No bull

What a wonderful night we had last night, just oh so perfect; I will never again complain about having rest days through the week. And what a thoughtful boyfriend I have too for suggesting we go out for a meal even though he had to work today, just so very kind and unselfish on his part. As perverse as this sounds I actually think it worked in our favour..........

You see we normally only visit the gay village at weekends when we're off together; and usually such occasions entail drinking, dancing and partying - in short being somewhat hedonistic. We go there to have fun, to let off some steam in an environment where we can be ourselves and not have to hide our true nature or feelings for each other. Hence we've never been there to just enjoy a meal and a few quiet drinks together; basically to just chill out and relax - it was a different approach to our regular jaunts to the gay side of town.

As I mentioned in my rushed post last night we booked a table at the Taurus Bar, we've been in there a fair few times for drinks - it's a wonderful bar with a slightly classier feel and a more relaxed and refined environment than some of the other bars and clubs on offer. As such it always attracts a real mixed crowd and in my mind is one of the more straight friendly establishments within the village. It's a great place to either start a night of partying or to just chill out away from the bright lights and loud music of other venues. We've always liked it in there and we always knew they had a restaurant upstairs but it took us a while to get round to sampling it's fares.......

In one word it's fantastic, classy but casual, welcoming but not overbearing and the food just awesome. As I said earlier the bar attracts a mixed clientele and it seemed to prove that last night, the restaurant was about three quarters full and appeared to have a mix of gay, lesbian and straight couples and parties. The bar downstairs was jammed full - we'd never seen it that packed even on a Saturday night; but as part of Manchester Pride week they were hosting a gay it's a knockout event; I'd love to tell you what it was like but we missed it, by the time we'd finished our meal it was all but over - I'm sure it would have been fun. Besides we weren't out to party.

We started with barbecue ribs and spring rolls; sharing each others food before I had chicken breast with mozzarella and pesto whilst my boyfriend had steak au poivre. Again we both tried each others food and it was delicious, sumptuous and tasty - my chicken dish in particular with the mozzarella and pesto, I've never had a combination like it, it was absolutely superb. We shared a dessert, one which had us both in fits of laughter when we saw it on the menu, such an obvious choice and with a major dose of irony for a gay bar/restaurant. Chocolate fudge cake with custard - is there any more that needs to be said on the matter? We spoon fed it to each other which was so twee, romantic and kind of girlie admittedly but was just so special and felt so right. It was a perfect night, so relaxing and it was romantic; just the two of us forgoing all that Manchester and the gay village has to offer choosing instead to spend a quiet night sharing small talk over a meal together.

We finished off with coffee and brandy to protect against the cold wind that was blowing hard outside; it kept us warm until we made it home.........