Everything I ate in Manchester

Guess who’s back?!

It feels nice to be back in front of my laptop, with a cup of coffee on a surprisingly warm summer weekend, talking to you lovely souls about a really fun trip I took to Manchester to go see a friend. I love Manchester. I was fortunate enough to complete my undergraduate degree there so for three years I got to explore the Northern Quarter and Didsbury markets where I found my favourite café’s and small business owners (Home Sweet Home may be gone but never forgotten…). Therefore, it is always nice when I get to return to the city and have a walk down memory lane.

First things first, I let you know where we stayed for anyone who is looking for wheelchair accessible hotels in Manchester. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Manchester City Centre Arena which is within the Northern Quarter. This is not to be confused with the Holiday Inn Express Manchester Central which is on Oxford Road. I made the unfortunate mistake when navigating Google maps. I only find it funny because I knew it was in the Northern Quarter but the map kept taking me closer to the university campus and I just blindly followed it. According to the extremely friendly lady at reception, this happens a lot but I thought I would save you the extra 20 minutes of walking in the wrong direction.

I didn’t take any photos of the hotel because it’s pretty standard for a Holiday Inn. My electric wheelchair is on the larger side and I need to get pretty close to chairs and beds to do a transfer. The room was an adequate size and everything was lowered. If you’re looking for somewhere to stay that’s functional with a decent breakfast spread, I would recommend this Holiday Inn. It is also conveniently in the city centre. I could see the Northern Quarter from my window, less than 5 to 7 minutes from the Arndale shopping centre (where you can find all the public transport networks to get you anywhere Manchester) and about 10 to 15 minute walk from Manchester Piccadilly train station.

The location of the hotel also meant that I was opposite an up-and-coming hotspot for baked goods in Manchester (and I had no idea at the time). The café called Gooey. Last month, it felt like Gooey was all over my algorithm because of their viral salted caramel brioche French toast which was making all Mancunians lose their minds. Funny thing is, when I went to Gooey for a late breakfast, that was the one thing I didn’t want to get… Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against French toast and I love salted caramel but I’m not the person to have a dessert item repackaged as breakfast. If I had gone later in the day after a decent meal, then I would have definitely scoffed the whole thing but that’s just my personal preference.

The thing that caught my eye when I went was the Reuben sandwich. I love brisket. It is my favourite cut of meat. I love it when it’s smoked. I love it as pastrami. So whenever there is a brisket anything on a menu – I’m having it. The Reuben they had at Gooey had a glorious amount of meat between two pillowy slices of home-made bread, sharp sauerkraut and a tangy mustard dressing with the right amount of pickles. This is the sandwich for sandwich lovers. Fully loaded, slightly messy and 100% satisfying. My mother, on the other hand, choose a far more dignified and refined breakfast item. She had the poached fruit and granola which is also tasty. The granola is made in house and the addition of lime zest really freshened up the entire dish. The fruit was poached but still had texture and the whole thing didn’t taste overly sweet. I personally would go back purely for the granola but that’s because I’m picky about fruit but that’s a conversation for another day.

Isn't she gorgeous?

When you enter Gooey, you are greeted with an open plan kitchen and bakery where you can see people filling doughnuts and rolling dough and baking bread so it would be a travesty to not take at least one baked good home with you. I went pretty basic and got the vanilla custard filled doughnuts. I know it sounds boring but I’ve always felt that if you can do the simple things really well it’s a sign that you know what you are doing. No shade to the bakeries who do weird and wacky flavours but at one point it starts to feel a bit unnecessary when they are offering me a Red Velvet Brownie Cookie Cake Freak Shake with half a can of whipped cream. Honestly, just admit they are doing it for Instagram and not because it actually tastes good. Social media rant aside, the doughnuts at Gooey are really good. The doughnut I had was the lightest one I’ve had in a while. The vanilla custard was super strong with vanilla and it had the perfect dusting of caster sugar and the outside. I would have eaten three of those if I’d not had plans later in the day. I would recommend making a visit to Gooey whilst you’re in the Northern Quarter.

There is also the Yard & Coop in Manchester’s Northern Quarter where I had a dinner date with my bestie. Fun fact – this restaurant is where my favourite café used to be. No lie, a small part of me was heartbroken because I loved visiting Home Sweet Home whilst I was a student. It was my favourite brunch place. I think this meant a part me was putting high expectations on the new tenants because that space had so many wonderful memories. Is that silly? Maybe so but that was the attitude I had. Yard & Coop is essentially an American style fried chicken restaurant. You can get wings, chicken burgers or full on plates with all the sides. The restaurant was surprisingly empty when we went to visit. It was midweek and around 4:15 PM so essentially everyone was still in work but it meant that our food came up quickly so no complaints. The dish I ordered – at least according to Google – is no longer on their menu but the individual components still are. I had fried chicken thighs, fries covered in a cheese sauce and barbecue sauce with crumbled Frazzles, hot honey dipping sauce, coleslaw and sweet pickles. The whole thing was meant to be big and rich and very much “more is more”. I had mixed opinions about whether or not I liked this dish. The first problem I encountered was the chicken was a bit dry which wasn’t a great start. It wasn’t so dry that it was inedible but considering it’s a chicken restaurant and they were chicken thighs, I can only assume that the chicken I was served had sat under a hot plate for a little while or it was just a bad day in the kitchen. My fries are beautifully crisp and came piping hot which I appreciated because it would have been soggy with all that sauce on top. The favourite thing for me on that plate with a sweet pickles. It helped cut through all the richness and I just love a good pickle.

Is there such a thing as ordering too much?

My friend ordered the “Big Cock”. No joke. That is how it is written on the menu. To be fair, I found it rather funny and we made a lot of crude jokes but this may not be something you want order with your future mother-in-law – just saying. The Big Cock is essentially an oversize chicken burger. It’s a burger with layers of fried chicken thighs, mac and cheese, bacon, onion rings, two sauces and a heap of fries. It’s so big it came with skewers to keep it upright. When it came to taste, do you remember my little rant about shoving things together to go viral? This is exactly what I meant by that. I asked my friend and she said that everything just tasted okay but it wasn’t needed together. To be fair, there was no way to eat it as a burger anyways because you have to take it apart with a fork and knife. The entire thing was lots of components shoved on a plate that didn’t really play well together but looked wonderful on the Gram for marketing purposes. I don’t mind gimmicky things but I think they should also taste good. Make it look like effort was put in beyond its ability to go viral.

Small shoutout out to the Archie's milkshake in the back

On to happier things – I visited Oseyo! Yes, I finally went to the massive Asian supermarket that they put in the Arndale shopping centre. Did you know there are massive queues going around the shopping centre when the shop opened. The entire culture around Korean convenience stores or Japanese 7-Eleven’s has definitely made its mark in the UK consciousness. The number of times that I watch a video of someone in a convenience store and I wish that I too could get my cup of ice, my bag of iced coffee and my little banana milk has meant that Oseyo was my one chance at living that dream. A tad dramatic I know – especially considering there’s a bunch of these equivalent shops in London but I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere so humour me. They stopped doing the ice cups when I went so I was rather disappointed but I did get to pick up a few Korean drinks and snacks that were on my radar. The main one being Milkis. It’s a fizzy drink that’s yoghurt flavoured. In a way the closest thing I could describe it to would-be cream soda but it’s much lighter and actually has a yoghurt flavour to it. I thought it would taste foul but it is really addictive. I feel like that mixed with a fruity drink could be a good drink for summer party or adding a lot of fresh limes and mint. I liked it although I might be slightly allergic to something because I could feel my bottom lip itching which only happens with certain foods… I’m still going to drink it though!

The definition of a good morning

The last thing I ate Manchester before leaving was breakfast at Café North. If you are ever at a loss where to go for breakfast in the city centre – visit this place. They had the best pancakes I have had in for ever. The pancakes are buttery and crisp and light. The staff was super helpful because I don’t like fruit and so they let me have my pancakes with just marscapone and honey. The marscapone was sweet and very vanilla forward and honey added more sweetness which was fine because the pancakes were barely sweetened. Honestly I don’t know whether it was the mood I was in but I still dream about those pancakes. I washed it all down one of their smoothies which was mango and pineapple and it just made my day. I also got some scrambled eggs on the side and they were buttery too and cooked firm (I know purists would say it should be like porridge texture but I think that’s just weird). All I can say is just go to Café North.

And that was everything I ate in Manchester. All in all it was a good weekend of food and friendship. I also went to a candle making workshop and it was so much fun. We made these cute macaron tea light candles and they smell ridiculously good. I booked the class online and the teacher was really accommodating and helpful considering my disability affects my dexterity quite a bit. Let me know if you have any places recommend in Manchester in the comments below or if you have been to any of the places that I’ve mentioned above.

Speak to you guys soon!

Mary xx