Istanbul Grill. Didsbury, 31 October 2010

Previously Topkapi, Istanbull Grill is a modern and well appointed restaurant in the heart of the village.

My companion had the feta cheese triangles, which were as you'd expect, followed by the slow cooked paprika lamb. There was plenty of this main, so I was invited to get my snout into it - it was delish, quite goulashy, and the lamb was a tender as promised. It's something that you might try to make yourself, a comforting, wintery dish.

I went for the squid rings -which were less rings than strips, and coated in breadcrumb rather than the batter you'd expect with calimari. I think they might have gong straight from the freezer to the fryer, but I'm a sucker for the squid, so I wasn't disappointed. I followed this with the mixed chargrill: chicken, lamb cutlet and lamb fillets. All very tasty, although the lamb fillet was more of a lamb burger.

As we left our waited apologised for being understaffed, perhaps because the grill chef had served us our mains, but we hadn't noticed any delays and the service had been excellent.

Foals Academy Manchester 30 October 2010

Action packed and far more dramatic than their cerebral math rock stylings suggest, Foals rocked at the Academy last night. Although they occasionally strayed dangerously close to prog rock territory with their extended instrumentals, the tightness of their performance - especially the drummer's work was excellent!