There’a food court in the main shopping centre in the middle of town. It has all the usual fast food outlets – McDonalds, Subway, KFC etc but about a year ago a new fast food outlet popped up tat I’d not heard of before – Southern11.

It sells southern-style american bbq food, like pulled pork, ribs, creamed potatoes and cornbread. I thought I’d give it a try and was so glad I did, as it has been the only fast food place I’ve gone to in Manchester since.

The food is fresh, well cooked, full of flavour and different from the generic burger selling outlets.

The pulled pork is what I keep going back to. It’s so soft and delicious.You can choose from a range of sides, including whipped potato, corn, beans and macaroni cheese, so if fries aren’t your thing, you can mix it up. I’ve never been so happy to eat at a fast food outlet.

So imagine how ecstatic I was when I realised that they’d expanded the brand and opened a restaurant! The Southern11 restaurant opened in July, but I only heard about it in September. To make up for lost time, Kieran and I went down there at once.

The menu has the same staple meats as the arndale outlet, but the sides are completely different and are obviously tailored  to the restaurant experience, rather than just concentrating on getting food out quickly.

We ordered the sharing platter, which had a portion of pulled pork, bbq rib and beef brisket. You also got some slaw, some deep fried gherkins (which were a complete revelation to me and I will be trying these at home) and some bbq sauce with a paintbrush to paint it onto your meat. It was all perfectly cooked – the meat was so tender and the rib meat just fell off the bone.

For sides we ordered the parmesan truffle fries, onion rings and some chilli cheese potato skins.

Every item on the menu has obviously had a lot of thought put into it. Instead of just using normal batter for the onion rings, they were spiced with pepper and what I thought was paprika to make them moreish in their own right. The parmesan truffle fries were salty from that cheese and delicious. The potato skins had been nowhere near a microwave – the insides were fluffy and the outsides perfectly crisp, like a baked potato should be.

It’s all simple food and it’s been done a million times, but Southern11 stands out as it seems to be the only place that’s getting it right. It is a world away from the ‘Bar and Grill’ restaurants that pop up everywhere offering overcooked steak and limp fries, though it’s in the same price bracket. I was expecting it to be like a BBQ version of Nando’s , but it was incomparably better, even though the prices are roughly the same.

Anyone in Manchester who hasn’t tried it yet, get down there. You might have got the inkling that I love it and very much want it to succeed. But you don’t have to take my word for it – on the way in we heard an american customer on his way out thanking the staff for such a delicious and authentic meal.