Almost Famous, Manchester

Almost Famous, but mainly infamous. The folks behind Socio Rehab, Keko Moku and Home Sweet Home have come up trumps yet again. Their trendy little empire is pulling in the punters, who are generally raving about their venues on every social media platform possible. Burger man Beau Myers was recently voted 33rd in the Northern Restaurant & Bar top 50 influential people; that's only eight places below Northcote's Nigel Haworth.

Those behind the scenes have quite a reputation. Public squabbles, warnings on the website and swearing on Twitter. Bloggers and press divided in their views. It's all going on. If this is really the case, why do Almost Famous have an semi cult like following of fans? I donned my very best 'balls to it' attitude and decided to give them a try. I even took some pictures despite the warnings not to. Crazy mother.

My first experience of Almost Famous was during the Diamond Jubilee weekend. I'd been dying to go back ever since, but then they closed... but they reopened again! We decided it was about time we got our act together and sampled some of this filthy food for ourselves.

Almost Famous don't have an address on their website; just 'M4 1PH Large Wooden Door'. You follow the stairs up two floors where you are greeted by a bedazzled bar. Bottles surrounded by fairy lights, and the charming Kirsten. Some had made reference to the staff being a little rude, but this being all part of the 'act'. I have to say our experience could not have been further from the truth. The restaurant didn't have a queue a mile long, and it wasn't full of hipsters either. Phew!

Kirsten explained how things at Almost Famous worked, and within minutes we had decided what we wanted despite not fully understanding what we were ordering! My drink arrived in a jar. I had heard about this. I'm still unconvinced by this one. However, all was forgiven when our food arrived...

Some people fail to be impressed by burgers. I am not one of those people. There's something about a burger so sloppy that you can barely eat it. Ketchup dripping everywhere, tomato sliding the top bun sideways and of course the juice from a pink burger making the bread a little soggy. Man vs. Food craving calling...

We both went for the signature Famous Burger; two patties on a brioche bun with cheese, tomato, red onion, pickles and famous sauce. Described on the menu as 'signature serve, double on juice and flavour - pure dirty burger lovin' satisfaction that leaves you wet for more'. Maybe under normal circumstances, but we also had sides...

This burger is a little bit special. Good quality meat, cooked well and not messed with. It's juicy with just the right amount of 'slop' on a sweet bun. It's a winner in my eyes. It was certainly better than one I had on the other side of Manchester a few weeks ago.

Now we may look like pigs of the week, but we really underestimated the size of the sides. We ordered six Crack Wings with Suicide (hot) sauce and some Chilli Cheese Fries. The wings are juicy and hot, and come served with a portion of blue cheese dip to cool things down. Now then, in our little world we imagined the Chilli Cheese Fries to be chips covered in some sort of spicy sprinkly stuff. WRONG. When they say chilli, they mean actual chilli! The stuff made with beef! This is a meal in itself. The fries were fantastic, but I have to confess to only making a mouse sized dent in these bad boys (in fact I'm confident a mouse would have done better than we did - lightweights...).

Crisis averted, Kirsten offered to wrap them up so we could take the rest home! Amazing! They already have a plan for just such an occasion...

We really enjoyed the food, the laid back atmosphere and the friendly staff. Was it what we were expecting? No. Would we go again? Definitely.