Café Aromat

Whilst visiting the Manchester Craft and Design Centre I discovered this great little Café on the ground floor.
It’s an excellent spot to sit down, grab a cup of coffee and a sandwich and watch the people wandering around the various boutiques and studios in the building.
I went for a hot chocolate and a piece of caramel shortbread. The hot chocolate was rich and delicious, and caramel slices are always great (best cake/​biscuit ever) so I was more than pleased.
If you’re wandering around the Northern Quarter for a Saturday, it’s a great place to pop into and warm up in, as there’s loads of space to sit and loads going on all around you.

You know when you read something so nice it almost makes you cry? Okay, it might be that time of the month (sorry for the too much information factor there) but I can’t help but feel that Café Aromat must be one of the kindest and most accommodating eateries in all of Manchester. Firstly, it talks of how child-​friendly it is with high chairs available for ‘young diners’ (bless). Secondly their menu attempts to make allowances for all diets, from vegan to gluten-​free. They buy their excellent coffee from an independent retailer and their juices are organic.
The menu is wildly varied and interesting for a simple little craft centre café open from 10am to 5.30pm. Sandwiches are hearty and stodgy with beef and caramelised onions, Thai prawn salad, chicken Tikka and suchlike. Hot options include soups, chickpea curry (which I highly recommend), a Moroccan lamb burger, jacket potatoes and Thai dishes. Smoothies are incredible and the hot drinks, especially the honeycomb hot chocolate, are to die for. As well as this there are even cakes and hot puddings and you can order food online or provide buffets for functions using Café Aromat.
I implore you to visit the Craft and Design centre anyway, but its lovely little café makes the trip all the more worthwhile.

Oh I do love the Craft Centre. There’s something about its old-​fashioned simplicity and the fact that all around you are artists, all creating, all doing their own thing. I’m with Angela on this; with all that lovely ambience and generally good atmosphere, this is a great place for a café. And a great café it is.
The lamb burgers truly are famous. So much so that when Tiny Friend’s parents came to visit, they said «we want to go to the craft café with the lamb sandwich.» It took her awhile, but once she’d worked out their cryptic parent-​ese, she took them here.
I’ve never had a meal here, because I actually always forget about the café until I actually pop in. However, I can say that their coffee is lovely, and the hot chocolates are to die for. I’m not even a chocolate lover, but there’s something about their velvety, indulgent hot chocs that totally converts me. Oh, and last time I was there, there were some lovely little cakes, which went down very well with my frothy coffee.
The craft centre really is a brilliant institution, and deserves to be buzzing every minut of the day. Café Aromat is really doing its piece for the resident artists; I know at least two people who’ve popped in for coffee and ended up buying something from one of the studios. Good coffee, good cake, ‘lamb sandwiches’ and crafts. What’s not to love.

Café Aromat is an old favourite of mine. Located in the centre of Manchester Craft and Design Centre, I can’t think of a nicer setting for a café.
The coffee and tea is made with love and the cakes and hearty soups have a reputation for being some of the best in town. I personally recommend the Moroccan lamb burger, an item that has remained popular for as long as I can remember. And if you’re into hot chocolate, I wholeheartedly recommend their Honeycombe or Hazlenut versions. Homemade excellence in a stunning building.