All Star Lanes, Manchester

How did All Star Lanes do for a hungry vegetarian?

Yesterday I had reasons to do something special, whatever that means. Instead of choosing some finer dining, I chose to bowl and eat at All Star Lanes.

The bowling area was polished. Nice balls. Big mirrors. Rihanna and Danny Wellbeck had been there. Let's leave the bowling at that - ahem - and focus on the food...

How did All Star Lanes satisfy a hungry non-drinking vegetarian and an all-eating beer drinker?

Regarding the drinks menu I was impressed, although more with the selection than the prices. I asked for a "non-sweet non-alcoholic cocktail" - sounds extremely fun I know, but I had my reasons - and got a Virgin & Elderflower Julep (£4). It was fresh, sour - not at all sweet. Exactly what I wanted. Jon got a Flying Dog - Doggie Style IPA (£5.50) and wasn't disappointed either.

Virgin & Elderflower Julep

Moving to the food menu, I wasn't so impressed. I should say that as a vegetarian I'm easy to please, but hard to impress. I'm happy to eat most food but seldom blown away. Here I found a few vegetarian options, but few containing much protein. Perhaps the veggie burger did, but as the menu didn't say what type of burger it was, it'll remain unknown.

For a bowling venue however, it was a surprisingly diverse selection of dishes. To judge by Jon's reaction, I gather a meat-eater would leave quite pleased.

As a starter I ordered Vegetable Quesadilla with Soured Cream (£6). Nice flavours, exactly what you'd expect of vegetables and cheese squashed between two pieces of bread, but the slices could have been bigger; especially considering the price.

Vegetable Quesadilla with Soured Cream

Jon had a side as starter, Pulled Pork Butter Beans (£3). This dish was probably the biggest surprise of the evening. Jon said it was really soft butter beans (his favourite beans by the way), in a tasty pork sauce plus sprinkles of what could have been dried cheese (or perhaps bread).

Pulled Pork Butter Beans

For main course, I had Mac & Cheese with Marinara sauce (£10.50). It's not something I'd usually order but I was hungry and I figure you can't go wrong with this one. And I wasn't let down. It had a smooth, subtle taste of, well, mac and cheese with a sweet salsa sauce. Garnished with a bit of salt and black pepper, it was tasty and did the job of filling me up.

Mac & Cheese

Still a little struck by the butter beans, Jon had Blackened Salmon with Crushed Cajun Sweet Potatoes & Chipotle Sour Cream (£15). Again, he was happily surprised. I couldn't resist trying some of his crushed sweet potatoes and, gosh, it melted in my mouth. Gorgeous. If I ever go back here I'm gonna ask to compose my own vegetarian dish, and it will certainly involve this super-tasty mash. Apparently the salmon was good too - nice, crispy and well salted skin - and worked well with everything else on the plate.

Salmon with Crushed Sweet Potatoes

We also had a Marinated Tomato Salad (£3.50) as a side which was a good complement of flavours. But then, I believe tomatoes are bulletproof - they go with anything.

Marinated Tomatoes

As usual, nothing on the dessert menu caught our attention so although it was a special night, we left the sweet stuff for another time.

The service was warm and friendly. As a venue, though, it was a little bit too loud music-wise for my taste. At times it was hard to hear the waitress, but this seems to be an epidemic for most places on Saturday nights, not just All Star Lanes.

Yet, for being a bowling hall, bar and restaurant all in the same venue the atmosphere was surprisingly foodish (in the food area) and chilled. Busy, of course, it was Saturday, but it felt more like a well-designed restaurant than many standalone restaurants I've been to.

As for the type of place it is, I'd say the food was a bit over-priced. All-in-all the evening landed at around £80, including service fees and one round of bowling; certainly nothing we'd pump out every weekend. But we had three really enjoyable hours, although you wouldn't expect anything else to that price, would you?

The final scores:

Vegetarian selection: 4/10
Vegetarian food: 6/10
Non-vegetarian selection: 6/10
Non-vegetarian food: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Value for money: 7/10
39/60 - plus a big star for the non-alcoholic selection.

(I apologise for the poor quality of the photos. The focus, light and me just didn't get along last night.)