The Foundation Coffee House in Manchester

Couldn’t serve a filter for takeaway as they were too busy… It takes 10 seconds guys!

Over for the bank holiday weekend, staff are all lovely and friendly. The host was especially welcoming and gave us recommendations for our weekend. Top quality coffee and food.

Unfortunately, I had a very disappointing experience. There was no internet, no charging sockets, the seats were uncomfortable, and the coffee was really bad. The place was also extremely hot, like a sauna. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Very calm and restful. Not pretentious but clean and friendly

Nice place with tasty food for breakfast. However, we received our coffee well before our food arrived so it was pointless to have it together. Even though we enjoyed the atmosphere and the breakfast. The staff was also very friendly and helpful. We will come back for sure :)

Only got a coffee and a smoothie but swift service, friendly staff

I used this as a remote working venue for a few hours, which it's well set up for with plenty of power sockets around the place. The coffee was really good, and the food was decent too, though slightly over-priced.

Fantastic café to visit if you’re either going to get some food, have a coffee or get some work done! The coffee is by far some of the best in Manchester with a good variety of coffee on the menu to meet all different preferences and tastes. Staff are fast, helpful and friendly which makes the whole experience a great one!

Mice and Burnt Sourdough… They have raised the prices and the service is below average. The sourdough was burnt and was hard to cut. When we asked for a sharper knife to cut it, we were told only butterknives were the available cutlery and informed us quite snarkily that this was the nature of sourdough… we have been eating sourdough for years, our sourdough was burnt (even the replacement), and every other brunch place provides a sharper knife - namely Ezra and Gil across the street, Which we wish we had gone to. As we were about to leave a small mouse scuttles acrooss the cafe behind a fridge. We have been coming here since it opened in 2015 - wont be coming back again.

Good variety of foods and coffees, Nice coffee, Portions could be a bit bigger for that price.

Great smoothie and cake. Nice and friendly staff.

Fantastic place, awesome coffee! I expected a lot and they definitely delivered 👌🏽

Can’t lie, I’ve been in twice now where the guy working has ignored me or continued to do other jobs without acknowledging… first time played it off as just a bad day but second time now isn’t coincidence 🥲 coffee’s decent tho

La pastelería no estaba mal, pero el café es una taza para llevar mientras me siento a desayunar, sin duda no es el indicado para este rango de precios. Nunca más.

Me encanta este lugar. El café y la comida eran excepcionales. El personal también era brillante (gritó a Macy y Josh, y nuestra otra camarera el domingo). Estaba muy ocupado, por una buena razón, y dijeron que sería una pequeña espera, pero el café llegó rápido (gran café) y el brunch llegó poco después. Es realmente frío, gran ambiente. Una necesidad definitiva para el Barrio Norte.

Wow, what a place. Georgie made us feel so welcome and was so attentive and kind. Will 100% be back when we next visit Manchester because of Georgie’s hospitality. Love foundation! Best coffee shop in Manc :)

They now serve hot drinks in paper cups despite having raised the prices. Staff just chatted amongst themselves and it all felt very unapproachable. Asked if they served an all day full English but it appeared their kitchen was closing which I didn’t know, so I asked for a menu to see if there was something smaller I could order. Was told to “turn around and look at the menu at the front door” because there was no menu on the table (no QR code either) - bit embarrassing when you have people behind you. Why not be helpful and give your customer a menu/ask them if they need time to decide whilst they serve someone else? This is basic customer service 😅

I have been here quite a few times on my visits to Manchester and have always generally enjoyed a good coffee and brunch here. I visited again recently and the food was very nice and arrived quickly. Coffee was also very nice. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I sometimes wish there was a bit more customer service these days. Having worked in hospitality myself for a long time I would always ask if the customer needed anything else to enjoy their meal and bring it to them, but these days all you get is “anything else you need is over there”. Other than that, it was fine.

Good tasting coffee, but such a shame they charge 50p extra for plant based milk. It just makes coffee so expensive for people opting out of drinking cow’s milk.

Excellent customer service. Very good quality food. Great atmosphere. Had a very great time. Will definitely recommend!

The mocha was a good size and had little marshmallows with cream on top. The brownie was pleasant to have along with it. Has a lot of seating and tasty drinks ☕😋

Very spacious and reasonablly priced coffee shop with wonderful staff 👍👍. Had the luxury hot chocolate which was very well presented and tasted great for the price. Coffee club discount available too if you have one. Overall would recommend!

I come here every so often to work and it's a perfect spot. Great coffee and great food.

Nice place for working and studying, coffee is high quality.

Bonito lugar de aspecto, la disponibilidad del menú pobre Sin salmón, sin jamón, sin setas a la 1. 30 pm ¡Cuando es un lugar tipo brunch que elimina gran parte del menú!

service TOO slow. it took AN HOUR for me to get my order (just scrambled eggs and a coffee)

Visited Friday 29th Nov 24. Staff were very friendly. Ordered 2 Potato hash one wit Salmon on wit ham hock, egg was cooked well, 1/2 a baby tomato, potatoes were really under cooked and very dry, It was a shame because it had the potential to be delicious.

Coffee is great, really spacious, staff are super friendly and a neat spot for working.

Been coming to Foundation since I first moved to Manchester, the lovely staff, Jules, Georgie, Ceallach, Macy, and the whole team always create such a welcoming environment and always ensure the coffee is top tier.

Enjoyable breakfast at a place where lots of people were working. The delivery that day meant a very limited menu, but what I had was good.

Nice place but noisy! Good food but average service.

Coffee was very average, staff didn't seem too happy, table was wonky so drinks were spilling everywhere.

Desde la llegada, pasaron más de 10 minutos antes de que nos atendieran. Pedimos dos desayunos completos en inglés, pero como no puedo comer huevo, pedí intercambiar esto y me ofrecieron un hachís marrón. Después de 20 minutos, la camarera dijo que había un retraso y que serían otros 10 minutos. Bastante bien, excepto que fueron otros 20 minutos. Mi desayuno llegó... con huevo. El servicio fue lento, la comida bien (cuando lo hacen bien) y el precio del menú no incluye IVA. Es cierto que preguntaron si todo iba bien, a lo que expresé mi disgusto. Ellos reembolsaron el costo de las bebidas y el cargo por servicio discrecional (a petición mía). Enmendar las cosas está bien, pero en los negocios, debes hacerlo bien inicialmente. No volveremos.

A good place for studying, with your laptop and access to WiFi. The staff are friendly. The food options are limited and the French toast with bacon wasn’t up to taste, felt bland and heavy. wish there was something more like soft savoury buns or cinnamon rolls, for snacking during studying. But great atmosphere for quiet learning.

The best: the food. The best was the chocolate for sure, I choose the Ecuadorian one that was super good, not sweet at all. Also I tried the warm porridge, no sweeteners or sugar inside, just fruits and some honey over it. The place fits to work with laptops. They don't do table service.

Of all places in Manchester to have a coffee yesterday, I’m so sorry I chose here. No atmosphere, staff not bothered, I nearly went in to ask where my coffee was twice. Took around 20 mins to get a flat white and it was overpriced. Staff need customer service training!

This was one of the most disappointing meals and places we’ve been to in Manchester. We ordered orange juice, filter coffee, croque madame croissant, hash potatoes and vegan classic. We received the orange juices and a semi warm filter coffee in okay time, but had to wait 40 minutes for the food, which meant we had no drinks with it. We paid overprice for a small plate of cold potatoes with half a mushroom. It seemed like some leftover. The vegan classic was dry, some boiled spinach and nothing with any particular good taste, besides of the dry vegan sauces, but they needed ketchup. This was not homemade, just some anonymous ketchup bottle. The croque Madame croissant would have offended a French person, it was disappointing as croque madame, decent just called a croissant with egg/ham/cheese though. We received no apologies for the delay, were not offered any new drinks after such a long wait and glasses/cups being empty. No eye contact from the staff. We were asked to pay when we ordered. If we hadn’t, I would have complained. The price was not fair for the amount of food and quality of food and service.

Couldn't know how the food was. As I stayed there for the paper game/ work 😁.

Expensive but came here as had a nice atmosphere and wasn’t too busy. Plenty of choices on the menu and free water station. No complaints and would return for sure.

Great place for English breakfasts. Nice place, extremely kind and professional staff. I tried their version of Eggs Benedict, very good. Advised

Overpriced Northern Quarter brunch spot as to be expected. Service is fine. The quality of food is good but not matched for what you pay. Smoothies were fresh. Main gripe is the noise level, it's unbearable when it gets slightly busy and the acoustics just amplify it all. Makes eating here unpleasant.

Great place to work from and relax.

Went in today after a horrible coffee and food in chapter one books was greeted by a friendly on the door had a mattcha coffee and salmon bagel and cream cheese it was busy but plenty of seats and not a long wait would recommend

Busy Sunday morning and we had to wait 20 minutes, but the communication from the staff was 10/10. They were a member of staff down but still got us in quicker than expected and took our order without any delay. Food was incredible and good quality. Coffee was top notch and you could taste the difference using organic coffee beans. Would definitely come here again for brunch

Realmente terrible. AVOID. Café terrible, pedí un blanco plano. Fue horrible. Le pregunté si podía tomar un capuchino en su lugar. Dijeron que tendría que esperar mucho tiempo ya que estaban muy ocupados y que tendría que pagar por un capuchino. Mis hijas no bebían chocolate caliente. También tuvimos un pastel que era tan dulce que no sabía a nada más que azúcar.

Lovely space with fantastic coffee and food. Will definitely be back next time we're in the area.

Hace poco fuimos a almorzar. Nos dijeron que había un tiempo de espera para la comida. Pedimos la comida, y la pagamos, pero descubrimos que los precios del menú no eran los correctos, cobran el IVA por separado. Tienen que ser honestos con esto, ya que no esperaba pagar más de lo que se indica en el menú. La comida llegó, tuvimos algunos problemas con ciertos artículos que estaban mal cocinados, pero el personal lo resolvió. No fue la mejor experiencia de Brunch que he tenido.

Esta cafetería tiene un amplio interior con un montón de opciones de asientos. Tuvimos un desayuno ligero de granola, tostadas y té verde. Los precios estaban bien, pero nos molestó que no tomaran efectivo.

Great coffee. Felt comfortable sitting working on my laptop - plenty of space to others.

These guys deserve all the 5 stars! Such a great coffee shop and an amazing place to bring your laptop and work in peace. The vibe is very cool and laid back, I had 2 coffees, both were great and appropriately priced (incomparable to Starbucks TBH). I was there for a few hours to work and have some coffee before my train and this was a perfect spot. The staff do not judge or bother you if you’re just working, the music was a little louder IMO if you’re planning on having any meetings, otherwise great service and cozy atmosphere. It’s pet friendly, it was so great to see cute dogs within the space. Would recommend 10/10

Gran hallazgo, a cinco minutos a pie de la estación de tren de Oxford Road. Brunchs todo el día, talleres e instalaciones de trabajo remoto. Grandes cafés y productos frescos.

Great coffee and location. Large coffee shop with plenty of seats. Staff were very good and helpful and enjoyed our visit here.

Coffee was very tasty, and just as good on our return visit!

The place neet, the drinks even better. I had a biscoff shake. Best thing I've ever had.

Awesome place, great food, cool place to hang out

Why on earth have the minimise and change the menu?! Gone so downhill Never again!

Perfect place to co work, good WiFi and lots of space. One of the best full English’s I’ve ever had too.

Excellent place to meet and have brunch, coffee etc. A warm welcome and helpful staff. Can get busy but worth the wait. Highly recommended

friendly staff and truly delicious and excellent hot chocolate

You get what you pay for. Very flexible with

Their ice tea is the best I've had

Good food, good cocktails, slow service

Great food Great drinks Great atmosphere BLOODY AWFUL SERVICE!!!

A take away latte £4.20 Expensive and not worth the money

Always a great coffee and lovely people

I ordered a kind of bread and it came different, if I knew it was different from what I ordered I wouldn't buy it. I didn't ask to come a similar one. It's not cheap to come a bread that I'm not going to eat and blonde attendant with blue eyes turn your back and leave

The food this time wasn’t right . Slimy scrambled eggs piled on top of bread with avocado piled on top . Quite a small plate. The tea arrived first the server must think she’s a gangster cause she just popped the milk cup inside the empty tea cup and bunged it on the table spilling the milk inside . We didn’t ask for milk but now we have milk in the tea cup . Worse more the milk cup base was sat inside the tea cup hardly a clean hygienic way to serve drink. No apology and totally oblivious . Then arrives the food . We mentioned the mushrooms are missing the server wanted to take away all the food and we said we are eating now just get the missing mushrooms ! The young man reruns marching through like an mma wrestler spouting out a story about how the mushroom always gets missed out on orders and he will bring it soon . It arrived 10 minutes later ! Then the gangster number one returns to commandeer the ketchup . We had to add a bit more ketchup …I asked is this the only bottle yes I’m afraid so . She grabs it and marches off . I am absolutely disgusted by the food and more importantly the service is from the gutters . Hiring untrained staff with the No manners is a disgrace . Management be ware . This is not what people pay for when they wish to be served in a hygienic and comfortable environment . A really bad experience . If you wish to hire this kind of staff then just pack up and move elsewhere . Not a cafe that deserves to be in the northern quarter . Not anymore ! This is the third time we get this type of belligerent indifferent and rude service . A real pattern hence why the review .

Good food Horrible orange juice - not 'Freshly Squeezed' as it states it is out of a plastic carton and tast cheap - good coffee

We like the food, however, every time we go we’re told that there is at least a 40-60 minute on food (even when there is several empty tables). Today we went and we were told that they had to prioritise a hen do that took place earlier in the day (it was 13:30) and they weren’t serving food. The food is alright, but we won’t be trekking over there again anytime soon, as it gets boring hearing the same thing each time and having to wait for an extended amount of time for a simple barm.

Very nice place great atmosphere coffee is good as well.not tried any food yet but should imagine it's as good as the drinks.

Very noisy but delicious coffee. I had an oat milk latte and a tea ☕️

Fabulous Bank Holiday brunch, OF Avocado Smash with Chorizo and Halloumi, and a delicious creamy cappuccino on the side. Very busy kitchen but well staffed.

coffee always bangs and the staff are so nice!! <3

Came here to do some work, was the perfect place to go, coffee was brilliant and was able to get straight into my work without any real distraction. Was also great to see others doing the same which gave it the right atmosphere for me to concentrate.

Best tasting breakfast I've had in a while. Took a while for coffees and food to come but it was very busy

Very noisy al, the food could have been better. Salt was probably missing and imagine I am a person who uses very little salt when cooking

Such friendly service and not bad prices for indie

Great coffee and a nice interior. What let's it down is the service, everytime I go in there it's like the staff are actively ignoring me, I'd try to make a joke or some conversation but just get a blank look back.

My regular go to place during the week. I come here to do my studies. Love the ambience, love the food, love the polite and friendly staff, love everything about the cafe 👍🏻 In terms of Food, the Sticky Toffee French Toast was so delicious 👌. No words. Will be coming back soon next week again. Thanks Foundation.

I came to get take away food. The customer service was pretty poor and the staff on the door might benefit from going through customer training. However, the worst was the food that I have ordered! For £12 I got the smallest salad portion I have ever seen that consisted of a bunch of rocket, with 2 halves of the aubergine and sprinkles of feta cheese and random couscous. It felt like the leftover food from the weekend has been put together. No chicken was available on a day (which is fine as I don't mind), but also there was no seasoning whatsoever! This salad should have cost me much less! If you want some lunch food, avoid it all costs!

Absolutely love this place. It can get super busy but it's not hard to see why. Great location within NQ, always a good vibe, helpful staff, all round goodness (oh and Porridge to die for!)

I absolutely love this place Best place to start my day Food and coffee are excellent Friendly service, spacious surroundings

I just had a coffee and a berry bliss whilst working from here on a trip from Belfast. The staff were very friendly and I'd highly recommend it for a cracking coffee and a spacious place to work.

My first visit to Foundation Coffee House was during my second year at university. I had recently taken up yoga and was attending a vinyasa class across the street. As I left the class, I was greeted by the imposing façade of Sevendale House. At the time, I felt like I was in Brooklyn Heights or another trendy part of NYC. It has enormous ground floor windows and a sort of stoop set into the building. I was in the mood for coffee, so I went inside. And it's been my go-to ever since. Whenever I'm in the Northern Quarter, I know I'll be able to get into Foundation. The décor hints at NQ's industrial past, with exposed pipes and wires in the ceiling. The shop itself is very spacious and homely, with white tiled walls and small tables. The food here is decent. It'll certainly fill the void if you fancy one of their bakes. However, the chief selling points of Foundation are the coffee and the service. The coffee is strong, and the staff are all very friendly and accommodating. If food is what you're looking for, it might be worth delving a little further into town. But for a relaxing atmosphere, nowhere compares to Foundation.

Easily the best oat latte I’ve ever had

Even if we had some issue with ordering our food and had to change order twice ,the service was excellent and they offer us a discount for the inconvenience. Staff is so lovely and food really really good! I don't know her name but the girl who serve us was amazing!! I'll deffo visit again!

Sixteen of us walked in, after a very enjoyable Romiley WI walk around the Northern Quarter. We easily found seats, after a bit of reorganisation by us, in this spacious, lively (women owned - apt for us 😉) coffee house. The service was EXCELLENT and nothing was too much trouble. We will definitely be back. Thank you.

Great coffee and service; the barista Maria gave us a great coffee bean recommendation. Will definitely come back when I am in the area.

Great coffee, good food. Great place to bring your laptop!

I've been here a few times now, sometimes on a weekday and sometimes it's a weekend and it's one of my favorite spots for sure! The thing that really makes this place is the staff!!! Such resilient and kind people(rare combo lol). I always feel welcome and special here. Namely Maria who is so dedicated and hard working but also so sweet and just makes it look like it's so easy when I know it cant be as it's always so busy in there and some of us coffee thirsting peeps can be so grumpy lol so yes the service is exceptional, the great atmosphere is made by the great staff(also big love to Keeli and Julianne) and the master chef from Australia in the kitchen (forgot name sorry) - also makes it look so easy and the presentation is just always like something you see on tv That is another reason why i recommend this place - you see those busy places and you know it must be so stressful to work there (I used to work in pub kitchens) and sometimes it makes me not want to eat in places like that but actually here the kitchen is quite visible and before I started talking to the staff more I'd always notice the kitchen looks like a healthy environment so that's definitely a big reason why the food is good and the place runs smoothly too anyway these lovely people and all the other staff there have been so kind to me always even tho i can be awkward and not so so regular I just feel appreciated there and always looking forward to my next visit.

I’ve been in here so many times & MARIA- wow she deserves so much, her efforts, her charisma, she stands out against the other staff from a mile! Please make sure she gets her recognition

Lovely coffee shop and great to do studying/ work. The lady that took my order behind the till was slightly rude and unhelpful when I was unsure on my order which left me feeling un welcome. Maybe she was having a bad day (I work in retail and can resonate sort of) I would go back again however but maybe to a different location!

Coffee is amazing. Here most days, great place to work on weekdays. The banana bread is top tier. Just wish the seats were a little more comfier. P.s. Maria and Dan make the best coffee, had to follow them here from 200°

I really enjoyed the whole experience of excellent coffee, great staff and the working space is incredible

It’s nice coffee, nothing special but the staff are increasingly abrupt.

If you are a coffee lover then this is the place for you The coffee is outstandingly good And the food was delicious

We were staying at the Easy Hotel and there was a half an hour wait for the Ezra cafe so stumbled across this place round the corner and so glad we did. Really spacious, all the staff were really kind & lovely. I ordered a breakfast bowl with sausage & bacon and it was just delicious. - so tasty with a perfect poached egg. Our party of 5 also had eggs Benedict, eggs royal and a toastie and all commented on how nice they were. Drinks were also really good. Highly recommend !!

Great coffee shop wish there was one like this local to me.

Ok but when u order to go you have to put all the lid and all that is stuff on the counter at the front with a big queue behind you. Not exactly great when the coffee is four quid a throw. Whitworth Street is better.

Really great caramel latte with Oat milk. Easily replaced Starbucks