00:50hot and spicy I'd go with. Definitely would recommend that and they have a good dessert.

00:54I want to say donut bites but I can't remember I just get them every time. So the delightful thing

00:58about Cardinal Row is that it's actually based inside of Northern Monk's Manchester Refactory.

01:03Northern Monk are a brewery based over in Leeds that do some really awesome locally brewed beer

01:09so we'll give Yorkshire that one and Cardinal Row took up a spot in their kitchen downstairs

01:14and pump out these amazing American style biscuits with fried chicken and some awesome sides as well.

01:21Now the recommendation that we had was I'm assuming it was the hot take which is the spicy

01:26sandwich that was referenced. It does have pickles on there too so I think we're along

01:29the right lines with that. That comes to around £9.60 and the other recommendation was the dessert

01:34which was mentioned sort of small donuts and these will be the birdies. They're £3.50 for cinnamon

01:40sugar tossed biscuit dough donuts. So I'm gonna go get my order in and I'll let you know what I think.

01:45So here we are then. It's just arrived and that is what it's looking like. I'm pretty excited,

01:52let's get into it. That sandwich is just ridiculous. It's this amazing crispy really flavourful

01:59fried chicken and a sizeable piece as well by the way there's no skimp in here.

02:04A house-made ranch sauce and then pickles. I added jalapenos as well and with those you get this

02:09really nice vinegary sort of spiciness coming through. The biscuit is so buttery yeah absolutely

02:15you need tissues. I had to run off and get some but this is filling enough certainly for a lunch

02:20and I've not even got started on the dessert yet. So these are the birdies and they are the same

02:25dough that they use for the biscuits but instead of doing them sort of in a savoury way

02:30they've turned them into little balls and coated them in cinnamon and sugar.

02:34So I don't really see how this goes wrong to be honest but let's give it a try.

02:38I mean because the biscuit dough is so savoury and buttery you get some sort of saltiness through

02:45which really changes the flavour of the whole thing. Heavy recommend from me. That's all for

02:50now. Follow Manchester World for more and who knows if this goes well we might even do it again sometime.