Featured image: Eloise Billington
This is the first in a new series in which our intrepid gourmand, Wonky Tooth (AKA aAh! journalist Ian Burke) eats their way along the whole length of the Oxford Road Corridor. The only rule, with apologies to Greggs and KFC is: no big chains.
First on the menu is the cult Korean canteen, eatGOODY.
The first potatoes in Britain washed ashore from a Spanish shipwreck near Southport in 1575. First grown as a curious ornamental plant, it took a couple of centuries before anybody thought of making chips from their grubby tubers. Fast-forward another 250 years and eatGOODY have perfected what to do with a spud.
It’s always dark in here. A trio of poplars, branches extended in sun salutation yoga poses, hog most of the rays that would otherwise pierce the barred windows of this casual restaurant (and takeaway). This low-light ambiance adds to the venue’s mystique. Despite opening more than a decade ago, it still feels like you’re stepping into a clandestine operation – one where you procure bibimbap and beef bulgogi by a series of nods and codewords.
This is partly because its doors are only open at lunchtime, Tuesday to Friday. If you arrive between 12:15-12:45, the queues slither back towards the outside world, firstly because of eatGOODY’s deserved popularity, but also because of the unhurried service. However, in a city centre where worthwhile cheap eats are tricky to find, it’s well worth the wait.
Daily specials are around the £6.50 mark and come with a choice of a rice, fried rice, noodles or – the ingredient that lifts eatGOODY into the stratosphere – potato cubes. There shouldn’t be anything special about them (they’re just shallow-fried skin-on carbs) yet you can’t underestimate how they elevate practically everything on the menu, from texture and taste to ease of chopstick manoeuvrability.
The downstairs dining room is a singular experience. Midway between a tiki bar and a divorcees’ lounge, with rolls of bamboo screening the walls while a pair of incongruous picnic tables lie in the centre. Then there’s the slapdash assemblage of accoutrements: chintzy figurines, house plants starved of natural light, and a dusty karaoke machine – a hangover from their discontinued Friday karaoke nights – all soundtracked by jovial K-pop.
The pepper chicken box arrives in a cardboard bowl, with an optional side of kimchi salad (£1.50) adding a sour crunch to what is already a jumble sale of flavours and textures. Most of the dishes rank as high on the healthiness-o-meter as they do for taste, but the fist-sized slabs of chicken on this are unapologetically deep-fried. A mortar of salty chilli paste slathered throughout adds a whisper of heat, with nodules of green pepper providing a subtle juicy balance.
It may not be quite as sensational as their chicken curry box, but after scoffing through almost their entire menu twice over since September, it hardly matters what you order. Just make sure you get the potato cubes.
Featured image and gallery: Lucy Elson-Whittaker Fcukers headline a sold-out show at Manchester’s New Century Hall, in support of their long-awaited debut album, ‘ö’. Opening the night are Sydney-based Sleepazoid, whose hazy, atmospheric sound offers a sharp contrast to the headliners’ explosive energy. Their set feels cinematic and dream-like, serving as both a striking opener…
Featured image and gallery: Sub Khan Hailing from Manchester and playing a sold-out show at Manchester’s Lion’s Den, with an imminent EP on the way, aAh! speaks to Fred Farrell (vocals) and Danny Atherton (bass) of Dr Dr. Did you start the band during Covid times? Is that where it all originated? F: It was…
Featured image: Gary Walker Neo-blues soul artist Yellow Days, the stage name of Haslemere’s George van den Broek, returns to Manchester with his seventh album, Rock And A Hard Place, and a live show that proves just how far he has come. Before he steps out, London-based act Brian Nasty warms the room up nicely,…
Featured image and gallery: Sally Stretch The Royston Club perform alongside Overpass and Permanent (Joy) at a sold-out O2 Victoria Warehouse. Welsh indie rock band The Royston Club, school friends who began playing together in 2017, now headline O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. Touring second album Songs For The Spine, they generate an energetic sold-out…
Leave a reply