Thankfully for this trip, our flight was out of Shannon which is less than an hour’s drive from home and add to that, Shannon is never too busy and getting through security takes no time at all. You can book the car park and the more you pay, the closer you are to the entrance – if you are lucky with your parking spot, you can be a 15 second walk to the entrance – no, seriously, it’s that convenient.
When it comes to amenities at Shannon, there are very limited choices, a decent size Duty Free, one bar selling some airport quality food, another food place selling the same quality food and a newsagent selling books, drinks and other snacks.
That aside, our flight was on time and before long, we landed into a reasonably quiet Manchester Airport. From the airport, you can hop on a train, bus or grab a cab to get to the centre, we picked the train and after a short 18 minute journey, we arrived into Manchester central station.
We are staying at the Leven Manchester hotel which is less than a ten minute walk from the main train station. For the most part, the hotel is a no-frills type of place, it has a small reception area which also acts as a café/bar if you fancy a drink. The building is a converted warehouse which was probably a factory at some point. Our room is spotlessly clean, it has a good size bathroom and a large window. You can see in the photo below how the modern window blends nicely into the old red brick.
We relaxed in the room for a bit before heading out and checking out what the vibe is like on a Friday evening. It turns out, the vibe is a pretty full-on one, between tourists, local teens hanging out and a lot of people having post-work drinks, the place was hopping. Add to this, the weather was really nice, not hot, just pleasant.
As is the case these days, it makes sense to book a place if you plan on eating out, especially if it’s a popular spot. I picked a burger place that seemed to fit the bill – the bill was a no-nonsense meal for our first night and a place not too far from where we were staying. Before that though, some post meal drinkies. After wandering around for a bit, we decided on a place called Dogtown, which as you will see from the photo, is a real dive bar.
The place was not a dive bar as such, rather, it was trying to look like a dive bar, and the theme was skating, as in boarding. Nonetheless, we ordered some cocktails to kick things off. The music was modern and surprisingly not too loud, the staff were pleasant and while the cocktails were not the best, it was a nice introduction to the bar scene in Manchester.
After our drinks we headed to Almost Famous for diner. As said above, we just wanted a no-nonsense dinner. Almost Famous is a burger place, they also do drinks, fried chicken and the like. We ordered some chicken wings to get things started, followed by our burgers. The chicken was nothing special, their ‘special’ house made BBQ sauce was nothing to write home about and the burgers, while not the worst we ever had, were nothing special. That aside, our drinks were fine and the staff were very friendly.
After our burger, we wandered around a tad more to get our bearing and once done, we headed back for a good night’s rest.
The following day, we were up reasonably early and as we did not arrange breakfast in our hotel, we set about finding a spot for brekkie. Of course, prior to arriving we had done a bit of investigating on places to get breakfast and a place called Pollen Bakery popped up a few times. As it turned out, Pollen has two locations in Manchester and one just happened to be a two minute walk from our hotel.
As soon as you arrived into Pollen, there was a delicious smell of fresh bread, pastries and coffee. They have seating inside and out, we opted to dine inside on this occasion. For breakfast, C kept it simple with some porridge and I had the bacon and egg roll, both were very tasty, all washed down with some juices, coffee and tea.
After breakfast, we wandered around a bit more before meeting up with a friend we had not seen in a few years. They have lived in Manchester for a while now so we knew it’d be great meeting a ‘local’ who really knows the area. To kick things off, we all headed to a place called Idle Hands for a coffee and a good catch up and from there, we headed towards the ‘arty’ area where people live on canal boats. Our chum informed us that Manchester used to be the most industrialised citie in the world at one point, which would explain all the large old red brick buildings. Like our hotel, a lot are being converted to accommodation, as well as places to eat.
For lunch we went to Ezra & Gil. C and I both went with the Caesar salad and our chum went with the classic toasty. The lunches were tasty and the place had very friendly staff.
After lunch we hit the streets, we visited the Manchester Museum, the University of Manchester, Manchester Art Galleryand the Whitworth Art Gallery.
It was a busy but enjoyable day, however, we were not done. After our sightseeing, C and I headed back to our hotel to relax a bit before getting ready to hit the town, our chum did likewise and we arranged to meet in a cocktail bar that evening. Our chum had suggest the cocktail bar as they said it was really good and as it turned out, they were right, it was fantastic.
The place is called Three Little Words and they make some of their own spirits, juice, bitters and the like and add to that, the cocktail menu changes every few weeks and it usually has a theme, for us, the theme was ‘art’, where all the cocktails are named after a piece of art. We tried several and did comparisons on each one, all were tasty, even the ones that were not as good as the others, were still seriously good.
After our fill of all things cocktails, it was time for dinner. I had been eyeing up a few places for dinner and a place called Another Hand popped up a few times when looking for good places to eat. As it turned out, it just happened to be one of our chum’s favourite places to eat, so before we even arrived, they were saying, ‘you’re going to enjoy the food here’ and on another note, it was less than a five minute walk from the cocktail bar.
Another Hand is in a strange location of sorts, you go up a few flights of steps from the main street to what is essentially a small strip-mall, which has a few places to eat and drink, however, most of them did not look too inviting. Nonetheless, we arrived at Another Hand and were greeted by a very pleasant waitress who showed us to our table. Another thing that surprised me was the size of the place, it’s really small, there were only about 10 tables, with a couple of seats at the bar/pass area. We wasted no time and ordered some drinks to kick things off, sparkles of course. The menu consists of small and medium sized sharing plates and everything on the menu read really well. I’ll let the photos do the talking.
So how was Another Hand – well in a word, outstanding! The food was absolutely amazing, how they do not have a Michelin star is beyond me. We’ve had Michelin star meals that did not come anywhere close in taste, presentation, choice and service, it was easily one of the best meals we’ve ever had in a UK restaurant.
After the amazing meal, it was time to go, but, not without returning to Three Little Words for a few more cocktails before calling it a night. We said our goodbyes to our chum and headed back to our hotel about a 25 minute walk away, which seemed longer given our very full stomachs.
The following morning we were up and about pretty early and as much as we fancied going back to Pollen Bakery, we decided to try a place called Koffee Pot, which is a good old British ‘caff’. The menu read as expected, pancakes, full-English breakfast, tea and toast if that’s all you want and so forth. C opted for the Full-English, I went for their ‘Manc’ Muffin, which is a play on words of that other famous breakfast muffin. Maybe it was the effects of the cocktails the night before, but the breakfast was great, all washed down with coffee and what they call a ‘builders tea’, which is basically a good mug of strong tea.
After breakfast, we wandered around a bit, waiting on the shops to open, it was Sunday morning after all. C wanted to visit Fred Aldous art store, which is a ‘big deal’ as far as art supplies go – there was really nothing they did not have for the artist in your life. After checking out a few other stores, we decided to pay a visit to the Imperial War Museum, yes, yet another war museum. It’s a bit of a journey out of the centre of Manchester and takes about 20 minutes on the tram. Speaking of trams, Manchester has a really good public transportation system, incorporating trams, buses and trains.
The museum was small in comparison to others we have visited but we still managed to knock about three hours out of it. Once done, we got the tram for the return journey to Manchester city centre. We took it easy for the remainder of the afternoon and enjoyed a coffee in the hotel while passing some time.
For dinner, I had booked a place called Dishoom, which is considered one of the better Indian restaurants in Manchester. En route we stopped at a Mexican themed bar to grab a pre-dinner drink, margaritas of course, which were fine. Actually there were actually several bars and restaurants around the area where Dishoom was, so you would be spoilt for choice.
Luckily for us, we booked in advance as when we arrived, there were two long queues, one for those with a booking and the other for those hoping to nab a last minute table. A few minutes after our reservation time, we were escorted in and brought to our table. The place was hopping, dimly lit and loud, still though, the staff were very friendly and offered help with ordering if you were not familiar with Indian cuisine. I’ll let the photos do the talking.
So how was Dishoom – to be fair, it was not the best, certainly not as good as the hype surrounding it. Every dish we had, was just average, there was no stand out dish and this coupled with the noise of the place, did not make for the most pleasant of dining experiences. The food did come out pretty quick, given the several courses we ordered, but overall, we would not recommend it.
Once done, we took a slow stroll back to our hotel for a good night’s rest.
The following morning, we hit the streets in search of breakfast, as much as we both would have happily gone back to Pollen, they did not open on Sundays. We headed towards Idle Hands where we had coffee the previous Saturday. C ordered the Avo Brekkie and I had their twist on the ‘Full’. We were a tad disappointed with the food, it was not very tasty, still though, it was filling and the coffee is pretty decent, next time it will be back to Koffee Pot 🙂
After breakfast, we checked out a few shops before heading back to our hotel to grab the bags. Manchester was great for a short trip, while it does not have as many attractions as London, it was an enjoyable weekend, with some amazing food in Another Hand and of course meeting up with a good friend. Given the ease of getting there, we will certainly return at a later date and perhaps do something mad, like, checking out a soccer match J
Until next time,
Bye for now,
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 