Café North

A very brief review, as we didn’t eat here…
We popped in after an hour wandering around the very busy city on Manchester Day, and were relieved to find a little oasis of calm.
Being slightly hungover, we opted for a thirst quenching juicy smoothie, and some caffeine!
I had an Energy Boost smoothie which contained apple, raspberry and ginger, and an Americano. They arrived quite quickly, the smoothie was lovely but not very smooth due to crunchy raspberry seeds! The coffee was delicious — hot and strong, and just what I needed!
Pretty good value for the city, and worth a return visit.

With Café North being very close to where I work it was only a matter of time before I visited! Being in the heart of Shudehill/​Victoria/​Northern Quarter this café is not a greasy spoon but a tastefully decorated hotspot for people working in the city centre or staying at the nearby hotels such as Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn & Park Inn. Alternatively if you are in town for an early start to shopping, treat yourself to breakfast for some retail energy! High quality produce is used and price very reasonable. If you do visit I would recommend any variation of their Eggs Benedict. You won’t be disappointed!

Café North is a Café in central Manchester. My omlette was okay, I ordered it with Cheddar Cheese and Salmon, The Salmon was on top of my omlette and that was cold, dissapointing but overall a decent omlette with very nice beans. If you are attending with Children a small portion of Apple or Orange Juice is £2.20, the Apple juice is nice and tastes fresh yet I would say should be cheaper. They have a good range of teas and a small choice of Coffee syrups avaliable but if you want a coffee without food I would reccomened the Starbucks what is in a hotel next to this café.

There aren’t too many restaurants I’ve been to where you have a ²⁄₂ chance of finding a hair in your food. My boyfriend and I went to Café North a year ago and discovered one in our food. A few months later, he decided to give the restaurant another chance… and guess what he found in his eggs benedict?! Disgusted, he left. We will never step foot inside that restaurant again.

Café North fills a little bit of a gap in the Northern Quarter market for brunch cafés, and certainly does it well enough by providing surprisingly tasty dishes at fairly reasonable prices. There’s a strangely large variety of food on offer when you take a look at the menu for what appears to be a relatively standard greasy spoon, but they’re being nothing if not adventurous which is fine by my book.
It’s not somewhere I could imagine anyone traveling far out of the way to visit, but it is somewhere I could imagine frequenting regularly if you happened to live around the corner. Judging by the comments of reviewers that do, it would seem I’m not wrong.

Sitting directly opposite Shudehill Bus Station, from the outside Café North seems quite bland in comparison to the quirky and trendy Northern Quarter cafes that can be found just a couple of streets away.
However, it’s just around the corner from my flat, making it perfect for hungover mornings when I just want a hot butty or breakfast as soon as physically possible. There’s loads of space to sit, including some comfortable booths. There always seems to be lots of staff working, meaning that you get served quickly. I think it leans slightly towards being an American diner in comparison to being a greasy spoon.
The sausage and egg baguette is about £4, and it always does the trick for a nasty hangover. My girlfriend usually goes for a salmon and egg bagel which costs a couple of quid more, but prices for all the breakfast things seem very reasonable.
Café North is simple, clean and full of light. I’m not sure what makes it individual but I keep going back there so it must be doing something right.

Café North is one of those places that you could walk past for a month of Sundays and never venture in, or make your staple brunch spot after just one visit. Situated in a corner building, its floor to ceiling windows flood the place with a lot of natural light but if you’re still not satisfied you can take a seat on the pavement outside (although I wouldn’t class the street corner as a prime location for al fresco dining).
The menu is simple and all the produce is locally sourced, which can make some of the dishes on the menu a little pricier than your average café but the quality here is of a high standard. I tried the American Breakfast for £9.95 (rump steak, 3 sausages, 3 pieces of bacon, 3 griddled eggs, 3 hash browns, beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and toast) It sounds costly but with a plate that’s this devastating it’ll end up being your only meal of the day!

This is why I love Unilocal,I never knew you could hire Café North out for parties, thank you Sophie.
But I can’t help but think: What a very random thing to do!
I go past Café North most days, it’s a café, it’s a good café that serve very good breakfasts and there’s big competition around this area because you’ve got Trof AND Koffee Pot to contend with but Café North does hold it’s own.
I was truly and utterly defeated by the American Breakfast; expensive at £9.95 but you get a piece of rump steak, three pork sausages, three slices of bacon, three eggs, 3 hash browns, beans mushrooms, grilled tomato and toast = Bleugh. Kind of a money saver in a way as you do not need to eat for the rest of the week!
A good place to sit and people watch though and they serve really good coffee.

I was out and about in the Northern Quarter about a week ago and had just arrived. Got some cash out from the machine outside the Spar and what should I notice but some crazy girls raving it up in what looked like a Café.
Very bizarre — a few questions i.e. an investigation meant I saw that this was the Café North and a friend knew that you could hire out the whole place for parties. The entire café had been turned into a club in the night time and they all looked like they were having a fantastic time.
I returned a few days later to find it looked just like any other café in daylight. No raving, no DJ just an apparently locally sourced menu staying true to its roots in the North — get the title? Their smoothies are really good, as good as Innocent I thought. And they really do cater for the post hangover crowd with big breakfasts of bacon, sausage, egg you know the works. Somehow they have managed to keep the prices down too; everything is fairly reasonable here.