<The Doubletree Hotel has a "holiday menu" which, while not specifically Thanksgiving, does have turkey on it. Here's the menu - http://tinyurl.com/mykyzv7>

Christmas, perhaps?

The only place I know to find a proper Thanksgiving dinner in England will be in my own home the following weekend. Although as most of the invitees are British I'm sure there will be at least one curry on the table and that's hardly traditional.

dutyfree -- are you looking for a nice meal to celebrate the holiday or specifically turkey, stuffing, cranberry, etc?

Gordon -- Sunningdale and Virginia Water, Berks are the closest we've found to a Little America. The high street grocer has an American section to meet all their poptart, lucky charms, and root beer needs. ;)

Guys-I guess I should have been more specific. I fly as an international flight attendant and actually layover in Manchester quite frequently. My adult children live about an hour south of Manchester so decided to work this trip so we could spend "Thanksgiving" together which we haven't done in over 10 years and celebrate a milestone birthday for my husband with the kids! My husband has never been to Manchester and the surrounding areas so wanted to surprise him with some great choices!
I do understand that they don't celebrate Thanksgiving over there but wanted somewhere that might have a place that we could have a type of roast on a Thursday night/Thanksgiving dinner without a super pub feel? We don't even care about Turkey but rather a place that has a more Sunday dinner feel?
I have some favorites to eat at in Manchester like Jack Spratt,The Armenian restaurant,etc. but was looking for something other than our usual "crew" places to eat. I appreciate the help-

Hey Gordon-the next time my daughter makes Thanksgiving dinner over in the UK, I will have her invite you. She hosted several during graduate school and her friends LOVED her 25 lbs. turkey,garlic mashed potatoes,pumpkin bread,corn souffle,homemade fresh cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies among other things.Everyone got a Pilgrim hat and also played "pinned the tail on the turkey" after a few cocktails! :)

Roasts are mostly done on a Sunday afternoon (Sunday night dinner is not really a thing here). It may be tough to find a decent roast on a week night. The ones that do could be crap.

I would give up on the idea if a toast and focus on having a good meal.

You could look up the good pub guide if you want a Sunday lunch kind of feel in a pub...

Or use www.toptable.co.uk to find something with good reviews.

Here's a few restaurants recommendations in the City:

Stock (Italian and really good)
San Carlo (Italian but really really good)
Manchester Chop House (Albert square) Excellent British Food
Room (Just great food)
Grill on the Alley (British/US food)

There are lots of ethnic places, Chinese, Indian, Turkish etc.

The Aumbry is 3/4 miles out of the city and on the two occasions that I've eaten there, found it a bit (IMHO)pretentious.

If you want US diner style, then for instance:

Dogs and Dough
TGI Fridays
Frankie & Benny's


All of the above are good quality restraurants and you'd expect to pay around £30/£40 per head without drinks for 3 courses.

I would give up on the idea of a roast - as Jamikins says, these are reserved for Sundays, when pubs and some restaurants change their menus for the day to accommodate it. Restaurants that serve roasts daily are universally awful.

Perhaps focus on finding a 'meaty' restaurant that serves 'modern British'? The Albert Square Chop House looks promising.

I suspect some restaurants might have a Christmas menu on - which includes turkey - but I would still be suspicious of the quality - it's likely to be pre-sliced/heated up turkey meat as demand for this type of food would be low in November, so not worth any restaurant's time to cook a whole bird.

TGI Fridays and Frankie & Benny's are truly awful "American-style" chain restaurants found up and down the country. Maybe fine for a teenager's birthday party but I would never recommend to adults looking for a special meal out. They're also about as authentic as those dreadful "ye olde english"-style pubs you sometimes come across in North America.

Rubicon writes: "I think that you'd find it almost impossible to find a menu here in the UK that offered all that lot. What's a game crumb by the way? Sprouts might be offered at Christmas, not otherwise. Cumberland sauce is rarer than hen's teeth."

I gather you do not move in shooting circles.

Well you can count me in with Rubicund as well - what on Earth is "game crumb"? I've lived in the UK all my life and never heard of this - or indeed come across a single restaurant that serves all the items you listed.

PS I don't think you'll find many belonging to "shooting circles" in Manchester (unless you count Moss Side that is :) )

Moving in shooting circles sounds awfully dangerous!

Gordon, you're absolutely right about F&B's and TGI's, but they were the only ones I could think of that might have a nod towards Thanksgiving.

Game crumbs seem to be a British thing - a traditional accompaniment for game birds. There's a recipe in my big standard British cookery book, and a search online only turns up a couple of British recipes.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipe...nd-Game-Crumbs - American magazine but English chef

http://thechristmasguide.recipeblog....oast-pheasant/

The fact that they're traditional doesn't mean they're still served in restauarants - checking a couple of long established London restaurants turns up pheasants but no game crumbs.

I guess the Brits on this board aren't posh enough for game crumb - I too have never heard of it. Sounds nice though, bit like stuffing.

i understand it used to be eaten by the staff, but has moved upwards. :-)

Yep, not posh enough Kate. They seem to be fried breadcrumbs with sherry. I think I prefer chestnut stuffing--yummy!

We're going on our 16th consecutive Thanksgiving holiday outside the U.S. We always managed to celebrate it, but not with an American meal (guaranteed to be substandard in most cases anyway, it's just like getting TexMex food in Europe, almost nobody can do it properly). Instead, we decided to create new traditions by celebrating it in some way that marks our time in that location. During our years in Brussels, we always went out for mussels. In the UK, we went to Zuma restaurant in London for sushi (on Christmas, we went to a gastropub in Marlow). In Switzerland, my employer actually does serve turkey and cranberries in the employee restaurant on Thanksiving -- there are quite a few Americans working here, so it's a nice gesture -- but we go out for a Swiss meal instead -- I usually get eglifilets.

You're in the UK, having your family together is the best part of Thanksgiving anyway, so why not go to a nice Indian restaurant and start a "holiday abroad" Thanksgiving tradition?

...and eat in the Rajddot in Albert square or East z East on Blackfriars Street. The two best Indian/Pakistani/Nepalese in the city.

sorry, that's Rajdoot.

Well, I haven't had game crumbs either, but there was a recipe in Country Life on October 2, and it sounded delicious, worthy of a culinary quest:

Reheat the buttery dripping from roasting your grouse, add more butter, 75g of while bread crumbs, and 50ml of Madeira, stir a bit, and Bob's your uncle! Sounds like a replacement for stuffing to me!

But I have had plenty of bread sauce, some of it not from a packet, and I have been to restaurants in London and the Home Counties that serve both pheasant and guinea fowl, though neither is as commonly served as in France.