The Alchemist Spinningfields, Manchester

Well good afternoon you little lot. I've been a girl about town recently; baking cakes, drinking cocktails and of course, eating lots of food. It's all part of 'Operation Choose Happiness', and I have to say, it's working. I've been to some lovely places with some of my faves, medicated with laughter, and surrounded myself with people who make me incredibly happy.

Once such trip was an afternoon of fun on Spinningfields with that cocktail drinking tinker of mine. Partial to an Aviation and a gin or two, she was the perfect person to accompany me to the Alchemist. We had a bloody delightful afternoon of wonderful service, chips which were as moreish as crack, and genuine cocktail alchemy. Smoke, bubbles and colour changes are just an average Tuesday afternoon at the Alchemist... Yes, you should be hearing the Harry Potter theme tune in your head. Wands and Potions books at the ready please.

Once again, she wanted to write this one up, so here's what she thought. Over to Lee... I'm off to brew my own Felix Felicis.

So Rachel and I found ourselves again wagging work for the afternoon (obvs not actually wagging, booked the afternoon off, we are too goodie two shoes for genuine wagging) and travelling into Manchester for food and cocktails. I have been to Alchemist on Spinningfields many times for cocktails and have always been impressed, genuine sorcery goes on behind that bar and the drinks are a sight to behold. But I had never eaten there and was really excited to try it.

The restaurant area at the back is very calm and luxurious. We were seated in a big booth, which was lucky considering the amount of shopping I had managed to do in the short time we had been in town before we ate.

Popcorn chicken: The waiter suggested we have some nibbles before choosing our meals and I was initially hesitant, I've got form for over eating on nibbles and starters and then not being able to eat my main, but he managed to convince us to try the popcorn chicken which did not disappoint. Hot and crispy coating on delicious tender chicken, a great start.

Vegetarian sharing platter: Having spotted nachos on the starters I needed to have these, and we reached a happy compromise in ordering the vegetarian sharing platter which included edamame, red pepper houmous, padron peppers, nachos, falafel and dips. This was an absolute triumph and we scoffed the lot. I suspect we will enjoy many of these in the future when we need a post drink nibble.

Fajitas: For mains Rachel chose fajitas and was delighted to find out she could have half and half on the meat choices so went for beef and Cajun chicken. This came beautifully presented on a sizzling skillet ready to be made up exactly as you like.

Chilli and rice with nachos: Keeping the Mexican theme going I went for the chilli and rice which was again presented in a fantastic way, in a tiffin tin with chilli in one level, rice in another, tortilla chips is another and finally one filled with salsa, sour cream, guacamole and cheese.

Quick interlude from me... these are the above mentioned salt and pepper fries, or as I like to call them 'crack fries'. They are so addictive, I continued eating them way beyond my own cries of 'oh Lord, I'm stuffed', and later 'please don't ring Maury Povich and tell him I'll need air lifting out of the restaurant' (although it would have made an excellent episode). They are covered in soy sauce, but remain crispy. They are the kind of alchemy that Nicolas Flamel would have been proud of. I'm off again...

Both our meals were absolutely delicious. We powered through the mountain of food and even managed to share some Belgian waffles for pudding which finished the meal off perfectly, we were ready to be rolled out of our seats.

Throughout the afternoon we tried a variety of the amazing cocktails on offer, I won't list them all in case our mothers read this and realise we aren't responsible grown up women at all! However they were all incredible, good quality spirits mixed with inventive flavours and presented in a fun way. We were particularly pleased with our hip flasks (look out for the cocktails with a symbol next to them on the menu).