Grado

The ever popular Heathcote group has donned its Spanish cloak and opened up in Manchester's Piccadilly, with an open plan kitchen serving an all-day menu of tapas, the whole ensemble extremely Spanish, bringing back memories of boisterous nights in sunny Spain as you wend your way through Manchester on a wet Monday morning.

But once inside thoughts of soggy streets and grey anoraks recede, and you are whisked away on a culinary journey of tapas, with platters of lomo Iberico, salchichon sausage, or chorizo magna joselito. Amongst the tapas look for crisp braised rabbit and creamed blancas beans with rosemary, sardines a la plancha with capers and pine nuts, and deep-fried artichokes with romesco sauce.

It is of course blissfully possible to never progress further than the tapas selection, but this would be to deny ones self of, for instance, the daily roast from the charcoal oven, starting off with roast beef on Monday, following with roast lamb on Tuesday, then roast chicken, roast pork, salt baked sea bream on Friday, finishing with roast duck on Saturday. What a shame there are not a few more days in the week.

The daily menu starts with clams with Fino olive oil, tomato and parsley, salt cod salad, or char-grilled quail with roasted fennel and tomato. Rabbit and snail paella is one of those multi purpose dishes that will fit in just about anywhere - on this menu it is poised between the starters and the mains.

The mains are a pretty feisty group of dishes with crispy pork belly catching the eye, calves' liver with Rioja potatoes, chicken roasted over charcoal with morcilla, gambas, garlic shoots and tomatoes, or chump of lamb.

It always surprising that the Spanish do not have more ways with fish, given their extensive coastline, and hake with clams, fino, jamon and white beans only serves to support this case. Let's have some more, senors. And some more too of that delicious olive oil mash, such an improvement on butter.

Which brings us to Grado desserts, starting with crème Catalana, flan caramelised egg custard, bomba chocolate and rice pudding with honey roast figs. A pleasant surprise is the versatility of a selection of Spanish cheeses with fig and almond - daring, adventurous and a wonderful end to a meal.

Cava, that Spanish form of bubbly, is often given a lukewarm press, but given good treatment and a sound pedigree it can make a pleasant replacement for wine on the right sort of days. Try the Mas Macia Gran Reserva at Grado and note the difference, or if you must spend money a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label is yours for just a little over £50. Thirty-five wines can be bought by the glass,

For more details of their extensive wine list, menu changes, atmospheric theatre style kitchen and events, a quick click on their  Website will reveal all.