Picturedrome Food Hall, Macclesfield

Picturedrome in Macclesfield offers food and drink from a range of independent businesses, all under one roof. I recently visited this newly opened food hall set in an old cinema and loved the lively, communal eating experience.

Opened at the end of October 2019, Picturedrome is the latest venture from Nick Johnson of Market Operations.

Repeating a formula that’s proved successful at Mackie Mayor in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and at Altrincham Market, inside Picturedrome you’ll find a range of independent food and drink companies all under one roof. Indeed, if you’re familiar with Mackie Mayor or the Market House in Altrincham, you’ll recognise some of them.

Picturedrome

As someone who loves films almost as much as food, I knew I’d be an early visitor to Picturedrome.

Dating from 1911 the Picturedrome, like so many other cinemas, fell out of use. First it became a bingo hall and, more recently, offices.

With it’s gleaming white frontage, windows picked out in black, the Picturedrome was a beautiful sight on a sunny Sunday lunchtime when I visited a couple of weeks after it opened.

Through the front doors, across the small foyer and into the hall itself, I was happy to see there was no mistaking that this had been a cinema. Not least because over on the far wall Laurel & Hardy were being projected.

But don’t think you’re going to settle down quietly and watch a film. There’s a real lively, hubbub to the place. Despite it being only just a little after noon, the place was packed.

It seemed to be already attracting a good mix of ages too, including young families making use of the kids’ play area down at the far end.

As a film buff, I loved that the cinematic theme continued with loads of old movie posters around the walls.

And no, despite what the annoying bloke in that nauseating match.com advert said, ‘Godfarver Fwree’ is NOT an old movie. The Woman in the Window is an old movie.

How does it work?

Once through the doors, you’ll find yourself up on a balcony.

On the same level as you and to your right are two bars Jack in the Box from Blackjack Brewery and Reserve Wines.

From the balcony you get a great view of the rest of the place. Below is the seating area with the food stalls running all down the left-hand side.

On the long side of the balcony there may well be lots of people standing around. You might think it’s the queue to get a table. Many of those standing there will probably think so too; like we did.

But there’s no queuing (and you can’t book either). After a little while, Jake the General Manager came over to tell us to just find ourselves a table and get comfortable.

To get to the main food hall, either go down the stairs, or continue on to the end via the ramp, which will get you there step-free.

The tables at Picturedrome are all large, marble-topped ones, meant for sharing. So put aside any British reserve and just join another group, taking note of your table number.

Picturedrome is dog friendly and among the people we shared with were a couple of young women and their gorgeous, and very well-behaved, dogs.

There’s a menu card on each table telling you about the different stalls and the type of dishes served. But these will change depending on what’s available, so best to just have a mooch around first.

Once you’ve staked your claim to a table, go and have a final look and order what you fancy. All the stalls have chalk boards above them with what’s on offer and the price. Give them your table number and, when it’s ready, your food will be brought to you.

Got it?

Okay, then here’s a rundown of the food and drink currently at Picturedrome, including what I and my companion ID ate.

Honest Crust

Honest Crust Pizza, also at Market House Altrincham and Mackie Mayor, makes wood-fired sourdough pizza.

Like all proper sourdough, their hand stretched pizza bases are made from just flour, water and salt.

When it comes to toppings you’ll find old favourites like margherita, but look out for specials that might include ingredients like nduja spicy salami. The Portobello mushroom pizza seemed particularly popular on my visit.

Terroni

As well as fantastic looking, fresh pasta dishes (check out their Instagram), Terroni also serves up imaginative breakfasts and brunches like a granola bowl featuring charred pineapple, or scrambled eggs with spicy nduja. There was also a delicious sounding slow roasted porchetta sandwich with salsa verde.

The pasta dishes they’d planned for that afternoon included tagliatelle with an eight-hour braised beef shin ragu and a classic carbonara with guanciale cured pork cheek.

Reuben’s

Reuben’s specializes in the food of the Levant (approximately the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean) – think mezze, falafel, hummus, shawarma kebabs.

I count myself among those who adore this vibrant, fresh cuisine and we decided to eat lunch at Ruben’s.

First off, we shared a couple of the mezze dishes: sweet potato batata harra (£5) and green pea & chickpea falafel with tzatziki (£4).

The cubes of sweet potato were pleasingly charred on the outside, nice and soft inside. We both thought we’d like a bit more of the advertised ‘7 spice salt’ though. Mind you, this batata harra had a lot to live up to as I’d recently loved the version at Beirut: Stoke-on-Trent’s unassuming but fantastic Lebanese restaurant.  Read my review of Beirut here.

I thought the falafel really did hit the spot though. Inside the dark and crunchy exterior was a pretty green centre with the nuttyness you expect from chickpeas, sweetened by the green peas.

I really liked the tzatziki they sat on too. The yogurt was creamily thick with substantial pieces of cucumber and a good amount of fresh herbs.

Besides the shared mezze, we also chose a dish each from the lunch menu of flatbreads and grain bowls.

I went for Yorkshire lamb kofte, tomato jam, kohlrabi and lime with Greek yogurt (£9.50). This was a very attractive looking plate.

I liked the minced lamb kofte, subtly spiced, but did wonder why Yorkshire rather than local Cheshire or Staffordshire lamb.

The combination of soft meat, crunchy veg (plus little crispy, juicy bursts of pomegranate seed) with creamy yogurt was a good one. The tomato jam had good sweet fruity flavour. For my taste I’d have liked some definite chilli heat in there too.

The flatbread was of good quality and generously sized so I could pull off bits to scoop the falafel and still have enough to roll up the kofte.

ID chose herb fed chicken shawarma, harissa aioli, crispy onion (£8.50).

The chicken was appetizingly charred and sat on more of that crunchy veg. Drizzled across it was a golden and glossy harissa ailoi with a good scattering of well-browned onions on top.

Again this dish looked just right and, for me anyway, was only a little more spice and chilli heat away from being really good.

Tender Cow

The wonderfully named Tender Cow celebrates British, grass-fed beef. To be honest, I think it was having some of their dishes pop up in my social media feeds that got me to Picturedrome.

Focussing on previously under-used cuts, at Tender Cow you might find an aged flat iron steak with Bearnaise sauce in your steak sandwich. Or how about braised short rib with jalapeño pesto?

And what’s a steak without triple cooked chips? There’s some imaginative sides too, like beetroot, capers and sheeps’ cheese or cavolo nero, nduja butter and almonds.

Hungry yet?

Fin

Sister to Tender Cow is Fin which offers day boat, line caught fish from British waters.

They describe their food as ‘uncomplicated’, but it all sounds rather enticing.

From traditional battered fish and chips to kippers with garlic herbed butter, or hake, cauliflower puree and hazelnut lemon crumb, Fin’s sustainably sourced fish dishes are imaginative and look beautiful.

Sam Joseph

Sam Joseph is a chocolatier and patisserie, hand making desserts as well as their chocolates, fruit jellies, cakes and brownies. At Picturedrome you can also get milkshakes and quality hot chocolate.

I loved their display of individual chocolates including rosemary and olive oil, banana caramel pretzel, and cocoa nib and sea salt.

There’s giant buttons, bars and slabs too – the dark raspberry looked particularly good.

But I finally decided on one of their Florentine chocolate bars (£3.80).

This was a gorgeous little thing. There were the usual nuts and dried fruit you’d expect from a florentine, but there was also a lovely saltiness to the caramel which bound all those good things together.

The thin and crispy chocolate shell that held the filling was a rather elegant alternative to usual simple chocolate base.

Flour Water Salt

For his lunchtime dessert, ID headed over to Flour Water Salt.

Already a popular bakery and (recently extended) cafe in Macclesfield, at Picturedrome this is the place to come for coffee, tea, pastries and all manner of other goodies.

ID chose this tasty apple and pecan frangipane galette (£3.60); a generous, filling pastry and not to be confused with the Breton galette which is a buckwheat flour pancake.

Coming Attractions

If you’re still not satisfield with all those food and drink choices, then you’ll be pleased to know there’s more in the pipeline.

At the time of my visit, work was ongoing to finish the Picturedrome Yard. This will have even more kitchens and bars.

The Yard is expected to be finished within the next week or so and I see from the website that Savages Mussels is going to be among them. So looking forward to trying those!

Recommended

I was certainly impressed on my first visit to Picturedrome.

There’s a good range of food on offer and, while it’s not at the budget end of the market, it shouldn’t break the bank either. This isn’t cheap, mass-produced fast food, but quality, hand made and with careful choice of ingredients.

On an extremely busy Sunday lunchtime Picturedrome was very lively with a real buzz about the place. If you’re looking for somewhere quiet, then this probably isn’t the place for you. Apart from anything else, the nature of the building, with its high ceiling, doesn’t lend itself to cosy dining.

But cosy isn’t really what it’s all about.

Read the board out in the foyer and you’ll see that Picturedrome‘s aim is “to enrich lives by providing high quality, everyday food in a social setting – where families, friends & strangers get together around shared tables…”

Judging by what I saw and ate, I’d say they’re well on their way to achieving this

So go, not just for the food, but for a lively, communal experience at this great new addition to Macclesfield.

Recommended.

ALL PHOTOS © MOORLANDS EATER & NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PERMISSION

(thanks to Ian Dakin Photography for a number of images)

ACCESSIBILITY

Picturedrome states on its website: ‘We have disabled access & toilets.’  You may wish to contact the venue directly to check whether it meets your own requirements.

If you’ve visited this venue and can provide more information useful for people with disabilities, please leave a comment below. If you’re the owner of this venue, I’d be happy to update this post with any further information about accessibility.