Here are some things to keep in mind during this review: 1) I don’t eat meat, so a grill event was already a questionable place for me to be; 2) I only went on the Saturday, not both days, nor did I buy from every food stand and 3) everything seems smaller yet more expensive at these kind of food festivals – it’s just par of the course.

Now that’s out of the way, onto my honest review of Live from the Grill which is an annual event hosted by Manchester’s Finest. Taking over Deansgate Square, it’s a BBQ food party with various restaurants setting up stalls to serve up food, drink stands for a vibe and live DJs to keep the party going.

This year, the food vendors were Salvi’s, (Italian), Food Sorcery, (Malaysian), Elnecots, (British) and Knights Caribbean BBQ, (it’s in the name). There was an ice cream stand by Gooey and Salvi’s were pouring up everything spritz including aperol sprtiz, limoncello spritz and hugo spritz, (which they had run out of by the time I arrived at 2pm which was a big shame).

The drinks were banging! Although on the small side, they were strong and went down very easily. I cannot say the same for the food. I paid £10 for an incredibly mid. bowl of gnocci pomodoro with stracciatella. It needed some serious seasoning and could have done with being heated up. My friends both got burgers and they said the same – it was ‘meh’ at best and each rated it a 6/10. I wish I had eaten from the Caribbean BBQ because their veggie offering looked delicious and, even if it wasn’t, you can’t really go wrong with sides of rice & peas, plantain and mac and cheese.

Although the food was disappointing, the vibe was not! It was a lovely day in Manchester and all the DJs were on job keeping the music going and flowing. Whilst the tent for dancing was fairly empty until about 5pm, the DJs and emcee worked their magic at getting everyone dancing and vibing.

I’d say the facilities were pretty good too. The loos were kept pretty clean and there weren’t any huge queues to go especially considering there was likely a fair amount of drink flowing through people. I could have done with a water station and it would have been great to have a veggie grill stand. I think there’s a lot that’s vegetarian that can be done on a grill like classic vegetable skewers, marinated halloumi/portobello mushrooms or even fake meat.

All in all, I’d recommend going if the weather is good for a fun day party with friends. I’d say eat before, (especially if you’re not a meat eater), and if you do buy any of the food there, keep your expectations low.