Hard Rock Café – Manchester

Whenever I go away I like to prepare myself for the trip by looking up places to visit in the area and maybe even which restaurants to eat at but the Mr gets very excited and wants to plan everything. When he came across a Hard Rock Café Virgin experience voucher on offer for the branch in Manchester he had to buy it before our journey, I guess that was one less thing to worry about.

We arrived in Manchester City centre on a very sunny Saturday evening, after dropping our bags at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel, and it was heaving with people, mostly groups of hen parties, like literally loads of them, is this hen party central or what?

We noticed that as in many city centres there was lots of choices of where to eat and we were glad we had booked in advance so we didn’t have to decide where to go. Although the Hard Rock café is somewhere that I have been meaning to visit for ages and was close to booking it on our girls holiday to Tenerife but we ended up going to a steakhouse instead.

The Hard Rock Café started out as a themed restaurant in London in 1971 and has since expanded across 75 countries as hotels, casinos and the famous cafes. The Manchester branch is really large with a bar and shop at the bottom, a dining area up a few steps and then another dining area above that with a balcony looking over.

The restaurant was busy when we arrived and we admired the décor with walls full of rock and roll memorabilia on our way up to our table. We were sat next to a large window which probably could have done with some sort of blind as the sun was directly in my face, although I tried not to let it bother me as I was just grateful that we had some nice weather.

We thought we were quite lucky that the upstairs was a lot emptier than the rest of the restaurant and was looking forward to a nice peaceful meal, that was until one of the hen parties arrived for a cocktail making session and took over the bar at the end. To their credit they were not very rowdy, I’m sure they were saving that until after the cocktails and they gave the place a nice party atmosphere.

We explained to our waiter that we had pre booked with a virgin experience voucher and he said that there was a separate menu for this booking called the gold group menu but we had a browse through the normal one while he was getting it for us.

The normal menu is really large with loads of pages and lots of options to choose from so when we received the little piece of card that we could choose our two course meal from, we were really disappointed.

For a start there was no option of a starter. I personally am more of a dessert person so would happily miss the starter but the Mr isn’t a dessert fan, it would have been nice that if we had already paid for a two course meal that he would have the option of what two courses he wanted. The next thing is that there were only five options for a main course when there are over twenty in the normal menu that wouldn’t have varied much in price to these and if you were a vegetarian then you’re basically just stuck with the veggie burger. And not a chocolate cake fan? well that would be unfortunate because there was no other option than a chocolate brownie for dessert… OK I probably would have chosen it myself had I had the chance but that is not the point!

I went for the cheese pasta with the grilled chicken breast served with garlic bread. The food was filling and tasty although it had a bit of a kick to it even though it didn’t mention any chilli in the description.

The Mr went for the legendary burger but without the bacon as he doesn’t eat pork. He was left disappointed with the portion size, although the burger was big the chips served with it were not and there was no sort of salad as you would normally see as a dressing on the side, he was also disappointed with the taste as he said there just wasn’t much of a taste to it at all.

The dessert probably made up for the main meal as it is described as a lil brownie and the portion size was more than I could finish. It was served with both cream and ice cream which I found weird as it would normally be one or the other.

The only good thing about the Virgin experience voucher was that when we were finished we were free to just get up and leave without worrying what the bill had come to and waiting around to get the waiters attention before we could pay.

It is understandable that if you use a certain deal then you are given a separate menu to coincide with what you have paid (The virgin voucher costs £42 for a two course meal for two with a bottomless soft drink) and there was the option to purchase extra food or drink from the main menu if we wanted but I think it should be made clear what you are expected to receive before you buy the voucher as they don’t mention this gold menu anywhere when you make the purchase.

Although The Hard Rock Café is a restaurant I am glad I have visited because it is quite iconic, it is probably not somewhere I would go out of my way to visit again as we were not that impressed with our experience.

Have you ever visited the Hard Rock Café? What did you think?

 

Hilton Garden Inn Hotel – Manchester

The Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Manchester is part of the Emirates Cricket stadium in Old Trafford and overlooks the grounds. I am not a cricket fan at all and in fact I have been a Manchester United football fan for most of my life but when looking for a hotel to stay at on our recent trip to Manchester I felt quite drawn to the Hilton Garden Inn.

The hotel has 150 modern rooms and many overlook the cricket ground so you can watch the game from the comfort of your own private balcony. We didn’t book a pitch side room as seeing the cricket wasn’t really a priority but we were given complimentary tickets so that we could go into the stadium and watch the cricket at any time during our stay which I thought was a nice touch.

The hotel reception is quite small but has this lovely seating area. We were checked in quickly and took the lift up to our room. I was pretty sure I booked a double room and not a twin so was surprised to see two beds when I entered the room, we did call down to reception to see if we could change but unfortunately they were fully booked up.

The room was neutrally decorated with Manchester landmark prints adorning the walls. It was clean and comfortable but a bit of a tight squeeze, much as what you would expect from a Hotel chain. The bedside table had a little alarm clock which I thought was a handy addition if you need to get up at a certain time but I woke up in the middle of the night and was nearly blinded by how bright the clock face was. The bathroom was decorated in large grey tiles and looked very swanky, it didn’t have a bath but a rather large walk in shower.

As we had the complimentary tickets we thought we would check out the grounds and see if a match was on before we left. It was a really hot day and although there was a match playing, they were in the middle of a break so we just did some people watching while sitting in the sun before retreating to the bar to cool off.

The restaurant/lounge area is next to the reception and offer breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as just a relaxing area next to the bar for drinks. We didn’t use the restaurant as we already had plans to eat out in the city centre at The Hard Rock café and at the Kashmir 1887, which is a lovely Indian restaurant local to the hotel.

The hotel is a great location for getting around Manchester as it is right next to the Old Trafford tram stop. It is a short walk to the football ground and about a twenty minute walk to Salford Quays which is home to a lovely waterfront and many other attractions. including the Imperial War Museum North and Media city.

We had a very pleasant stay at The Hilton Garden inn and would love to try out their other branches, maybe Singapore, Dubai or Hawaii next time?!

Imperial War Museum North

While in Manchester we noticed that the Imperial War Museum was not too far from our hotel so decided to take a trip down by the river and pay it a visit while also getting a chance to explore the quays.

The imperial war museum north is the newest of five branches and was open in 2002. It has very impressive, modern architecture but doesn’t have the stunning entrance of it’s London Counterpart.

As you enter the museum there is a large seating area, shop and café where you can get a bite to eat or just relax after walking around.

The main exhibition space is upstairs and although everything is in one large space, it is split into mini exhibitions and goes through a timeline of conflicts in Britain and the commonwealth.

As well as life sized vehicles on the floor and hanging from the ceiling, the space is filled with memorabilia from the time, including posters, letters, clothes and weapons. There are also hands on activities designed specifically for kids. I really liked the idea of the trench stenches, although I wasn’t quite daring enough to have a sniff myself!

Although there are little videos you can watch in different rooms, every hour there is an audio-visual cinematic display that takes over the whole space. It is a real immersive experience and you can either sit and watch it on the benches around the middle of the space or continue walking around while taking it in.

I find these performances really interesting as they are like watching documentaries and include recounts and stories of people that were around during that time in history. Each show is different so you don’t have to worry that you are listening to the same thing if you are still around when the next film starts.

I really liked the Imperial War Museum North, although it is nowhere near as big as the London Imperial War Museum, I actually like that I was able to take it all in within a couple of hours rather than choosing certain sections to visit. There was also a really good exhibition in an adjacent room about the conflict in Syria but I think this is now finished and will be replaced in July with a different show.

The Imperial War Museum North is free to visit and it is situated in a lovely space around Salford Quays, about a 15 minute walk from Old Trafford football stadium.

Exploring the quays – Manchester

Last month I took a trip to Manchester to attend the BlogOnX blogging conference and after being a Man United fan for the best part of 30 years the trip was long overdue. I didn’t manage to catch a game while there but I was right next door in the plush Hotel Football having a blast with lots of other lovely bloggers.

During the trip we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel down the road from the stadium and decided to make a weekend of it as it was a bank holiday. With our train booked for Monday evening we decided to explore the local area before making our way back to the station.

After passing the iconic Old Trafford and the canal that runs down the side of it we made our way towards the Salford Quays as we noticed that the Imperial War Museum North was situated next to the river.

When we reached the quays it reminded me a bit of the docklands in London with it’s swanky riverside apartments and lots of glass buildings. The Salford Quays are home to Media city UK, the Lowry shopping mall and a number of other attractions and restaurants.

We thought it was rather quiet for such a glorious day by the river but after crossing the bridge we realised everyone was on the other side enjoying the sunshine and their lunch on the lush green and taking a dip in a part of the river that had been sectioned off for swimmers.

If I hadn’t been staying nearby I probably wouldn’t have thought to visit this part of the city and would have looked for attractions in the centre of town, but I’m glad I did as it was a lovely relaxing weekend without all the hustle and bustle of the crowds.